Brighton Foodies Festival 2016

It’s become a tradition to visit the Brighton Foodies Festival every year on the May Bank Holiday Weekend. So we headed down with our good friend Tash and her gorgeous pug Scarlett (O’Hairy) for this years culinary adventure. As a group, it’s often a nightmare to eat out, between us we’ve got a few dietary requirements – we have a veggie (myself), gluten free and paleo (Tash) and V is highly allergic to fish, so we usually have our work cut out to find suitable for us all, but that is why we love the Foodies Festival – there is something for everyone. Sadly, seems to have become tradition to be miserable weather at the Foodies for us too, the previous two days had been glorious, but on the Monday we had to battle the drizzle and winds to get there, but we didn’t let it put us off! Determined to stuff our faces we pulled on our wellies and waterproofs and went for it. We walked round for a good few hours, trying all different kinds of food, drinks, sweet treats and more and rolled home happy as Larry. Here are a few of my top picks from the Brighton Foodies Festival 2016:

My first favourite was RaviOllie. Ollie, the founder, actually contacted me before the event and asked me to pop by, so with our tummies rumbling, this was our first stop. RaviOllie is homemade ravioli, made with the freshest free-range ingredients, filled with locally sourced seasonal produce. When we arrived at the stall, I met Ollie (who was lovely) and had a look at the menu. There were lots of options for the meat eater and veggie alike (which I really liked as ravioli is usually meat based) so I went for a vegetarian mixture of the two vegetarian options – Spinach, ricotta and garlic and Butternut Squash (as I was being indecisive) and V opted for a more carnivorous option, Pulled Pork with Caramelised Onion. Both were delicious, you could taste how fresh the pasta was and the fillings were just spot on too. Really not your average Ravioli, we could have been in a top Italian restaurant, it really was high quality.

Just as we were finishing up with our pasta we heard the pitter patter of tiny paws as Tash and little pug Scarlett had arrived, so naturally we all gravitated into a bar for a few catch up drinks before our next foodie treat.

We headed to the unique Deco Noir Bar, where Art Deco meets Film Noir. The bar itself has got to be the star of the show – a gorgeous 1950’s Airsteam, who has been fully renovated into a chic, vintage bar and lovingly named ‘Lola’. We settled down for a few drinks at Deco Noir. Being a lover of winter warm drinks (and the fact it was a bit of a grey miserable day) I just had to try the Summer Punch, which was delicious. Like a warm Piña Colada, it was tropical and fruity yet just as comforting and warm as a winter drink. We had a good chat with the owner Sam, who is one inspirational lady. She told us all about her business and how she got to where she is now. She is a real entrepreneur, she designed Lola herself and even did most of the DIY during the renovations. Seeing as I struggle to change a light bulb, I was in awe, she is one fearless girl boss!

There was one last surprise at Deco Noir, Lola also contains a leather lounge area with a vintage photo booth. How amazing is that? Such a fun idea for a party or a wedding. We just had to give it a go, so I headed in there with Sam and of course, Scarlett (the real star of the Foodies) had to come along……

Sam and I in the photo booth – Ignore my windswept hair and the fact my makeup decided to disappear within two minutes of getting to the festival. Also, cracking up at the top left photo! 

Next up, we needed to find Tash a gluten free lunch. She opted for freshly cooked falafels which came with tasty green chilli’s, salad, olives and lots of Tahini. It looked delicious and smelt amazing –  I was a bit jealous as she tucked in I have to admit!

With our savoury courses all eaten, we all decided it was time to find something sweet…

For dessert, we found Vive La Crêpe with the warm scent of cooking pancakes and chocolate in the air, the stall just lured us in. I had a ‘Cheeky Monkey’ (of course!) which was Nutella and Banana – the BEST combination in my opinion. It was just heavenly, although it was so huge I felt a bit sick afterwards, but it was TOTALLY worth it.

As if we hadn’t eaten enough, we also stopped by at the Purbeck Ice Cream stall as both V and I are HUGE fans of Purbeck. We live opposite a Purbeck ice cream shop (which is unfortunate for the waist line) so I’m always looking to try the new flavours, although my favourite will always be Salted Caramel. This summer they have some really unique flavours coming out and we got to try them all. New on the menu is Beetroot Sorbet (really refreshing and sweeter than it sounds!), Dorset Marmalade (which has some super tangy tart orangey bits!), Cracking Choc and Mango Ripple, which are all great additions to the menu.

Lastly, as we started to turn into little ice cubes, cold on the inside from the ice cream and chilly on the outside from the drizzle, we popped into Lobster Homeware. This lovely family business (who are SO friendly) sell these awesome ‘lobster aprons’ which have pockets and oven gloves ‘built in’ so you don’t have to buzz around the kitchen looking for something to use to take hot items out of the oven. Such a clever idea, I have no idea why it hasn’t been done before! I got to meet Nathalie (the founder and designer) and try on one of the gorgeous designs. I was tempted to buy the purple apron, but when I saw the new Union Jack design that hasn’t been released for sale yet we decided to wait for that one. I have been eagerly checking their website and will order it the minute it goes on sale!

After a lovely day and SO much food and drink, we were all feeling a bit tired and cold, so we stopped in the pub on our way home to defrost and have some last minute puppy snuggles with Scarlett. As always, the Foodies Festival was a wonderful day out and I will no doubt be back next year!

I was kindly given press tickets for the Foodies Festival, however all foodie ramblings and opinions are my own