ABOUT CUSTOM FOLKESTONE
“You never change things by fighting against the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the old model obsolete.” Buckminster Fuller
Custom Folkestone was created to take the known model of a restaurant and operate it as if the world was how we wanted it to be: equitable, generous, expansive and intersectional. We explored the food economy through art making, set about creating a bartering system to minimise cash flow in the commercial setting of a working restaurant and made opportunities for learning in our kitchen garden – established from nothing on a building site on the edge of a car park with 50 mph winds in winter!
Custom Folkestone made liberal use of the term ‘Locavore’, with the firmly held belief that a localised food network was the only feasible methodology for achieving food (and environmental) security and a better future for our community. Localism has never meant isolationism for us, it is about starting small and creating a world in which people can make informed decisions about what and how they eat.
“Folkestone is a few short moves away from being a Kent coast spot that is about to ‘pop’. A key marker for this nascent and quickening uptick is Custom Folkestone…
“The menu cartwheels through myriad influences, whirligiging from skate with wild garlic miso and sweet pickles to Folkestone huss cured with Walmestone Grower’s beetroot and Dockyard gin; from a pitch-perfect slab of Jansson’s Temptation to borscht with homemade yoghurt and apple. Scallop wontons make an appearance in a sonorous chilli/ginger broth – chillies with plenty of kick, from their own plant – while ‘Crabaroni’ cheese featured this week, crabs freshly steamed from Folkestone Trawlers and combined with Ottinge Court Farm cheese, their version of the Swiss cheese Mutschli.
“Ahead of the curve? Custom is part of the curve, and it’s only going to get better.”