Tag: restaurants

Goodbye to The Beanery but Hollychocs Lives On

Popular award-winning artisan chocolate business Hollychocs has announced that its Beanery Café will close on Saturday 23rd August, marking exactly two years since its opening in Poulshot, near Devizes….

Founded by award-winning chocolatier Holly Garner, Hollychocs has become a much-loved fixture in the local community, known not just for its handcrafted chocolates but for creating a warm, welcoming space for chocolate lovers to connect, indulge and experience the very best chocolate in the Southwest.

“This decision hasn’t come lightly,” said Holly. “Sam and I have poured so much into the café—working long days, championing other small businesses and suppliers and welcoming thousands of people through our doors. The support from our community has meant everything.”

The closure comes amidst rising costs that have impacted many small businesses across the country. “We’ve tried everything—from constantly creating new menu offerings, to introducing special offers,” Holly added. “In the end, the increased labour costs paired with price increases across the board, have made it time to focus our energy on a future that’s sustainable for us, our chocolate, and the people behind it.”

Yet this opens a new chapter for Hollychocs. Although the café will no longer offer drop-in visits, Hollychocs will continue to host a wide range of bookable chocolate experiences from their studio just outside Devizes. These include guided tastings, chocolate-making workshops, and sit-down afternoon teas—already popular with locals and visitors alike.

Hollychocs’ full product range will also remain available for UK-wide delivery and click & collect. She’s just released a Hollychocs version of the viral sensation Dubai Bar and has plans to increase her postbox-friendly chocolate gifts which are an increasingly popular way of sending a thoughtful gift.

They will also be focusing more on Corporate Gifting and Wholesale opportunities both locally and nationally.

“We’re not going anywhere,” Holly assured. “We’re simply shifting focus—putting our efforts into the parts of the business we know can sustain us in the long term.”

The final day of trading at the Beanery Café will take place on Saturday 23rd August, and the team welcomes the community to pop in for one last drink or treat.

“We’d love to see some familiar faces before we close the doors,” said Holly. “We’re so proud of what we’ve built—and incredibly grateful to everyone in Wiltshire who’s supported us on this journey.”

Devizine wishes Holly and the team all the best with progressing this delicious brand. It’s a shame to hear about The Beanery but I believe they’ve made the sensible decision.

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World Food in Devizes; Thanks Food & Drink Festival!

Devizes Food & Drink Festival came to a close for this year with the most amazing World Food event at the Corn Exchange on Sunday…it was yummy on an international scale!

It’s an annual finale I’ve missed in previous years, but was persuaded to attend by Dora who was there with a sweet Hong Kong dish of tapioca and melon. And that’s the premise, any local with ethnic roots is invited to serve a taster dish from their country of origin. One raffle ticket equals one dish, a strip of five costs just £3, the event is free to attend.

This arrangement makes this event arguably the best one on the Food & Drink Festival program, if the others require a ticket and the opening food market, while diverse in choices of tucker, vendors are left to their own devices and tend to sell fuller dishes at fuller costs, therefore should you wish to try something different you’re committed to a single choice or two. Here you circulate the hall safe in the knowledge that if the dish was not to your liking, it’s only set you back sixty pee, and there’s lots more options priced the same. It is a reserved and courteous dash, being a first-come-first-served situation and only a set amount of dishes from each table; I arrived punctual, and peckish. Best advice I could give about this event is to try and arrive before me!

For this, those who know the score with this event are queuing as far as the old Natwest bank waiting for it to open as if it was an Oasis reunion gig! And they were right to, it was fantastic and gorged-aciously gorgeous, and I’d kick myself for not attending before if I wasn’t balancing three dishes of various national dishes! 

If you know me well you’ll know I do love my grub, and I’ve eclectic tastes, save eggs! I’m in my element here, trekking the world like Jules Verne’s cutlery, without leaving the Devizes Corn Exchange. Though there’s less than eighty tables, it’s certainly plentiful. First stop, Zimbabwe for some tasty Sadza Balls, onto a lovely Romanian stew I’m not even going to attempt to spell, and then I’m back in Africa, for South African Chakalaka; loved the name, preferred the dish, it was probably my favourite if I was forced to pick one!

It is perhaps for the adventurous, this event, and unlike a more multicultural place, we’re restricted here to Italian, Chinese and Indian restaurants, therefore to explore the more unusual is key to experiencing the best of the occasion. With this ethos, the Western European tables aren’t attracting the same attention as the Eastern European, African or Asian ones. Nevertheless, I tried the Italian one as they had something I’d not seen before, Lenticchie De Capodana, a lentil stew which they told me is traditionally served at New Year and is therefore more of a household dish than something you’d find in restaurants. Herein is the interesting angle of the event as a whole, these are home cooked dishes and not pampered or adapted to an international palette, as meals in restaurants might well be.

There were a few tables I did not try, such as Scottish haggis, I didn’t so in favour of the more exotic ones, and prevention from over-indulging (of which I was close to the border already.) I mean, when do you get to try Rourou patties with Dalo from Fiji, in Devizes, huh?! This one was particularly unusual, and tasty, as equally as those from the Ukraine, a berry and cream pudding from Denmark, even some apple layered sponge cake from Guernsey; yes, they had puddings too, get in!

Though they didn’t have any drinks, so take a bottle of water with you next year. But do go, it was scrumptious, communal, and a grand finale to the Food & Drink Festival. An event I’m unusually tempted to summarise using science, yes science; step aside Heston Blumenthal!

So, forget about Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve, and the pun, and focus on Darren’s Remembering Curve! Eddinghaus’ curve is a hypothesis, his methodology is wrought with debatable flaws, especially by modern thinking. Affective Context Theory is the new bag, emphasising vehemence in memory retention, in other words, you cannot learn anything you’ve no interest in. My curve is the physical example, it’s my belly, and once filled so too is my retention to knowledge, because I’m interested in filling my gut. I learned a lot today about different world foods, and I’m likely to remember it because Darren’s Remembering Curve is particularly full now with new foods I’ve not tried before, see? Okay, don’t base your PHD on it, as long as you get the general gist!

Awl, here’s to another year, then, cheers, and thank you to all the organisers of the festival and everyone who provided a dish to try; I’m full!

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Milton Jones; Deadpan in Devizes

Mock the Week’s recurring panellist and Radio 4 comedian Milton Jones stood on the stage of Devizes Corn Exchange on Friday, with the setter, “it’s…

Let’s Go Swimming with Poppy Rose

Two years ago we fondly reviewed I’m Ready Now, a debut EP from Bath’s Poppy Rose. I praised her unique take, her thoughtful prose and…

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