Forza Win: Kings of custardo to return, this time in Camberwell

A big welcome back to Peckham’s kings of custardo, Forza Win, as they finally confirm their new home in Camberwell. The cult South London Italian closed two years ago but will reopen at 31 Camberwell Church Street in September, having taken on the former Angels & Gypsies site, dormant since 2016.

Bash Redford, who owns Forza with Michael Lavery, told CODE the returning menu will be similar to the first, with a daily five courses of Italian classics, as well as a few extras ‘here and there’. Old-time customers will be pleased to learn that the ‘awesome sauce’ special is making a comeback, where between 5-7pm a bowl of pasta and a glass of wine costs just £10. And then the ‘custardo’, a blend of crème anglaise and espresso, which started as a joke but worked and soon made headlines.

‘The awesome sauce is a very good way to look after our customers,’ Bash told CODE. ‘We lose money on it but it’s worth keeping regulars and locals happy. We can’t ignore the custardo either, obviously’.

Forza veterans Sam Oxley and Basilio Martino have been named head chef and manager respectively. Both have been working at Forza Wine, the rooftop bar in Peckham, since the original restaurant’s closure.

Bash added: ‘We’re so excited to have them. When we closed, we kept a lot of our team, they just moved over to Forza Wine. In that sense we’re confident we’ll be able to dive in.

‘We’re going to start with the old classics – lots of pastas – and working in the same format. We don’t see a reason to change that.’

Of troublesome landlords, Bash said: ‘The pandemic was hell. It’s just nice to have something good to say and to not have to deal with problematic landlords any more.’