Da Polpo

Once upon a time there was a widespread belief that 3 factors made all the difference for a successful foodservice operation: Location, Location, Location. Then came a man and rewrote this rule that had dominated the industry for many decades. His name was Russell Norman and he just added the fourth venue to his growing restaurant empire.

Norman made first a name for himself as Operations Director of Caprice Holdings, the FC Chelsea of the Restaurant industry, before leaving (during the recession) to go his own way. You won’t find fancy advertising of any of his venues in glossy magazines, nor discount vouchers online, yet his restaurants are packed on most days of the week and waiting times of over an hour on Saturday evenings are the norm.   

Judging by the outside of the venues, you are forgiven to mistake them for shabby Tourist trap holes. It won’t be love on first site, but don’t be mistaken.

Norman belongs to a new generation of Twitteraties and no other London based foodservice operator has been credited with successfully harnessing the power of the web to the extend he does. The man has currently over 5000 followers on Twitter with a steady increasing number joining day by day. Just 5000 followers don’t sound much if you can reach over 100,000 with conventional marketing initiatives. However, unlike the ‘spray and pray’ approach of traditional methods, these 5000 are loyal and repeat customers spreading the message to another 5000, which in addition will spread the message to another 5000 and so on. You can do the maths.

Polpo, his first venue, opened in October 2009, in what can hardly be described as a high footfall location, in Soho. Yet, Polpo became an instant success. Polpetto followed in August 2010 and found a home on the second floor of a Pub located close by. A location most operators would walk away from. Yet, Norman’s second venue also became a household name in Soho and beyond. Spuntino opened in March 2011, with caused no less furore than its sister restaurants. Da Polpo, his latest venue, opened this month close to Convent Garden Market and was reported in most mainstream publications.

But there is more to his success than the smart use of Twitter. Norman developed a distinctive style aimed at a particular group of likeminded customers. Twitter was merely a tool to selectively reach his audience, which pilgrim to his venues from near and far away.

Enter his latest venue ‘Da Polpo’ and you will understand what I mean with distinctive style. Exposed brick work and reclaimed furniture is hardly innovative any more, but the Norman's style is simply distinctive. I was already hardened up from other visits to Polpetto and Spuntino and went with an open mind and an empty stomach. 

So what can you expect? Lets start with the staff. Many of them look like the kind of Punks who pester you for a quid on the street on your way home. But again, don’t be mistaken. Our ‘Punk’ was a little wine connoisseur and provided us with a taster of a bottle of Custoza 2009, which she described as ‘cracking’ and cracking it was, so we had the whole bottle (£26.50). Menu descriptions were short and left a lot of room for imagination, but our ‘Punk’ was also a little Gourmet and navigated us with bravura through the menu.

The menu was broken down in sections such as Cicheti, Pizzette, and less intimidating sections such as Meatballs, Mains and Desserts. Cicheti turn out to be bite-sized snacks, which are traditionally found in Venetian wine bars. We sampled ‘Arancini’ (£2.50), which were deep-fried Risotto balls with Mozarella, and Potato & Parmesan Crocchetta (£1.50) to start with. Subtle in flavour and nicely seasoned, the type of snack I could probably never get bored off. The Fritto Misto (£8.00) arrived shortly after and was a mix of squid, anchovies and prawns deep-fried in a heavenly thin and crispy batter. Our first Pizzette to arrive was topped with Spinach and a raw egg yolk on the top (£5.50). A simple combination and the silky egg yolk gave a very nice texture to the dish. However, the second Pizzette (£6.00) to arrive was more to my liking. A thin and crusty base topped with slices of grilled Mortadella, smelly Gorgonzola cheese and pickled radicchio to balance the richness of the dish. Meatballs, or Polpette in Italian, were honoured with its own section on the menu. We sampled two varieties, classic beef & pork and a vegetarian variety made of Chickpeas, spinach and ricotta. Both varieties of Polpette were big, fat and juicy and arrived covered in a tangy tomato sauce. The Calf’s liver (£7.00) and grilled sirloin (£8.50) were mouth watering tender. The grilled asparagus with soft scrambled egg and Parmesan (£7.50) rounded up our selection of savoury dishes.

We decided to fill the little bit of space we had left in our stomach with something sweet. We had a boring choice of Tiramisu, but thought it would be a good dish to benchmark against the other hundreds of Tiramisu’s we had in our lives. The dessert was served in the same type of glass used for wine (very resourceful) and had a bold coffee flavour. We went adventurous with the ‘Nutella’ Pizzette, which was, as the name indicated, covered with Nutella. I have been told afterwards (by Italians of course) that this is in fact a common dish that can be found in restaurants and cafes throughout Italy. Italians are known for being obsessed with Pizza and Nutella. It appears a logical evolutionary step to combine the two. Affogato al caffe (£2.50), the third choice was again a ‘classic’ Italian Coffee Culture dish made of a shot of hot espresso poured over a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream. The perfect caffeine loaded finish needed after a marathon of food (what a tough job I have).

As expected, Norman’s newest addition under-promised and over-delivered. At the end we left £35 a head for the 3 of us including wine and service charge. However, if you manage to restrain yourself, whom I am having difficulties with at times, you would get away with less.

Buon appetito.