Alchemilla's Alex Bond to open fried chicken restaurant

In the face of increasingly squeezed margins, Alchemilla chef-patron Alex Bond is to diversify with his second Nottingham site, opening a restaurant specialising in fried chicken and soft-serve ice-cream.

Bond has taken on a site next to Michelin-starred Alchemilla, which he hopes to open in November as Mollis.

He is also in the process of securing the land inbetween the two buildings, on which he will build a specialist bar area to serve both concepts, as well as storage space and a wine cellar.

Bond told The Caterer: “It seemed like a good opportunity. Margins are tighter than ever in here [Alchemilla], food prices are going through the roof and there’s only so much we can charge for what we do, so sometimes we have to think like businessmen and diversify.

“We’re going to be doing something we love. I like hot dogs, but I don’t love them. I like ramen, but I don’t love it. I love fried chicken, that’s my guilty pleasure – although I hate that phrase, why would you feel guilty about that?

“What is not to love about fried chicken and ice-cream? Obviously, we’re going to do it in our style, with our mentality, using yeasts and ferments and pickles. All the chicken will be coated, brined, all interesting flavours and the same with the ice-creams. Dead simple, not over complicating anything, a small offering and pretty drinks-led.”

Mollis will seat between 60 and 65 covers, offering five flavours of fried chicken with different sauces, coatings, glazes and dredges, as well as a short list of sides.

The drinks offering will be spearheaded by head bartender Daniel Warren, who was named Diageo Reserve World Class GB Bartender of the Year in 2018, and took the runner-up spot at the global final.

Bond said drinks would include “shit hot” cocktails and an organic-led wine list served to “banging music”. Graffiti artists will decorate the interior of the site, with Bond explaining: “It’s going to look like a 1980s New York train yard. I’m going to let them run riot and spray the fuck out of it.”

The addition of the new bar, which will serve Alchemilla in one direction and Mollis in the other, follows the success of the fine dining restaurant’s rooftop bar, which is used during the summer months.

Alchemilla, Bond’s first restaurant, opened in 2017 and was awarded a Michelin star in the 2020 guide. Earlier in his career Bond worked in kitchens including Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham; for Phil Thompson at Auberge du Lac in Welwyn, Hertfordshire; Turners at 69 in Birmingham; and the Wild Rabbit in Kingham, Oxfordshire.