A Bone To Pick: Gimme Shelter
Bristol needs an indoor food hall
A Bone To Pick is our monthly(ish) column that gives you the chance to have a rant about something rubbing you up the wrong way in Bristol’s food scene. Previous examples have included There’s No Good Breakfast in Bristol and Bristol’s Harbourside Needs a 180. Horrified by people saying things taste like crack? Flabbergasted by bad bread-to-butter ratios? This is your chance — get it off your chest. Email me; I want to hear your horrors. All published pieces will, as per all our writing, be paid for. And to support the publication of new voices writing about Bristol’s food scene, consider becoming a paying Saucer. Thank you!
I take a hungry bite of a seared beef patty, fingers gripped on to the brioche bun like Alex Honnold in Free Solo. As I chow down, I keep one eye on the encroaching shadow. I keep my feet firmly planted, ready to swerve at any moment. And then it happens. A shrill scream is let out behind me.
As I turn, I register the shock on the small child’s face as a seagull swoops down into his tray of chips, taking flight with vinegar-soaked winnings in its beak.
I felt sorry for the little guy, whose cheeks are now red and wet, but he’s just learnt a valuable lesson. Those feathered lunatics are ruthless.
This isn’t a cautionary tale of seagull food theft, it’s a call for the dire need of protection from the elements for the Bristol street food scene. Is it asking too much to get some shelter from the rain? I don’t want my tau yew bak getting wet.
For years, I’ve been waiting for a dining hall to be built in Bristol and I pinned all my hopes on BoxHall. These prayers were swiftly crushed when the BoxPark team announced that they were no longer opening. Having originally penned the opening date for 2022 it was a slow and frustrating death.
Elsewhere, the council recently announced there’s a huge £5.5 million bill for critical repairs to St Nicholas market. If we lost St Nicks, then I would be seriously worried about the future of Corn Street. It’s already become ‘Little London’, packed full of neon-signed bars and chain eateries. If Matina goes, then what really is the point?
I don’t have big enough pockets to afford small plates and high-end dining all the time, but I do want to support independent businesses. An indoor food hall would offer a more affordable experience that you could use frequently. Evening meals in Bristol are expensive now, so the social cohesion that eating out together provides is hard to do on a tighter budget.
Many days of business are lost to poor weather in Bristol. Every year I witness outdoor markets get cancelled at key times, due to the unpredictable nature of English weather. Other UK cities like Liverpool, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Cardiff have created infrastructure for the street food industry that protects traders from the outdoors and potential lost revenue.
At Christmas, I visited Edinburgh and spent my first evening dining at the street food market in the OMNi centre. A great place, bustling with people enjoying bao, barbecue and burgers. I indulged in some Peruvian pork belly with salsa criolla and aji verde, washed down with a Scottish lager. Top scran.
Recently, I was in Copenhagen where the vast size of Reffen blew me away. It wasn’t fully protected from the elements but was a great example of creating a food and drink destination that people flock to. I’d happily live in one of the huts, only to be lured out by the smell of Kurdish kebabs grilling.
I took a train from Copenhagen to Malmö for the day and stumbled upon the Malmö Saluhall, where cold pilsner and ramen were plentiful.
I moved to Bristol in December 2015. On my first night out, I headed to Yurt Lush at Temple Meads. A great spot for food and drink; the buzz of workers catching a pint before the last train was palpable. It was then I knew I’d made the right decision about moving to Bristol and I was excited to watch it grow and evolve. Now I walk around Temple Meads filled with a melancholic sadness.
I’m starkly aware of the constant missed opportunities in Bristol. There are so many inventive and talented people here that need a better place to call their food business home. I don’t care how many times we make The Sunday Times’ ‘best place to live’ list, we need to invest in genuine culture.
So, this is a call to arms. Build your student halls and drab office blocks but please consider giving us something decent for our food and drink scene. Build it and they will come — I certainly will.
All words and photos by Thomas Whitehead
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