Orland Now Has A Unique New Spot To Grab A Healthy Treat

Making the dream come true.

I remember when I opened my first restaurant. It was in the old Portland Public Market, back before that was basically turned into an office building. I was so stoked. I worked hard for weeks on the business plan, the menu, the whole nine yards. The market eventually closed, so the dream kinda went with it for a while til I had my second place.

Down in Orland, a woman is making that same dream a reality. Karista Hastings just opened a new spot called Ananda Luna DownEast Café, and she just opened the doors this past weekend. It features a super healthy menu featuring dairy-free, plant based foods like smoothies, tea, soups and chili, according to WABI.

Turning the pandemic lemons into.....smoothies?

Hastings had dreamed of doing this for a long time, but had previously focused more on teaching yoga and event planning. But with COVID kind of stomping those jobs into the ground, she decided it was the perfect time to try something new and exciting.

I think we are all a little bit wanting to be paying attention to our health a little bit more and, as I said, I’ve been an event planner and that is not something that’s going on right now and I also teach yoga, that was shut down during the pandemic. So I was like, you know what? People always eat, and I love to help feed people, so I’m gonna just make people good healthy food.

Ananda Luna DownEast Café is open every day at 11:00am, except Wednesday.