Nick Alvis, Viktorija Paplauskiene and Scott Price on Folly's terrace, overlooking the Burj Al Arab.
Price comments: “It’s important to use local produce but, at the same time, the quality has got to be there and there is an expectation of standards. We go out and talk to local suppliers a lot, and we have even found local flowers and herbs. When we started here four or five years ago, this wasn’t possible, so Dubai has moved on a lot — there is more consistency and quality because there’s a lot more demand for it.”
Some of the fresh, locally sourced flowers and herbs will be used in Folly’s extensive beverage menu, which is something former Table 9 restaurant manager Paplauskiene was comfortable with, yet was somewhat unchartered territory for Alvis and Scott.
Alvis explains: “There is a lot of bar space in Folly, which is not something that we’ve had much experience with in the past. Obviously wine and other drinks came into it, but the food was the focus, especially for us two. Viktorija focuses on the wine and we focus on the food. But we’ve all had to get involved in the drinks side of things as cocktails are a big thing in town now — far bigger than before. We have an experienced barman, Raven Rudolph [to help with this].
“We didn’t really realise how involved we could be with tasting the drinks and putting them together. We have done a lot of cocktail tasting over the last few months and our influence has really changed where it started. With Raven’s experience, Viktorija’s knowledge and us as well, it’s been really good.”
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Price is quick to point out that they “haven’t revolutionised cocktails”, merely employed little tricks they, as chefs, have learned over the years about “how to get better flavours out of things”.
Aside from cocktails, Paplauskiene points out that “the wine list is very reasonably priced, and about 35% of the wines are organic and biodynamic wines”.
She also says that the drinks they have created have “carried through with the same simple presentation” as with the food. She explains further: “Food wise, we focus on fresh ingredients, so the same is reflected in the drinks — loads of herbs, fresh fruit and fresh juices instead of the standard syrupy stuff.”
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