New restaurant, wine bar and shop opens in Salisbury

Wilding, a restaurant, wine bar and shop opens its doors in the site previously occupied by Café Rouge today.

The High Street premises which have been empty for a year have been transformed by owner Kent Barker and his team.

The Salisbury site joins his original Wilding restaurant which opened in Oxford in May.

Kent, who lives in Salisbury, says he'd been looking for a while for the right location and when the opportunity came up he had to take it.

"We also feel that Salisbury needs a bit of help, the High Street is having a real struggle at the moment and we think we are one of the brands that can really help do that.We're independent, we're exciting and we're new and Salisbury is the perfect location for us."

Kent admits it's a little 'scary' and 'brave' to open with the pandemic far from over but he's confident of success.

"We understand the market and we know it's what Salisbury needs. We've been amazed at the amount of people that have asked 'when are you opening?' and the number booking tables too. So just judged on that I don't think we've got it wrong! We are expecting to be here for the long term."

The restaurant will have a focus on a locally sourced menu with the beef coming from Broughton, milk from Nunton Farm and locally roasted coffee too.

But it's the wine element that seems to have captured the most attention.

Again there's a focus on sustainability with 50 to choose from in the restaurant and 200 in the shop.

Diners can also choose a wine from the shop with their meal for a corkage fee.

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• salisbury restaurant
• wilding
• cafe rouge premises
• new salisbury restuarant