We work hard at Poco to reduce our environmental impact and to behave ethically, both in terms of treating our team with respect and thinking very carefully about sourcing ingredients and other supplies. We’re immensely proud of our Hospitality Assured accreditation which involves constant striving to improve the quality of our service.
We’re passionate about Italian food here at Poco. The Italians have a clarity of thought that simple food made with fresh, seasonal, high-quality ingredients is a recipe for success. We try to carry through that ethos of creating food with love. We make our dough on site every day from the highest quality flour (see below) with a long fermentation to help digestion. Matt, our chef, has worked on perfecting the dough over the past couple of years to deliver a crisp and light base which we top with our own recipe sauce and the best quality Mozzarella. We slice our cured meats in house, allowing us to source better quality products and constantly work on perfecting the recipes for our dips and toppings.
We’re very fortunate to be based in a part of the country that values ethically grown produce, allowing us to source all of our ingredients either from within a very small radius of Lyme Regis or from Italy via our local supplier. Where a local ingredient works as well as something imported from Italy, we will choose the local option to keep our footprint as low as possible.
Our Suppliers:
Nanona, our Italian supplier is run by brothers Luke and Alex who share our ethics. They only work with producers that meet their high welfare and quality standards. The majority of our pizza topping ingredients come from Nanona including our delicious tomatoes from which we make our pizza sauce and our Fior di Latte Mozzarella.
Wildfarmed supply the flour that we use to make our dough. Their regenerative farming processes increase the taste, nutritional and environmental benefits of the flour, enhancing our countryside along the way.
Trill Farm supply our amazing green salad from their organic farm just a couple of miles from the restaurant, alongside seasonal ingredients throughout the year. If you’re local, check out their veg box schemes!
Crook and Churn supply wonderful West Country dairy produce – they’re the main reason that our garlic breads are delicious thanks to rich, local butter.
Many of our Italian wines come from Hillside wines based in Rousden (just outside Lyme Regis) with the remainder coming in from Selected Grapes in Bridport. Working with local suppliers means that we chat with our wine experts every week to decide on our ‘specials’ and we minimise food miles (wine miles?) of delivery vans. Martin and Will are also around to run our Wine Tasting evenings – and Will (Selected Grapes) has a fantastic shop in Bridport that’s definitely worth a visit.
As well as our selection of Italian Beers, we’ve added a few local specialities such as Gilt and Flint Pale Ale which is made in Musbury. As well as being just a couple of miles from the restaurant, it’s one of the few truly organic beers in the UK.
Beer Water is our house sparkling water and is bottled in Beer (a few miles along the coast road) They supply their sparkling water in reusable glass bottles that we return each week for the least environmental impact possible. As we try to avoid unnecessary packaging where possible, we are very happy to supply tap water to tables rather than bottled still water.
Charity Partner:
Our house charity is Lyme Regis RNLI and we raise money to support our local station in many ways. This year, we are offering diners the option of adding an additional pound to their bill at the end of their meal and if they do, we will also donate a pound. One of our favourite evenings of the year is our RNLI fundraiser evening when we get our suppliers and neighbours together at the restaurant to hand over a cheque to the RNLI and to announce our initiative for the following year. It’s always great to spend some time in like-minded company and to hear from our local RNLI team about their challenges.
We also serve Salcombe Gin’s Four Seas as our House Gin and Salcombe Rum. Salcombe donate a portion of the profits from these products to the RNLI.
Environmental Initiatives:
Our partner for cleaning products and packaging is Green My Business who support our desire to minimise our environmental impact. Cleaning products are all Eco friendly yet meet the required professional standards. Packaging (eg Pizza boxes, Olive pots) is all made from recycled materials.