I write to you today from the foyer of a fancy hotel in Edinburgh, where I am pretending to be waiting for someone while I type this up. The Edinburgh Fringe is glorious, but not conducive to getting much work done. So, here I am, illegally loitering and stealing wifi. The news waits for no man, woman, clown or comedian. I spend quite a lot of time in cafes, or loitering in various public spaces, as I can’t afford an office. I’d love to have an office. I’d have a lot of books in it, and if I had enough room, I’d like to make it a space where other people who don’t have offices could come and spend an hour or two writing. Every paying Saucer gets me a little closer to that, and helps me continue to afford the odd coffee in a cafe in the meantime. If you can afford to, please consider becoming a paying Saucer to support our work. If you can’t afford it, don’t worry — the people paying mean that you can continue to read for free. On with the news!
The news
Last month we reported that beloved Chinese dim sum joint Fresh Bakery was moving, but this is in fact not the case. Further intel has revealed that the team are retaining their original site and a new site. The new, bigger site, Mei Mei, houses the restaurant we know and love and is now open. The previous site is where production will continue to take place, ‘the bakery’ if you will, and will be renamed. Read The Bristol Sauce review of Fresh Bakery.
Rumour has it that Joel Viljoen — former owner of Orchard Coffee in St George, booted out earlier this year to turn the site back into a church — is buying local brewery Fierce and Noble. This hasn’t been confirmed, but the brewery is for sale on Zoopla. Hopefully God doesn’t decide to interfere with this one too.
Following a stint in Bedminster, Southmead’s casual Indian restaurant Thikanaa is preparing to reopen in a new location on Gloucester Road, on the junction with Hatherly Road and very close to Dave Giles butchers. Excellent news for those living nearby, who will now be able to get their hands on convenient, affordable and wonderfully satiating vada pau. Bad news for Southmead, however, which has lost one of startlingly few restaurants in the area which are actually worth going to. Read The Bristol Sauce review of Thikanaa.
Press
Aktar Islam’s Clifton restaurant Kush, which finally opened a couple of months ago after many delays, has been reviewed in The Observer. Reviewer Rebecca Nicholson was mostly impressed but found the service a little slow. Perhaps everything they do is slightly delayed.
Closures
Kuch, a Middle-Eastern restaurant on Whiteladies Road and not to be confused with the above Kush, appears to have permanently closed. The site is due to be turned into a martial arts space. Evidently there’s only room for one Ku(s/c)h in this town.
Easton’s Latin-American-inspired cafe Este Kitchen has sadly closed. No announcement has been made, but the restaurant is listed as ‘permanently closed’ on Google.
New openings
Red Tiger, the Malaysian restaurant that started life as a stall in St Nick’s Market, has opened a permanent bricks-and-mortar site in St George. Following a soft-launch in mid-August the new site is in full swing, with a delightful menu featuring the likes of roti canai, belacan wings, tom yum fried rice and popiah goreng.
There’s a new restaurant opening on Whiteladies Road called ‘Feather’, in the site that previously belonged to VeBurger. A top local chef and Sauce intelligence officer reported that ‘they have good ovens and the lad who’s starting it is nice’. According to a job listing for the assistant restaurant manager on Indeed, the restaurant will be ‘built around fried chicken, poultry-led dishes, good wine, cocktails, and a warm, lively dining room.’ Feather will open next-door-but-one to another fried chicken restaurant, Coq, and will hopefully be less reliant on penis jokes.
Those saddened by the closure of Este Kitchen should take heart in the upcoming arrival of Los Dos Gringos in nearby Redfield, which will be a Colombian-inspired and entirely vegan cafe. Los Dos Gringos is set to open in the former Crafty Egg site and if the team’s previous market stalls are anything to go by, will serve Colombian hot chocolate and arepas, amongst other things.
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