D&D has announced its first group-wide world and wellbeing initiative for January, working across all its restaurants.
As part of its new Mindful City campaign, in a move towards reducing group waste, it will be one of the first restaurant groups to enforce a group-wide ban on plastic across their bars.
Londoners will also see most of the restaurants in the group focusing on promoting wellness and fitness for body and soul. From moderation, meditation and motivation, they will be hosting mindful menus, a speaker’s series in collaboration with Seedlip – The World's First Distilled Non-alcoholic Spirits brand – as well as fitness classes that will encourage Londoners to be well this 2018.
The campaign will be symbolised by a sculpture installed outside the recently launched Fiume restaurant at Battersea Power Station. CORE has been created in collaboration between Creative Debuts, D&D London, and Belu Water, which donates 100% of its profits to WaterAid. D&D serves Belu mineral water across its sites and selecting WaterAid as charity partner for the Mindful City Campaign.
D&D will be supporting the charity by offering an optional £1 on every bill to customers throughout January until 13 February, as well as a hosting a Charity Bake off at Bluebird and a celebrity Comedy show at Old Bengal Bar. Any money donated through restaurant bills before 31 January will be doubled by the UK Government.
There will also be healthy and sustainable menus served across D&D sites, with Plateau in Canary Wharf showcasing their first botanical brunch, and D&D’s fish restaurants Kensington Place and Fish Market serving sustainable ‘Blue Planet’ Menus. New Street Grill will focus on quality over quantity with their special Paleo menu that incorporates a proactive slant on provenance. Restaurants Coq D’Argent, German Gymnasium and Bluebird will be providing a holistic approach to wellbeing via a range of eclectic fitness classes tied into gourmet eating.
Veganuary will be an important part of the campaign, with The Chop Houses promoting a quality roast ‘carve your own cauliflower’ option as well as special vegetarian dishes across Francesco Mazzei’s restaurants Radici, Sartoria and Fiume. Mindful menus will even infiltrate behind the scenes at D&D, with ‘Meat-free Monday’ adopted for all staff meals. All meals will also be made using ingredients from restaurant kitchen leftovers. D&D will create a place for wellbeing, a well world; one well worth living in.
Additionally, wellness awareness events will be held across D&D restaurants aimed at increasing awareness of wellbeing. These will include talks from campaign ambassadors such as Jasmine Hemsley, Andy and Ruari of 28 Days Sober and Ben Branson founder of Seedlip.
Des Gunewardena, CEO & Chairman of D&D, commented, “As restaurateurs, sustainability and caring for the environment generally have been central to how we run our business for years. We are also now focusing on giving more choice to customers who want to eat more healthily by choosing vegetarian and vegan options. Last year one of D&D’s most successful initiatives was the launch of a weekly Vegan Brunch at Alcazar, our restaurant in Paris.”
The campaign ambassadors are pictured from left: Corrado Lamanuzzi (General Manager Fiume), Andy Ramage (28 Days Sober) James Duigan (Bodyism), Jasmine Hemsley (East By West), Sarah Vohra (The Mind Medic), Callum Hall (Founder Creative Debuts), Ruari Fairbairns (28 Days Sober).