Owner ‘thrilled’ to be re-opening restaurant
A restaurant in East Wittering is set to re-open with a vegetarian focus after being closed for the past six months.
Restaurant manager Pippa Grundy said the restaurant, originally called Samphire but now known as Three Veg, would offer a ‘fresh twist on an old favourite’.
She said: “We have had so many responses online. It has been amazingly heartwarming.”
Pippa and her partner Craig Holden met in Australia and ran a restaurant together there before taking on the job in East Wittering.
Owner Dave Skinner set up Samphire nine years ago but said, after growing ‘exponentially’, things began to ‘over-complicate’.
He said: “It wasn’t just cooking from the heart.”
The restaurant closed in September last year; however, while Dave was trying to sell it, he crossed paths with Pippa and Craig.
In a social media post, Dave said: “Fast forward to Feb 2019 and I receive a call from a chef, fresh back from Sydney, new to the area and intrigued by our closed doors.
“After meeting someone with the raw enthusiasm for my restaurant that had been lacking, it all began to fall into place.
“Throw in their other half, a home-grown Witterings restaurant manager and boom — we have a team. We’ve gone back to our roots, looking at the simple ingredients and simplicity of starting a local restaurant.
“Our ideas have stemmed from our customers as well as us, and we will be working around the clock to make it happen.
“We feel that we’ve come up with a lovely, transparent, low-impact menu that is on trend, but is actually how many of us eat or aspire to eat. The heart and soul of Samphire will never change. We are thrilled to be opening our doors again in time for summer and welcoming in new and old faces.”
The restaurant opens tomorrow (Friday), focusing on vegetarian and vegan dishes with ‘no lack of imagination’, offering fish, meat and dairy as add-ons.