About Small Plates St Leonards
Small Plates St Leonards is a boutque food festival that launched in 2024. After a hugely successful first year, the festival is back with a new sponsor, Copperpot Gin.
St Leonards is home to an extraordinary mix of places to eat, and this boutique festival shines a light on the town’s restaurants. You’ll find everything here from seasonal British dishes and locally sourced fish and seafood to Spanish tapas, Syrian, Sri Lankan, West African, Caribbean, Japanese and Lebanese flavours.
Our independent restaurants serve up an abundance of small plate delights – perfect for tasting and sharing. So come along, and feast your way around St Leonards-on-Sea.
Why it’s needed
Hastings and St Leonards are popular tourist destinations, but many hospitality businesses are struggling, especially out of the main tourism season, with reduced trade and the challenge of an increase of *55.2% in operating costs.
The tourism industry is vital to the local economy. Tourism and Hospitality contributes £211m and supports an estimated 4,850 jobs (3,550 FTE)**. Food and drink are the main factors that motivate people to travel to a certain destination.
*Mintel Food Tourism report 2023
* * East Sussex in Figures 2023