For the benefit of 2016 vegans – here – are HappyCow’s Maine listings In our Ernest Bell Library, we have an original handwritten letter from 1834, identifying one early ‘close to vegan’ Portland resident – Reverend Henry Aiken Worcester, a Swedenborgian minister – and one ‘vegan’ visitor – Dr. Sylvester Graham. The letter tells us that Portland was quite a ‘vegan paradise’ in the 1830s. I use ‘vegan’ with inverted…
HappyCow Directory UK – 1881 In 1881 the entire UK had just 20 lacto-ovo vegetarian eating places & 22 food stores. The first title is ‘tongue in cheek’, HappyCow started in 1999, this ‘Directory’ is 118 years older, it is from the December 1881 issue of The Dietetic Reformer & Vegetarian Messenger – more discussion below. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .…
The ‘Alpha’ Restaurant There are now almost 110,000 reviews published on HappyCow. This is the earliest vegetarian restaurant ‘review’ which we have yet found – it was published on Feb. 7, 1880 – a Saturday. The ‘Alpha’ opened in London, UK in 1879 & promoted itself as London’s “First Food Reform Restaurant”. The ‘Alpha’ was the project of a ‘highly controversial’ couple – Thomas Low Nichols (1815–1901) & Mary Gove Nichols (1810 – 1884) . More…