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Garden pizza bar opens in Norwich
Callum Wishart, pizza chef, and Jack Lowe, curious directive theatre company artistic director (L-R), at the new garden bar in Elm Hill in Norwich Picture: Louisa Baldwin - Credit: Archant
Relax and unwind at a new pop-up bar that has opened in the garden of a medieval church in Norwich with wood-fired pizzas on the menu.
The new garden bar is raising money for the curious directive theatre company who are based at the St Simon and St Jude Church in Elm Hill, Norwich Picture: Louisa Baldwin - Credit: Archant
Award-winning theatre company curious directive, which devises plays using the theme of science, has been based at St Simon and St Jude Church in 49 Elm Hill since December 2018.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, its upcoming tour dates in the US and Asia for shows Gastronomic and Frogman had to be cancelled.
Now that the hospitality industry has been allowed to reopen, curious directive is utilising the church garden by turning it into a pop-up pizza bar to raise money for future projects.
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Chloe France and Olivia Heffernan (L-R) behind the bar inside St Simon and St Jude Church in Elm Hill, which has been the home of curious directive theatre company since 2018 Picture: Louisa Baldwin - Credit: Archant
It is set to open to the public on July 16 and will welcome customers on Thursdays and Fridays from 6pm to 11pm and Saturdays from 12pm to 11pm until the end of August with capacity for 30 people.
The company has collaborated with north Norfolk brewery Malt Coast, who will be providing draught and bottled beers, and the gin is from Walnut Tree Distillery in Lyng and vodka from Pell & Co in Neatishead.
The wine comes from vineyards in European cities and towns that are twinned with Norfolk, such as Koblenz in Germany for Norwich, and the pizza toppings are sourced from around Norfolk and in the garden itself.
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Options include The A149, with Norfolk crab and crayfish, samphire and rocket and Forest School with sun-dried tomatoes, basil and brown, oyster and chanterelle mushrooms.
Many of the toppings for the pizzas have been grown in the garden Picture: Louisa Baldwin - Credit: Archant
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Jack Lowe, artistic director of curious directive, said: “It is a garden that thousands of people walk past every week and a hundred years ago people would have seen it as a show garden, so when I found that out during lockdown I decided to start developing it.
“The idea is to create an idyllic outdoor space with great drinks, food and atmosphere and we are also planning to do socially-distanced performances from the end of July too.”
Pre-booking is advised at curiousdirective.com, which launches at 10am on Saturday, and there are 90 minute slots.
A wood-fired pizza from the new garden bar in Elm Hill Picture: Louisa Baldwin - Credit: Archant
All the pizzas are cooked in a wood-fired oven and ingredients from the garden are used where possible Picture: Louisa Baldwin - Credit: Archant
