Pomus Folkestone – They have come!

Ryan Jacovides is the man behind Pomus.  This is the highly successful Margate-based restaurant with two venues in town.  Now, having found the Brewery Tap in Tontine Street, Pomus is coming to Folkestone. Expect to find a beautifully curated collection of sharing plates and desserts, and take away options for wine and snacks.  Folkelife met with Ryan to welcome him to Folkestone.

“I grew up in North Kent but we would holiday around the coast so I know Margate, Broadstairs and Folkestone too.  And then, this might not be the right thing to say but I wasn’t great at staying in school.  My friends and I used to bunk off quite a lot and take the train to explore the coast.  I like to think that was more educational for us …  Two of my best friends’ parents were landlords of some raucous Irish pubs so I’ve spent quite a lot of time behind bars.  I feel at home there more than anywhere else. It was inevitable that I’d end up in the Food and Drink industry.  

“From as soon as I was able to work, I was a pot wash, started cheffing and doing pub work.  And, this was a thing in the 90s, I took any job that involved travel and accommodation. I’m not sure many people do that these days.   So I took a job in Bristol, Leeds, did the same in Scotland, Manchester… I ended up in a 5 star hotel in China for a year when I was 20.  I was quite naïve, I assumed that all foreign countries were hot, and arrived in China in shorts and t-shirt, except it was -18 degrees in Beijing!” 

Pot wash to manager

“I worked my way up from the pot wash to bar tender to manager, and really loved being there at the start of things.  I was getting involved in a lot of bar and restaurant openings, as I love training and developing new staff.  So in the late 90s, early noughties, I opened a lot of bars and restaurants with different companies.  The training of floor and bar staff was my favourite, as well as having a flair for making cocktails.  It was the time when it was impressive to throw the bottles around, and I could do that.  It’s not so trendy now.  Cocktail-making now is more biology, there are infusions and many more spirits around than back in the 90s.  Then it was more physical, and cranberry juice was a new ingredient.  That’s how long ago it was!”

jamie oliver and fifteen

“I started working for Jamie when he just had Fifteen and wanted to get into the Italian market.  He partnered with a very good Italian chef and we grew their brand from one restaurant to one hundred restaurants internationally. That was a really good career journey for me.  I finished working with him in 2016, 2017, and I know there were some choppy waters for him after that, but it was a really good experience for me.  It was a place where I trained up a lot of people which means now my network of connections are some of the top chefs and senior figures in most restaurant groups in the country.  We all work together and I have a great pool of people to draw on to help build my own brand.”

branching out

“After working for Jamie I had been thinking of starting out on my own.  As you get older you start thinking about taking on those risks, making the plunge.  So we opened up a steak house and cocktail bar in Bristol in a place where 3 or 4 restaurants had previously failed.  We got a really good national review and it was a great success.  That momentum carried us through opening another four sites with different concepts.  Because it was a team of us doing this it was very exciting, but it still wasn’t my own baby.  It scratched an itch of doing something without having to answer to a bigger boss, so that’s when I thought of doing something that was truly mine. 

“We opened Pomus Margate, not on the seafront, but tucked away in a part of Margate that means that people have to make a special trip to find us.  I wanted people to come, not just because we had a great view, but to come because of what we do.  It means we have to work a lot harder, and maybe I’m a masochist because I really enjoy working like this!  Margate has gone really well, and there wasn’t a plan to open anywhere else.”

why open in folkestone?

“We have a lot of friends in Folkestone and have been visiting for years.  It’s always been in the back of our minds that if we ever were to open a new place it would be here, but we weren’t planning on anything.  

“Folkestone has a similar vibe to Margate; there’s the creative and art scene which builds a feeling of community which we love. There are a lot of places along the coastline which feel somewhat intangible, yet Folkestone has this authenticity, it feels special, in the same way that Margate does.

“We also have a lot of customers who come from Folkestone to us in Margate.  I’m not a believer in fate, or whatever you call it, but over the past year lots of people have been saying ‘you must open in Folkestone’.  Then Creative Folkestone got in touch and asked if we would consider coming, and our answer was ‘Yes, but not just yet.’   Then, my girlfriend and I were visiting, having a day off together and walked past the Old Brewery Tap which had been a creative space and art gallery for years.  We looked in through the windows and both thought that if we were to open something new, this would be the place.  The fascia is just beautiful.  The inside feels like it has to be a community space, and not to be too cheesy, but a place to join together and break bread and have a drink.”

serendipidy

“Two weeks later, Creative Folkestone called and said that this was one of the venues on offer.  I’d promised my girlfriend I wouldn’t start a new venture, but I came down here and had a look and it just felt like the thing I had to do.  It was impulsive, and you shouldn’t be impulsive in business.  But you only get one life, and this feels right, it actually feels like I didn’t have a choice!

“I might have opened over 100 bars and restaurants, but it doesn’t make it any less painful.  I suppose I know when the pain is going to really hurt now, it’s like childbirth, you know what’s to come but you still do it anyway.”

steady and scary at the same time

“It is scary opening a new business but we have Margate and know what works.  It took us a few months to get into gear there, and so here we know where to start.  I think it’s really important to have friendly staff.  You don’t necessarily need to have experience, we can train you, but you need to be people that we want to be around.  You need to be a nice, warm person.  So getting the right staff is important.  Then, we’ll do what we do with the food which is hyper seasonal, using local suppliers.  It’s tasty plates of food you want to eat and share.  We call it a flexible menu; if you want to pop in for a drink and a snack, the menu lends itself to that. If you want to have a massive meal with friends you can, or if you just want dessert and a cocktail, we have a place for you.”

british ingredients with nordic influence

“It’s hard to describe what we do as our plates are inspired by things we have liked across the world.  British ingredients with Japanese spicing and Nordic flavours. Some things are traditional, some have our little twist on them.  One of our desserts has been getting some attention.  Marina O’Loughlin said we had created the dessert of the century.  We’ve made a version of a Banoffee Pie that’s had a child with a Baked Alaska which is a showstopper, and definitely for sharing. 

“And then it’s important for us to be a part of the community too, and what better time to start than at the beginning of the Triennial?  We want to be a part of that, and have already started talking to people about being involved.  There are parties and exhibitions that we can be a part of too. We’ve had such good feedback in announcing that we’re going to be here.  Many have said they can’t wait for us to be open.”

Photos Credited to Saltwick Media