Now, she’s turned the venue into the neighbourhood’s first kombucha bar – with an on site microbrewery fermenting the gut-friendly drink.
Wild IS Earth is open Thursdays and Fridays, serving healthy shots, but also alcoholic cocktails with her own kombucha, alongside plant-based nibbles and the family recipe for spelt focaccia.
“This is a family business,” says Livia.
“My parents Norina and Tino came here from Italy and ran Tolli Patisserie for 36 years.
“They were one of the first to sell cappuccino around here. I remember writing on the blackboard ‘the best cappuccino in Kentish Town’ but we were the only ones so I wasn’t going to get sued!”
After raising three children while turning out croissants and bread every day, Norina was urged to close the cafe in Kentish Town Road.
“My mum always worked really hard in the kitchen and it got to a point where we wanted her to slow down,” says Livia.
“It became a bit of a car boot sale, decluttering and selling things off, but it’s been difficult and delicate because there is so much family history in the place.
“I started to think about a business that would see the place into a new era that was still rooted in community.”
Rather than let their beloved cafe go to a big chain with deep pockets, the former La Sainte Union pupil decided to open Wild IS Earth.
Her interest in kombucha grew out of a passion for horticulture, and low waste, farm to fork food production.
“I have always been around food, my parents came from the same village in Italy and I was inspired by that life around farming and food – when they had pasta they didn’t go to a shop, they grew the wheat, milled it and made pasta.”
She started making the ancient brew from green tea, brown sugar and a ‘Scoby’ of bacteria and yeast.
She has now developed the drink – which is said to boost gut health, digestion, and immunity – using three teas, three sugars, and nettles.
The result, she says, has “a greater depth of flavour that can be drunk as a shot or mixed with alcohol if you want to be naughty”.
That’s exactly what she will be doing with her kombucha mocktails and cocktails at the bar.
Flavoured with cherries, wild flowers, beetroot, and lemon and ginger turmeric, they each lend themselves to different drinks.
She says one with rose hibiscus has the quality of red wine or negroni, while another for the sweeter palate has apple and elderflower akin to a white wine.
“Fermented foods have always been part of our gut health a natural part of our microflora with natural benefits. They are something we should have in our ever day lifestyle along with happy eating and good sleep.”
She’s hoping to grow Wild IS Earth’s programme to include tastings and food experiences and she doesn’t rule out firing up the cafe’s kitchen in the future.
“We still kept the pizza oven and old dough mixer so who knows what might happen if it grows.”
Wild IS Earth is at 327 Kentish Town Rd, London NW5. wildisearth.com
