Cattivo (‘Bad Boys’ in Italian) will embrace classic Neapolitan pizza-making processes to create simple, high quality pizza bases garnished with incredible ingredients that champion seasonality and provenance.

Cattivo is the brainchild of old school friends, Toby Baggott and Sam Lawson-King, who together own and run Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden at the Old Kennels, in collaboration with one of the UK’s most highly respected chefs and restauranteurs, Mike Robinson. A champion of sustainable wild food and game for over 20 years, Mike has helped create and run some of the country’s most iconic restaurants, including the Harwood Arms in Fulham, London, which has retained its Michelin Star for over 14 years, and remains the only pub in London to do so. Mike also oversees The Woodsman in Stratford-upon-Avon and The Elder in Bath and part-owns Deer Box, which manages, harvests, processes and sells mail order wild venison to the public and top restaurants around the UK.

Mike will work closely with Sam and Toby to nurture and develop Cattivo, not least because, like them, he is passionate about local provenance. Mike is currently working on recipe development for the Cattivo pizza menus with a strong focus on simplicity, seasonality, and flavour.

Cattivo’s hand-made pizza dough will be made using specialist pizza flour from local mill, Matthews Cotswold Flour to create its 24-hour slow fermented Biga (Italian preferment or yeast starter) for its bases. The Biga preferment method ensures a slower fermentation, firmer texture and delicious nutty flavour. All pizzas will be cooked in Cattivo’s newly built Gozney wood-fired pizza oven heated to 450°C using dry-aged oak sourced from the neighbouring Bathurst estate.

The menu offers just six classic (two meat, two veg and one fish-based, plus one seasonally changing) 12” Neapolitan-style, sourdough pizzas garnished with the best locally sourced, foraged and home-grown produce. Ingredients include honey from Mike’s own hives and his home-made venison N’duja, using deer raised on the neighbouring Bathurst estate. Other locally sourced ingredients include Glastonbury Fior di Latte Mozzarella, foraged herbs and freshly picked produce from Roots + Seeds’ own ¼ acre on-site kitchen garden.

Cattivo will also be using top quality Italian ingredients such as Mutti Passata, Burrata, aged Parmesan cheeses, Single Estate Extra Virgin olive oil and San Marzona tomatoes for its home-made pizza sauce. There’s also a choice of two dips and two desserts, Nonna’s Tiramisu and Panozzo (pizza sandwich) with Nutella, wood roasted fig and peaches served with homemade Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream.

Making Cattivo’s amazing pizzas is award winning pizzaiolo, Farncesco Fotia. *A pizzaiolo is a chef who specialises in and is trained to make authentic Italian-style pizzas. Every pizza will be made to order.

Drinks will include two pre-made and bottled cocktails made in-house by drinks supremo Sam Lawson-King, including a Spicy Margherita and an Old Fashioned, a small but carefully curated wine list, consisting of independent Italian wines served by the glass and the bottle, along with locally produced beers, ales, and soft drinks - all stored in Cattivo’s help-yourself fridge.

This is the first time Mike has collaborated on such a simple dining venture and in his hometown of Cirencester! Mike, Sam, and Toby intend to make everything at Cattivo very much produce-led.

“I’m so excited to be working with Sam and Toby on Cattivo and am very much looking forward to partnering with incredible local suppliers to help make Cattivo’s sourdough pizzas the very best in the Cotswolds,” says Mike Robinson.

In keeping with Roots +Seeds sustainability ethos, all pizzas will be served in cardboard boxes, and all plates, cutlery, serviettes, bottles, drinking straws and paper menus are also recyclable.

All Cattivo Pizzas cost from £14 - £16 with all orders taken at the counter. No bookings or phone orders.

"We are incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved in the 12 months since opening our restaurant and kitchen garden and are incredibly excited about our collaboration with Mike Robinson for the next step in our hospitality journey. We very much look forward to welcoming locals and those from further afield to Cattivo,“ says Toby Baggott.

Toby and Sam started out with the launch of the Scenic Supper, offering socially distanced fine dining in five greenhouses in a Cotswolds field following the first covid lockdown four years ago. They then opened Roots + Seeds last Easter and which retains their focus on farm-to-fork dining, but is also about building relationships with the wider community and providing a fun, welcoming, family-focused environment, whilst celebrating the fantastic fresh produce grown in their on-site, 1/4 acre kitchen garden and from their amazing suppliers from within a 25-mile radius.

Cattivo occupies a new, beautifully designed, light-filled space (40 covers inside and additional tables available on its terrace outside) with vaulted ceilings, industrial fixtures, long trestle tables and bench seating and flooded with natural light from floor-to-ceiling windows.

Cattivo, The Old Kennels, Cirencester Park, Gloucestershire GL7 1UR www.cattivopizza.co.uk

@Cattivo on Facebook and Instagram

Opening Times

• Wednesday to Friday 3pm – 9pm
• Saturday and Sunday 12pm – 9pm

No phone orders or table bookings. Just turn up and order.

Everyone welcome, including dogs.

Licensed for customers to enjoy drinks on-site or to take away.

Parking:

Cirencester Park’s main car park is located at The Old Kennels.

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Free parking for 1hr before 6pm and from 6pm- 8am parking is also free.

Nearest train station – Kemble – four miles from The Old Kennels car park. Direct GWR mainline services from London Paddington, Swindon, Gloucester and Cheltenham Spa. A regular bus takes you in to the centre of Cirencester.

Places to stay nearby

Kings Head Hotel, Cirencester and The Bathurst Arms, North Cerney

Suppliers within a 25-mile radius include;

• Matthews Cotswold Flour, Shipton-under-Wychwood
• Four Seasons Fruiterers Cricklade
• Venison from Deer Box
• Cotswold Curer
• Corinium Ales
• Cotswold Brew Co
• Woodchester Vineyards
• Bensons the Juicers
• Cacklebean Eggs
• Ethically and sustainably sourced fish from Kingfisher Brixham