The 30-cover venue, founded by Giuseppe Pollifrone, will serve traditional Italian dishes made with fresh produce from local suppliers, alongside Italian cheese, charcuterie and wines from small producers.
The menu at Al Molo reflects Pollifrone’s focus on provenance, informed by his family’s frantoio, a traditional Italian olive oil mill. Aperitivo dishes include Nocellara olives and bruschette topped with tomatoes, alongside Piemontese specialities including Fassona beef bresaola; and Occelli al Castagno, a cow’s and sheep’s milk cheese aged for a year in chestnut leaves.
Starters include Puglian mussels cooked in white wine, tomato and garlic, served as cozze in guazzetto; and meatballs prepared to the recipe of Pollifrone’s mother and grandmother. Main courses include rigatoni amatriciana with pork cheek guanciale and pecorino; orecchiette with sausage and turnip tops; and Sardinian fregola with king prawns and seafood bisque.
The wine list focuses on Italian low-intervention, biodynamic and organic wines from small producers. Bottles will be available to drink on the premises or purchase to take away from the bottle shop. Alongside its food and wine offering, Al Molo will serve speciality coffee.
“Al Molo is my way of bringing a piece of home to London,” says Pollifrone.
“I was born in Piedmont, raised on the Ionian coast of Calabria and shaped by my years studying in Rome.
“These three places have defined my relationship with food and wine, and the menu is my personal journey through Italy.”
Pollifrone is an Italian-born former physicist who moved to east London in the late 1990s to work at Queen Mary University. Before launching Al Molo, Pollifrone built a career in finance in Canary Wharf while continuing to source wines for friends and colleagues. In 2012, he co-founded Vinarius, an enoteca, wine shop and bar on Roman Road, followed by Symposium, a wine bar and Italian restaurant, in 2016.
Pollifrone also holds a diploma in wine, a qualification he completed in Italy alongside his PhD in physics.