Don’ t you worry‘ bout a thing. There’ s a new cafe / apothecary / wellness centre? And it’ s named after a Stevie Wonder song? Higher Ground ticks all the boxes. We spoke to Denzie Lamb about her innervision
Before
Don’ t you worry‘ bout a thing. There’ s a new cafe / apothecary / wellness centre? And it’ s named after a Stevie Wonder song? Higher Ground ticks all the boxes. We spoke to Denzie Lamb about her innervision
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I was here it was a barber shop and before that it was Sophie Corbett’ s, Ronnie’ s daughter, she had a sort of lifestyle accessories shop, but no one had done anything to the building and when I saw it I thought,‘ Yes, this is perfect’ because I’ m an acupuncturist and...”
You know when someone’ s really excited about something they’ re doing and they can’ t get the words out quick enough, they just tumble out. Well, talking to Denzie Lamb, owner and inspiration behind new café / wellness centre Higher Ground is like that. And that enthusiasm, it’ s lovely.
Located at the bottom of Victoria Street- one of the prettiest streets not just in our‘ hood, not just in Brighton, but anywhere ever in the whole world- Higher Ground is one of those things that seems exactly right time, right place.
It’ s a great café in a lovely location, selling good food( we’ ll get on to that) and different kinds of healing mushrooms( we’ ll get on to that, too) and upstairs there are rooms for massage and acupuncture and more therapies than you can shake a gluten free healing stick at. All the zeitgeisty boxes ticked. So Denzie. How would you describe this? On the one hand, it’ s a cafe and you’ re selling café stuff, but on the other hand, it’ s... what? An apothecary?
“ Yes, exactly. It all feeds one another. I wanted to have a place for people to meet, but we’ re also serving adaptogenic coffees and CBD, we make smoothies with things like spirulina and wheatgrass and maca powder and all those are adaptogens. All those are medicines. And there’ s massage upstairs, there’ s acupuncture, Ayurveda, Shiatsu, deep tissue, Swedish womb massage, abdominal massage, pregnancy massage, kinesiology...”
And there’ s a nice outside space and there’ s food.“ I needed to put a food offering on, but I didn’ t want to do sandwiches and quiches. I wanted to do Indian Street Food...” Because?“ Because I’ ve spent time in India and love the freshness. I love coriander, it’ s fragrance, the herbs and freshness. I’ m not too wild about carbs and heavy beige carbs. It’ s just not my vibe.
Nestled in the shadow of the magnificent St Mary Magdalen Church, the building was originally a coal shed.“ Actually it was the first building on the street and then the houses were built around it and it provided the coal, which is why you’ ve got that the door up there and the winch to lug all the coal up and down”. It also feels like somewhere that’ s been waiting to happen.
“ Well, I hope so. I’ ve always wanted to do this because I’ ve always wanted to go somewhere like this and if you can’ t find what you’ re looking for you have to make it yourself, I was an acupuncturist for 20 years and don’ t want to stop doing that, but I’ m also an advocate of mushrooms, adaptogens and plant medicine”.
Being a 21st century type, I’ m familiar with the ways of mushrooms- yes, those ones obvs, but also reishi, Lion’ s mane, chaga, mushrooms for concentration, for anxiety, for stress. All that. But adaptogens? What’ s adaptogens?
“ So adaptogens are plants, Well, not necessarily plants, but it’ s matter that responds to whatever you need. For example, and this is the best case for highlighting this, and that’ s when baby breast feeds off a mother, and there is an exchange between the mother and the child through the nipple and the breast milk will adapt to the baby’ s needs. So if the baby is slightly anaemic, then the mother will the milk will produce a little bit more iron, so... wait a minute”.
Seconds later, she’ s back.“ OK, this oil is called equilibrium oil and if you put it in your hands and you rub it... Just smell it. Yeah, it’ s magical stuff. So this is amazing for balancing hormones, for men and women. If you put it on before you go to bed, it’ ll help you drift off. It’ s made by The Organic Alchemist, they’ re local, and it’ s insanely good. She’ s really clever and this flies out. Everyone we use is local”.
The essential oils in the oil, if you’ re tired it will help you go to sleep, but if you’ re if you are needing to revive and energise, it will help you do that. So it adapts to what you need”.
The oil is working out what you need?
It sounds a bit sci-fi, a bit like AI oil.
“ Yeah, kind of. Kind of. Mushrooms are the same. A lot of plants are adaptogens. They will provide what you need”.
l https:// www. higher-ground. co. uk / 2 Victoria St, BN1 3FP- 01273 030377