I had been dying to visit The Folly ever since I saw a tweet about it a couple of weeks ago, on the day we went, there was a feature about it in Stylist magazine, so I knew it must be good. On their website, it says ‘Step in to the city’s secret garden’, which pretty much sums it up, although I did wonder if it should be ‘Step into the city’s secret garden’… Anyway, we were amazed at how busy it was when we first walked in, it had only been open for ten days, but already the word has spread. We are looking for a venue for our wedding reception, so we had a tour of the place with the lovely manager Paul.
The place is huge, covers two floors and certainly has the wow factor. It is an all-day venue, with the deli bar, otherwise known as the ‘potting shed’ open for breakfasts and fab coffee, this is also where the mixology sessions happen at night, we sat around the table in awe of the mixologist creating our cocktails. He just asked what kind of thing we liked, and then created a personal cocktail. Ade loved his Tiramisu cocktail, whilst my raspberry creation was finished off with a petal on top, so when you drank through the straw, you inhaled the aroma. Loved that. There is even a small florist area in the corner, and you can buy produce from Borough Market, including Spanish specialities from Brindisa. We met a lovely guy called Pleurat Shabani, who was showcasing his new vodka, Konik’s Tale, he told us all about how it was made, amazing story, the guy was full of passion for what he did, it was brilliant. The mixologist worked with his gorgeous vodka to create our cocktails.
There are different sections to sit, from hanging chairs, to dark and cosy alcoves downstairs. There is a huge tree that goes from the basement through the floor above to the main bar. The private dining room, not yet finished, will be a fab place for a small private party or special meal.
We reluctantly dragged ourselves away from Pleurat and the potting shed into the restaurant to dig into a couple of sharing boards, we had the Antipasto board verdi; Chargrilled aubergines, courgettes, artichokes, sun ripened tomatoes, Puglia marinated olives, mozzarella, extra virgin olive oil & balsamic vinegar with traditional handmade breads. And also the Antipasto board; A selection of cured meats, sun-ripened tomatoes, balsamic baby onions & marinated Puglia olives with a selection of traditional handmade breads.
We loved the fact the tomatoes and olives were from Puglia, as that’s where we are getting married. Our food was lovely, and styled in a very cool way, chips come in flower pots, some dishes in takeaway-style boxes, mini frying pans, it all looked great. And head chef is Kevin Casizzi, who came third in this year's Masterchef The Professionals. The crockery is all mix-matched, but it looked fab. Loved the skinny Cocktail list, all under 100 calories, genius.
A revolving pop up shop provides guests with something current, seasonal and fun to explore time and time again. They’re open from breakfast until midnight, seven days a week.
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