Mike Robinson partners with Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden duo for new restaurant

Cattivo, which translates as ‘bad boys’ in Italian, will be a 40-cover space with additional tables on an outside terrace and will be located at The Old Kennels, on the edge of Cirencester Park.

Robinson​​, who is behind Michelin-starred The Harwood Arms in Fulham and oversees The Woodsman in Stratford-upon-Avon​​ and The Elder in Bath, has partnered with Baggott and Lawson-King, who together own and run Roots + Seeds Kitchen Garden, also at the Old Kennels.

Cattivo’s menu will comprise just six classic 12-inch Neapolitan-style, sourdough pizzas (two meat, two veg, and one fish-based, plus one seasonally changing) priced at £14 to £17 using locally sourced, foraged and home-grown produce.

Ingredients include honey from Robinson’s own hives and his home-made venison nduja, 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 quarter of an acre on-site kitchen garden.

Cattivo’s pizza dough will be made using specialist pizza flour from local mill Matthews Cotswold Flour, with pizzas cooked in a wood-fired pizza oven by pizzaiolo Farncesco Fotia using dry-aged oak also sourced from the Bathurst estate.

There will also be 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.

Drinks will include two pre-made and bottled cocktails made in-house by Lawson-King - a spicy Margherita and an Old Fashioned – alongside a small list of Italian wines served by the glass and the bottle, locally produced beers, ales, and soft drinks.

"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 Baggott.

Baggott and Lawson-King 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 in Easter 2023, which uses fresh produce grown on its kitchen garden and from suppliers from within a 25-mile radius.

Cattivo will open on 2 August.