William Sitwell is appealing to customers to bring along alcoholics and meat-eaters to help save his fledgling business. Writing in The Telegraph, he claims The White Hart, fronting onto The Square, in Wiveliscombe, which he only opened at the start of December, is fighting for its survival. Mr Sitwell, who writes a weekly column in the newspaper and has appeared as a MasterChef judge, said he is at the mercy of the “twin devils” of Veganuary and Dry January. He reckons that people refraining from eating meat and drinking alcohol this month “can be fatal for a business like mine”. In the article, headlined ‘My restaurant might not survive Veganuary’, he writes: “If you dabble in the fetish that is veganism in the next few weeks, you should also understand that the problem we have in hospitality is not one of morals but margin.

Source: Express January 06, 2026 11:33 UTC