19 Comments
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Julian Baggini's avatar

Like the list. Although we should almost always choose our local indies, I don't think we should be religious about it. There are crap indies and good chains. One issue I have is with animal welfare. There are several local indies that don't source as well as they should. Try finding a good South or East Asian joint using free range chicken. Eatchu used to use free range pork but stopped. So I'm interested in Honest Burger v Squeezed. Do you know who has better sourcing policies? Thanks.

Lily's avatar

Would we include Pie Minister as a local business? I know they’ve expanded across the country and sell their pies in shops but they still feel a bit different from the likes of Rosa’s, Rudy’s and others (not beginning with R)

Meg Houghton-Gilmour's avatar

I am a big fan of Pieminister but I think including them would be opening myself up to allegations of gross hypocrisy 😬

Lily's avatar

Very fair! Can’t fault 2-4-1 cocktails though, even if ‘pie and a negroni’ is a somewhat unhinged combination…

Meg Houghton-Gilmour's avatar

I’d argue that’s a superlative combination

Claire Rull's avatar

Love love love Jean's!

Fiona Beckett's avatar

Great piece with loads of food (literally) for thought. Would be good to have a shout out for the many other brilliant bakeries too

Meg Houghton-Gilmour's avatar

Quite agree - bakeries is a piece in itself!

Lily's avatar

I would love to start regularly buying good bakery bread but I struggle to find many options on my regular routes. I miss Twelve Triangles from my Edinburgh days!

Meg Houghton-Gilmour's avatar

Challenge accepted - where are your regular routes?

Lily's avatar
Mar 20Edited

I live near Castle Park and tend to live my life in a roughly straight line between Castle Park/ Bristol Bridge and Woodland Road/ the Triangle, expanding out into a rhombus to add points around Wapping wharf (RIP east Bristol bakery) and the back of Cabot circus (to go to the inpost and Evri lockers behind that petrol station). There’s probably a good option right on those routes that I just haven’t noticed!

Meg Houghton-Gilmour's avatar

Back of Cabot Circus is easy - Farro. Park Street etc is harder…. Pinkmans circa 2019 would’ve been the one but alas no longer. I shall keep thinking 🤔

Lily's avatar

How have I missed Farro?! Yes! And yes, I moved to Bristol pretty soon after the Pinkmans fire, it’s a shame that unit is still empty.

Fiona Beckett's avatar

Look forward to reading it! 😉

Richard Kemp's avatar

What a brilliant list! Thank you!

Olivia  Pattison's avatar

I love this 🫶🏻

Hugh Tuck's avatar

I like the idea. I'm always on the look-out for the less obvious. Often cheaper and sometimes, better!

James McWilliam Woods's avatar

Awesome list. Is Pipp & Co not Swindon-based? Obviously that is still the West Country, but maybe worth mentioning.