Interviews

Ron and Kathy Heatley: Proprietors of the Sweet Onion Inn, a beautiful vegetarian/vegan inn located in Vermont.

Where is the Inn located?
Hancock, Vermont on Route 100 at the junction of Route 125. This is essentially in the very middle of the state.

When did you first open your doors?
We opened Sept. of 1994 right in the middle of the busy season.

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Why did you decide to open up a vegetarian/vegan inn?
We became a Vegan Inn because we wanted to offer an opportunity to experience the health promoting lifestyle that we believed in and we felt that this would be a very pleasant way to "walk our talk," to quote my husband, Ron. He is the chef and is also a nutritionist.

Are your guests mostly families with children, couples, or people travelling alone?
We entertain all combinations of people including many single guests. They find comraderie in their common beliefs and this makes for very lively dinner conversations.

Tell us about a sample dinner at the Inn.
Dinner at the Inn is an all evening affair. There is salad or soup or both, followed by the main course with bread and after tea, organic coffee with dessert. You can find a sample menu at our web site...www.sweetonioninn.com.

How do your visitors usually find out about you?
The vast majority of our guests find out about us because they have seen our ad in the back of Vegetarian Times. More and more are finding us on the net and from a friend or their local healthfood store. Many guests take brochures with them to put in their local stores and businesses. It's great to have their support.

What are some interesting things to do near and around the Inn?
We are located in the Green Mountain National Forest... so our major entertainment is nature. There are wonderful hiking and biking trails close by and two waterfalls. My web site has more info on the attractions in VT in the winter, such as Icelandic horseback riding and museums etc. We have a nice location for getting to other parts of the state.

Do you have plans to expand in the future?
We do not see ourselves adding lodging rooms but we do expect to open a conference room in the next year. This will be used for all manner of health related classes. My husband currently offers nutritional counselling and I offer healing through hypnosis and EFT. We also have a small health store on the premises where we sell encapsulated herbs and vitamins.

Accomodations at the Inn

Describe the accommodations at the Inn. What are the rooms like?
The Inn offers six guests rooms with a large enclosed porch for sitting and dining in the warmer months and storing skis in the winter months. The dining room has wrap around windows and the sitting area has many sofas and chairs for lounging and gathering with other guests. The puzzle table gets a lot of attention. (no televisions)

Our guest rooms are newly decorated with many of the beds crafted by Ron the chef. Four rooms have private baths and two rooms share a bath. Six in all.

We also offer a family unit with two bedrooms, sitting room, kitchen and bath. That unit is upstairs over the Herb store and has a beautiful view of the mountain behind us. We have two and a half acres but are flanked by open land.

Do your guests interact with each other?
Our guests become friends and stay at the dinner table late into the night frequently. They often share the day's activity as well. Their common thread makes this natural.

What sort of feedback have you received from the community regarding the Inn?
We feel respected in our community. Most of the sales in our Herb store are from local folks. If you come to the country and stay for over five years they begin to trust that you are not going to pack up and head back to the city. We have passed that mark and feel a part of the fabric of daily life here now.

What�s the best part about running an Inn?
We are people focused. We feel we are contributing to the well-being of our guests and this is very fulfilling work for that reason. So I would say that the best part of Innkeeping is doing meaningful work that we believe in.

What�s the most challenging aspect of running the Inn?
Our facility is 200 years old and requires a fair amount of maintenance. Basic systems have all been upgraded by us and we continue to improve all the time. We want our guests to be comfortable and we go to great lengths to ensure that we have not missed an opportunity to meet a need.

When is your busiest season?
The Inn is very busy throughout the summer with the fall being the most active.

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