Food & Drink

Russell Norman and business partner Richard Beatty will be opening POLPO Exeter at 18 Higher Market Guildhall, Queen Street in March 2017. POLPO originally opened its doors in London’s Soho in September 2009. There have since been seven other branches in London, Bristol and Brighton and the restaurant has won a number of awards including Michelin Guide Bib Gourmands, a CATEY and several trade awards. The POLPO cookbook won Waterstones Book of the Year in 2012. The Exeter restaurant will follow on from the traditions of its sister restaurants and style itself as a bacaro. This is a Venetian...

On Wednesday 18th January, local artisan drinks producer, Luscombe Drinks teamed up with Dartington C of E Primary School to plant 1,600 trees as part of an innovative Agroforestry Project on the Dartington estate. Over 30 children from the school joined employees from Luscombe Drinks to assist with the planting of the Elder trees. The elderflowers, which will first be harvested in three years, will be grown in accordance with organic farming practices and used by the Buckfastleigh-based company to create Organic Elderflower Bubbly.

Commenting on the collaboration with Dartington C...

Following the launch of Absurd Breakfasts, the Exeter Chiefs boys were invited along to Absurd Bird Exeter to try out the tasty dishes on the new menu. Nine of the players gathered at the restaurant, with empty stomachs, ready to take on an assortment of unique and typically ‘absurd’ dishes.

The players chose from the likes of Crispy Bacon on Waffles, served with maple syrup, Absurd Benedict (waffle, fried chicken, poached egg, hollandaise) and Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs, with a white sauce – safe to say, there were clean plates all round!

General Manager of Absurd Bird...

Russell Norman and business partner Richard Beatty are set to open Polpo in Exeter's Queen St Dining Quarter next month.

Polpo is modelled on the scruffy wine bars of Venice and feels urban, rustic and stripped back.

Guests enter through a heavy red velvet curtain to find a zinc topped bar and linen-draped lamps. The interiors feature a reclaimed timber floor, rusted tin ceiling and a huge three-metre skylight that floods the restaurant with light. Polpo's trademark deep red leather banquettes line the walls alongside old chemistry lab tables, classic bentwood chairs and...