Acclaimed Cotswolds dining hub, Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden, based at The Old Kennels in Cirencester Park, has just celebrated its first anniversary.
In a memorable year, the team have scooped two accolades, including ‘Start-up of the Year’ Award at the Gloucestershire Foodie Awards and ‘Best Restaurant in the Cotswolds’ at the inaugural Slow Cotswolds Awards.
Roots + Seeds is also a finalist in the So Glos Lifestyle Awards 2024, ‘Chef of the Year’ category, with the winner to be announced on Thursday 16th May.
Roots + Seeds co-founder, Toby Baggott said: “We are incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved in the 12 months since opening our cafe/restaurant and kitchen garden and feel incredibly grateful and proud to have all our hard work recognised by these awards, particularly as we only opened our doors last Easter!”
“We started out offering socially-distanced fine dining in five greenhouses in a Cotswolds field following the first covid lockdown four years ago and have come a long way since then! Our focus since opening Roots + Seeds is all about building on our relationship with the wider community and providing a fun, welcoming, family-focused environment, whilst celebrating the fantastic fresh produce grown in our own 1/4 acre kitchen garden and from our amazing suppliers within a 25-mile radius.”
Situated next to attractive listed buildings, once the Bathurst family’s foxhound
kennels and stables, Roots + Seeds occupies a new, beautifully designed, light-filled space (54 covers) with vaulted ceilings, industrial fixtures, scrubbed pine farmhouse tables and large windows overlooking the kitchen garden.
Within the restaurant, an enclosed children’s play space. Bright and airy, it’s
designed to entertain families with younger children, while outside access to an
exciting, enclosed children’s play area, two courtyards with additional dining space for 30, divided by edible flower and herb-filled raised beds, and beyond, its kitchen garden and a state-of-the-art dog-washing station.
On the menus, Head Chef, Sam Idoine’s showcases fresh, home-grown and local artisan produce, including locally reared beef, lamb, pork and poultry, game from the Bathurst Estate and its neighbours, and fresh fish and seafood delivered daily from Brixham in Devon. *Vegetarian and vegan dishes available on every menu.
Sam’s generous daytime and evening menus with seasonal tweaks focus on classic English dishes with creative, French touches. A regularly changing ‘specials board’ offers delicious ‘Field to Fork’ dishes dictated by the seasons and what’s best on the day. A children’s menu features both healthy options and perennial favourites.
An all-day takeaway menu is also available. A family friendly Friday dinner is served from 4pm – 8pm and on Saturday nights from 5pm – 8pm, an elevated dining experience offering 11 small tapas-style plates and a sublime list of delicious seasonally changing, bespoke gin cocktails using Roots + Seeds own London gin made by co-founder, Sam Lawson King ,and muddled with Sam’s own homemade shrubs, cordials and mixers using locally foraged ingredients.
There are also delicious and exciting wine lists curated by local wine company Talking Wines, and which includes English wines from Woodchester Valley Vineyard and Poulton Hill, beers produced literally next door by Corinium Ales, and from Lakes Brew Co, a short drive away.
“Sustainability is very much part of our overall goal,” says Toby. “We continually strive to reduce food miles and our carbon footprint, from sourcing as much seasonal produce locally to finally fulfilling a long-held dream of using produce grown on-site for our restaurant and have set a goal to be 75% home-grown by 2025.”
“Produce is prepared on a weekly cycle with daily changing specials to maintain low to zero food waste. We also keep plastics in the kitchen to a minimum and recycle all glass, metal and paper. Recycled timber from our previous location now supports the new raised beds and re-used bark chippings cover pathways and mulch the beds. Our Roots & Seeds staff contract contains green rules regarding recycling, waste management and not overusing water too. Flowers grown here decorate dining tables with any surplus available to buy.”
Opposite the restaurant’s front door, Roots + Seeds’ new Deli – an extension of its restaurant offering and in keeping with Roots + Seeds’ ‘farm to fork’ ethos. This new, specialty artisan food store gives Roots + Seeds the unique opportunity to celebrate outstanding produce and bring it to a wider audience, alongside daily picked produce from Roots + Seeds’ kitchen garden. Expect an extensive range of the finest seasonal produce from established and newly discovered suppliers and producers, including some who also deliver directly to Roots + Seeds restaurant kitchen on a regular basis and just launched, Roots + Seeds own gin! www.rootsandseedsdeli.co.uk
Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden enjoys direct access to Grade I Listed landscape of Cirencester Park with its network of tree-lined avenues and incredible views. The Park, only daily open 8am – 5pm, is the perfect place for a good walk alongside a visit to the café.
