Chatting with Bhavani; co-founder of Green Lion Pub in Australia.

Today I sat down with Bhavani Baumann; Co-founder of The Green Lion, Australia’s first 100% Vegan Pub Bistro in the Inner West of Sydney NSW. She currently lives in Sydney’s Inner West with her Husband and two daughter’s. Having previously run other small businesses and working as a professional singer,Bhavani spent the few years leading up to The Green Lion studying Marketing, Cooking cakes for cafes and being a stay at home Mum.

 

Nothing prepared her for how fast The Green Lion became well known for doing traditional Aussie food, it was a destination and people travelled from all over the world to eat there. After a successful 4 years the bistro closed due to COVID -19 and the pub being sold. Whilst still running the pub Bhavani and her business partner started selling Green Lion ready meals to Harris Farm and IGA, today they have 15 lines that also includes desserts, pastizzis and sauces selling in NSW, QLD, ACT and VIC. The Green Lion will reopen as a take-away and home delivery in Sydney in the next few weeks.

 

Being bought up by hippy parents and spending her youth travelling around Australia in Kombi vans and living in communes, Bhavani was a vegetarian from birth, in 2014 she became a vegan after reading about the dairy industry and realising it’s no different to an abattoir. Whilst veganism is her passion, she does not believe in preaching but rather prefers to put good plant based in front of people. This has become the ethos of The Green Lion. 

 

Bhavani believes that the more accessible and main- stream vegan food can be will encourage more people to eat plant based. She is excited to be at the forefront of the movement that in a few short years has gained such momentum and has become more acceptable by the general population in the world.

 

This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to Vegan research, businesses, art, and society. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media.