February Digest: Bristol food and drink news
Including a parting of ways over Chicken Lunch Club
Welcome to March, Saucers. Before we get fully into the swing of things next week with our curated list of where to eat in March — first let’s take a look back at the key goings-on of the last month.
The news
Sad news for those that really appreciate the Venn diagram crossover between Michelin stars and rotisserie chicken: Jan Ostle and Mary Wilson are no longer involved in Chicken Lunch Club. The Wilson’s team are, happily, too busy running their restaurant, bakery and farm, and as CLC was always meant to be something fun and easy they have taken the decision to step away. The Club is still going strong with Tristan Hogg at the helm.
COR’s younger sister RAGÙ has been recognised with a Michelin Bib Gourmand for excellent value cooking. Well done team!
After a lengthy battle with the council, Bravas’ terrace is officially safe. The team were able to prove that emergency vehicles could still get through the space with the terrace intact and the planning application has been approved. It was one of Bristol’s most popular ever planning applications, with over a thousand people writing to support the restaurant.
BristoL’eclair have moved from the top of Whiteladies Road to opposite the Everyman, meaning your cinema snack options just got a whole lot more exciting.
Press
Congratulations are once again in order for Dongnae’s restaurant manager Becca Lewis who has been named a rising star by the National Restaurant Awards. The award comes only a month after she was named in CODE Hospitality’s 30 under 30 most influential people in hospitality. It’s so encouraging to see Bristol represented in these lists — well done Becca.
Closures
Hearing the news that BoxPark on Welsh Back has been abandoned left me about as surprised as learning about Tyra Banks’ inevitable unveiling as a supermodelsupervillain. Though we have yet to hear what the space will become, my money is on flats.
Grano has announced it is not reopening, and instead the space on Old Market is now being used as an extension of Gigi’s Pizza Shop, which has been rammed since it opened towards the end of 2024. Grano Pasta Bar lives on in St Nick’s market for those with a craving for carbonara or, indeed, the bright pink beetroot and Gorgonzola special, although that may have disappeared from the menu by the time you read this.
Harbourside steak-restaurant-cum-art-gallery Steak of the Art has served its last sirloin. After a difficult year in which the Cardiff branch closed down and owner Steve Bowen had to be candid about the difficulties facing the Bristol site whilst denying rumours it had succumbed to the same fate, this had a sense of the sadly inevitable.
New openings
Wapping Wharf has a host of new residents. Market veterans Fat Rice now has a permanent (if you can call a shipping container permanent) home for its sister venture Rice Box. Around the corner, the unit that belonged to Daily Noodles will now be home to Rice and Shine, a Filipino street food stall that started in Bath. I’m really pleased to see greater representation of Filipino food in Bristol as it is otherwise thin on the ground. Taking a break from the rice theme is Toastie Queens, which is serving — you guessed it! — toasties from its new spot in the shipping container that previously housed Seven Lucky Gods’ Sushi and Shop.
James Wilks has sold the lease to Wilks on Chandos Road. We got all excited thinking that Chandos Road could be in for another high-end restaurant but alas, rumour has it the site is to become the home of a charity which may also be a cafe and event space.
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