If new restaurant Folly by Nick and Scott lives up to expectations when it opens this month, it could quickly earn a top spot among Dubai’s most buzzworthy restaurants.
Set in the Souk Madinat Jumeirah, where Rivington Grill used to be, Folly has all the makings of a restaurant destined for success: location, style, a killer view and chefs who know their way around a kitchen.
Nick Alvis and Scott Price have spent seven years carving out a path for themselves in Dubai’s culinary scene. They met while working in London under Gordon Ramsay. Their partnership in Dubai began in 2010 when they took over Verre, in the Hilton Dubai Creek, from Ramsay and relaunched it as Table 9 by Nick and Scott.
Two years later, they left and launched Taste Kitchen, a brand they developed with Spinneys. Now, they are getting ready to roll out Folly by Nick and Scott – a restaurant they have designed from scratch.
Along with operations manager Viktorija Paplauskiene, Alvis and Price have thrown all their experience into Folly.
“It’s a bit of a dream come true,” says Price. “Nick and I used to talk about opening a place together back in 2005, when we were both working for Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s in London. I firmly believe that the experiences we’ve had over the past seven years in Dubai have given us a key and necessary understanding of the industry. It’s been a massive learning curve.”
You won’t find high-end, fine dining at Folly by Nick and Scott. Even the name reflects this.
“It’s a little tongue in cheek,” says Alvis. “Folly means ‘a lack of good sense; foolishness’. The name relates to us wanting guests to come to Folly to relax and enjoy themselves.”
Guests ascend a tall wooden staircase flanked by brick walls to enter the main dining room. The earth-toned decor is warm and inviting. It is informal and relaxed, yet sophisticated and refined. The restaurant seats only 40 inside, but four well-designed terraces can hold many more. The views from those terraces – of the Madinat waterways and the Burj Al Arab – are enough to keep people coming back. But Alvis and Price know Folly needs to offer much more than a view to succeed.
Price says the food is simple and innovative, with no more than three or four ingredients on a plate. The menu includes veal tongue with capers and Parmesan, monkfish cheeks with paprika and salted lemon, octopus with charred cucumber and fennel, lamb saddle with whipped pine nuts and salsa, and stone bass with Asian greens and mussel tempura.
“The idea behind the food is to encourage our guests to try new things and to have an experience beyond just dinner,” says Alvis. “We want to do something a bit different and we’ll be serving flavour combinations that we’d like to think aren’t on any other menus in Dubai.
“The dishes are designed to be a little smaller than average, so you can sample more and create your own tasting menu.”
The pricing is refreshingly straightforward. There are eight dishes costing Dh45 each, eight for Dh70 and eight are priced at Dh110. All the desserts are Dh45.
“We’re not interested in being trend-driven or faddy,” says Price. “From our experience, what’s important is to focus on the basics: building a strong, happy and knowledgeable team that understands how to look after guests, and ensuring that the quality of the food and drink is consistently high and offers good value for money.”
Alvis, Price and Paplauskiene have painstakingly designed every aspect of Folly, from the layout, decor and seating to the music, uniforms and cutlery.
They have created an experience for every kind of diner: the kitchen bar offers front-row seats to watch the chefs at work; a private outdoor table in a windtower (with a full view of the Burj Al Arab) offers a romantic option for two; book a 12-seat, mostly private, outdoor communal table on its own terrace; try Folly’s snack boxes and sundowners on the terraces; or sit in the dining room and soak up the atmosphere.
Price and Alvis are especially thrilled with their kitchen. It has a two-tonne, Dh314,000 island suite custom-made for Folly by French kitchen-equipment manufacturer Charvet. It includes a wood-fired grill that Alvis and Price designed themselves – something Charvet had never done before.
“For a chef, this is a Ferrari,” says Price. “It takes centre stage in the open kitchen and we’re incredibly proud of it.
“We all worked extremely hard, for very successful people, for a very long time and have sacrificed a lot for our careers. That’s partly why this feels so special; being given the opportunity to open our own place is a culmination of all those years of hard work.”
Price and Alvis will both carry the title of chef patron and be in the kitchen cooking together on most, if not all, days.
“It’s been an incredible experience to be involved in building a restaurant from scratch,” says Price. “This isn’t about trends or a flash-in-the-pan idea. Folly will be about what Nick, Viktorija and myself believe in and are passionate about: producing great food and drinks and helping guests have a fantastic time.”
• Folly by Nick and Scott at Souk Madinat Jumeirah is due to open within two weeks. It will be open daily for lunch from noon to 2.30pm; for snacks and sundowners from noon until close; and for dinner from 7pm to 11pm. www.nickandscott.com
sjohnson@thenational.ae
