Nick Alvis, Viktorija Paplauskiene and Scott Price on Folly's terrace, overlooking the Burj Al Arab.
Price says he is pleased to see a lot more emphasis on home-grown concepts, compared to a few years ago, commenting: “There are lots of entrepreneurs here and people who believe in local talent. People give you a chance to create over here; one of the best things about being here is having a lot of opportunity to try different things and people are really interested in F&B over here.Being able to be create is something the trio have relished and they have all involved themselves in every aspect of opening Folly, from the ground up.
“Years ago we never thought we would be designing cocktails and working on the menus and designing the room itself but now it’s such a natural process for us. It’s crazy how you evolve as you go along and the beauty of the job is the opportunity to be creative because I don’t think many professions offer that,” Paplauskiene reveals.
Alvis adds: “We work with Gates but it’s all our ideas and thoughts. I don’t know if we can call ourselves restaurateurs but we’re on the right path. When it comes to what our main jobs are, Scott and I are chefs, and Victorija is a manager and sommelier but we do so much more now.”
Discussing how Alvis and himself have been working together for 12 years and with Paplauskiene for about five, Price reiterates how much teamwork is involved in bringing their first concept to life, especially when they are all making the choice to be hands-on in every area of the venture.
He says: “We’re partners in our own company, the three of us, so we’re all in it together. There’s a lot of respect there, we say what we want to say and we don’t get upset by it. You can’t have hurt feelings; we shake hands in the morning and that’s just how it is — business.”
And when it comes to the three of them collectively making decisions on design, furnishings or even music, it all comes down to democracy, with Alvis saying: “Two votes wins.”
It seems inevitable that the three of them will work together on another new concept in the future and, when asked about the possibility, they confirm that they would consider all opportunities, in time. For now, they are solely focused on the task in hand.
“We’re working with Gates long-term and we want to get Folly up and running. From there, we’ll see how it goes. We have plans for the future but at the moment Folly has to be a success — that’s all we’re focused on at the moment; getting back to where we want to be in the industry. We’re hoping that people remember who we are — it’s been a long time — and we’re really excited. Not many people get the chance to bring their idea to life and it’s amazingly exciting to have something in your head and then see bit more come to life every day. We’ve picked everything ourselves — it’s our house, our baby, our dream – whatever you want to call it. It’s something we’ve been waiting a long time for.”
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