Green renovation gives Cardiff cottage new lease of life as sustainability-led restaurant

A new sustainability-focused restaurant is set to open in the Welsh capital early next month, offering seasonal menus, natural wines, and produce from an on-site garden and greenhouse, according to its developers.

Kindle, the latest venture from the restauranteurs behind local chain Dusty's Pizza and neighbourood eatery Nook, is set to open in a renovated park warden's cottage in Cardiff's Sophia Gardens, offering seasonal BBQ and grill menus with produce sourced both from the on-site, peat-free garden, as well as from local farmers, gamekeepers and gardeners.

The former residential property has been renovated over the past two years in partnership with Object Space Place, a sustainability-led interior design and architecture company, following a successful 2019 Kickstarter campaign that raised £43,000, topped up by £350,000 investment from the restaurant's owners.

"Our vision was to create a restaurant which gives back more than it takes from the environment, and to challenge what it really means to create a sustainable hospitality business from scratch," said Phill Lewis, who co-owns the restaurant alongside his wife Deb.

Kindle's renovation involved repurposing most of the original building, with materials including bricks, flagstones and scaffold boards all recycled and reused to redevelop the premises. The restaurant has also been designed to optimise energy and water efficiency - including a sustainable alternative to insulation made from sheep's wool - in addition to incorporating recycled glass into the design, according to Object Space Place.

The desgin studio's founder and director David Chenery said it followed the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors' environmental assessment criteria for good practice - which cover energy, emissions, waste, water, pollution, materials, wellbeing and transport - in its design of the restaurant.

"Kindle has been such an exciting project to work on as the whole team were keen to make the design and fit out as sustainable as possible," he said. "Wherever possible we have made decisions to reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of what we are doing, whilst still creating a beautiful restaurant experience. It has really been such a rewarding process."

The current design represents the first stage in the restaurant's transformation and focuses mostly on outdoor dining, while the second-phase of renovation is earmarked to begin in two years' time, which will see a glass-fronted extension built, with parts of the building designed to easily disassemble and be reused as the renovation continues, according to the developers.