Town serves up a treat for food lovers

Aylsham will be celebrating its vibrant food and drink scene with a special festival from July 6 to 13. Food and Drink Week will also help to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Aylsham as a Cittaslow and Slow Food Town.

The festival starts on Sunday, July 6 (10am-6pm) and will see the Market Place and Red Lion Street closed to traffic.

An International Street Food Fair will take place in the Market Place with a range of street food from all over the world, including Italy, Germany, Hungary and South Africa.

Red Lion Street businesses will be able to offer Continental-style outside seating with pavement tables and chairs and Seventeen will be hosting a DJ set in the street during the afternoon.

An Aylsham Business Consortium (ABC) spokesperson said: “In all, 33 Aylsham businesses – both food and non-food – are taking part in the festival. They will be offering a range of special festival menus or festival week offers, plus shop window displays supporting the food, cookery and drink theme.”

The special menus include local wagyu beef burgers with fries, award-winning sausage rolls, scallops with mango salsa, Festival Scones, Sunday pizza slices, sausages from different regions and countries, cake and savouries tasters, ‘Around the World in Chocolates and Sweets’, and cake grazing boards.

Festival drinks will feature wine, guest beers, draft beers and ciders and cocktails of every spirit, flavour and colour.

There will be food and drink experiences too such as making your own pizza or mixing your own cocktails. There will also be a range of food-related offers and discounts on items purchased or booked that week, from free installation on ovens and cookers and free gifts with facials, to discounts on food and still life art, cookery books and food-related gifts.

Lorraine Khanna, of Stamp Pizza, said: “We are super excited for yet another opportunity to show the amazing diversity of our wonderful team of food and drink businesses in Aylsham.”

Aylsham Heritage Centre will also be sharing some of its archive information on Aylsham’s hospitality trade.

FOOD HAVEN: Red Lion Street was closed for the VE Day celebration party and will shut again for the Food and Drink Festival. Picture: IAN GRAVENELL