eat @ the Stade

Last week we had occasion to visit the sunny seaside resort of Hastings-by-the-Sea. Of course, it being January, it wasn't very sunny. In fact it was overcast, very cold and windy. But did that dampen our spirits? Did it heck! Not only did we have a jolly whizzy time investigating all the shops in the Old Town, after an hour or two we were downright hungry. As chance would have it we stepped into the shelter of a place known as...

What a lovely place this is. Friendly service, which can make or break a dining establishment, was much in evidence. It was clean and light and airy, and the menu was full of interesting food and good information. Pretty much everything is locally sourced, locally grown, free range... even the margarine they use is vegan.

And so the food came out. I had ordered the veggie version of the full English...

Two eggs, rye toast, hash brown, sauteed mushrooms, beans, veggie sausage and  veggie bacon.  A lot of people I know personally would not eat veggie bacon purely because it sounds wrong. My approach with veggie versions of meat is to treat it not as if it is pretend meat, but as if it is a whole new food that tastes a bit like meat. Much better approach.

Sis had the ham, egg and chips, which came with a side salad. Nice.

Laura's burger was epic. So epic, in fact, I had to take two pictures of it.

They ran out of chips while making her food, so they brought out a bowlful a bit later.

Lovely cheesy bacon burger.

 For those that are unfamiliar with Hastings, The Stade is a shingle beach, situated in Hastings Old Town. It has been used for beaching boats for over a thousand years, a use which continues to this day: it is now home to Europe's largest fleet of beach-launched fishing boats.
The word ‘Stade’ is an old Saxon term meaning "landing place", and dates from before the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
It was originally a small landing area, hence the small footprint of the net shops. However, the building of the 1887 groyne at Rock-A-Nore and the 1896 harbour stopped the eastward longshore transport of shingle along the coast, which is the function of groynes. As a result, the Stade steadily grew out to seaward, providing new room for the fishing fleet and many amenities. A car, coach and lorry park was built at The Stade and eat@ The Stade is adjacent to the new Jerwood Gallery, both of which appeared after the demolition in 2010 of Tom's Cabin, an old place that sold ice creams and candy floss to summer visitors for many years.

The interior, as I said is light and airy and spacious.

And the coffee? Well, it's damn good. That counts for a lot in my book.

Can't wait to go there again and try some more menu items... maybe something from the specials board next time.