January Digest: Bristol food and drink news
A new pop-up from The Pony and more
Hello Saucers and welcome to February. We’ve just passed Imbolc which means we are well on our way to fingers defrosting and asparagus being back on menus. Hang in there. January was a bumper month for Bristol hospitality, so much so that I had to enlist the help of PXandTarts to help me put this news piece together as there was simply too much!
Our first piece of news is this: at the beginning of April, the cost of a subscription to The Bristol Sauce will be increasing. At the moment, we are at the lowest setting that Substack allows (just £3.50 a month), but our work costs far more to produce than that allows and is worth more too, I think. So the cost will be going up to £5 a month — but here’s the thing: the increased cost is only for new subscribers. So if you upgrade to a paid subscription now, you’ll only pay £3.50 a month for all eternity! And you’ll get access to all our work, including 10 new openings we’ve written about today that are only available to paying Saucers.
Thank you very much for your support. Meg x
The news
Undisputed champion of platforming Bristol’s best pop-ups and supper clubs The Scrandit has announced new opening hours as well as the identities of the cooks they will be hosting for the first half of the year, with a mixture of old faces and newbies. Now open from 5.30pm - 10pm Wednesday to Friday and 12.30pm - 10pm on Saturday (kitchen closes at 9pm), expect fire-driven fare from Belgium’s Yannick Carr, skilfully-spiced offerings from Laura’s Spice Kitchen (also found at the excellent Landrace in Bath), and a plethora of Mexican grub. On the final Sunday of every month communal supper clubs will be hosted under the moniker Sunday Scran. Looks like I’ll be hitting my 10,000 in no small part thanks to frequent hikes up and down Christmas Steps.
Feast On festival returns to the Downs on the last weekend of July with restaurant pop-ups, open fire cooking, live music and a produce market. Early bird tickets are available now.
The lease on Interlude Coffee’s premises ends in March and will not be renewed. Fortunately the team are in the process of finding a new site, so Picky Bits — an excellent series of pop-up chefs cooking small plates for an afternoon — should return in the not-too-distant future.
The best thing I’ve seen on Instagram so far this year (including Brooklyn Beckham’s outburst) was a rhubarb and custard Danish from Hilda. The good news is there are more ways than ever to get your hands on one this year (at least until the end of rhubarb season. Or until I eat them all). The second Sunday of every month will see Hilda’s pastries available at Cor, while on Saturdays, head to dim sum-wine bar Clouds in St Werburghs for your fix.
The team behind Chance & Counters, with sites already in Cardiff, Birmingham and Leeds, have announced that, in their words, ‘After 10 years of learning what makes a board game cafe actually thrive, we’re ready to share it.’ That’s right, you now have the chance to counter office boredom by becoming your very own board game cafe franchisee.
Press
Jan Ostle and Tristan Hogg’s Chicken Lunch Club has been named ‘The hottest booking’ in town in The Times’ article about the coolest postcodes in the UK. Ostle’s Michelin-starred Wilson’s was also name-checked in the article, alongside Little Hollows, Dongnae, One Fish Street and The Kensington Arms. To be fair, I’d consider moving to BS6 for the food if I could afford to.
If a mention in The Times wasn’t enough, Wilson’s went a few steps better by being named the best restaurant in the country by SquareMeal. The Bristol area was well-represented in the list, with The Pony Chew Valley at 44, Dongnae a place behind, OTHER in at 49, and Lapin at 95. Close-by Osip in Bruton, Stroud’s Juliet, and Root (though not the OG) and Olive Tree in Bath were also included. In case you were wondering, London restaurants have their own list — God forbid they be lumped in with the rest of us.
Rebecca Lewis, general manager of aspirational Korean restaurant Dongnae has been named on Code Hospitality’s 30 Under 30 list, showcasing the most talented young hospitality workers across the country. Many congratulations to her! Could more award success come the way of the Chandos Road restaurant on 9 February, when the announcement of new Michelin stars will take place? We shall see.
Closures
Daily Noodles has closed, likely in no small part due to the actions of their ex-founder Larkin Cen. At least we might finally be able to convince Dan Vaux-Nobes (take a look at his Essex Eating Instagram for some of the best fried breakfasts this side of Hadrian’s Wall) to open his own place. Read The Larkin Cen story - Bao by Bao.
New openings
The Pony Group are due to open a pop-up restaurant on the site of the old Clifton ice rink — the presently unused bit of land between Clifton Down Road, King’s Road and Boyce’s Avenue. The name, menu and opening date are all yet to be confirmed, but we anticipate something not dissimilar to The Pony Bistro with a dash of Breaking Bread.
Japanese restaurant Sake is set to open in early summer, though the location has yet to be announced. According to their website the team is made up of ‘chefs who’ve worked in the worlds’s best restaurants’ and ‘hospitality professionals with experience from across Europe and Japan’. Vague, but the menu certainly looks interesting.
The best birria tacos in all of Bristol (and far beyond) can now be found near the Arches. In addition to their continued residency at eclectic The Plough in Easton, Gourmet Warriors can now be found at eclectic The Gallimaufry at the bottom of Gloucester Road. It’s not just tacos; beef birria dumplings with dipping gravy and sambal street nachos are new. Although if you do want tacos, a Korean fried chicken version is also available, which saves you a trip to Coq, if nothing else.
Previously Galli residents and Sauce favourites Fat Dads Kitchen is taking its award winning smash burgers but a few steps down the road to The Blue Lagoon. Shouldn’t need a moving van (or bus) for that one. Read The Bristol Sauce review.
Boigers are bringing their stacked, smashed burgers to cosy Kingsdown Vaults for the foreseeable future in addition to various markets across the south west. Vegetarians can plump for karaage oyster mushrooms in a bun. And chips. The Bristol smash burger train shows no sign of running out of steam just yet, although if scenes in London are anything to go by (and they usually are), a return to thick, pink patties may be on the horizon.
For more good fried chicken, this time on waffles, Frankie’s from Masterchef 2023 quarter-finalist Adam Ball heads to Bruhaha Beer on Wells Road for the next three months. No news on whether Gregg Wallace will make an appearance.
Same Again, the cocktail bar on Finzel’s Reach from Sebastiano Fileccia and Pippa Guy, has finally opened. Their winter menu with seasonal cocktails like the Clementine Cadillac (Hennessy cognac, cacao blanc, acidified clementine, balsamic glaze and hazelnut milk), alongside sparkling wine and whiskies, apparently won’t be around long, so I suggest you get there ASAP. If it doesn’t go straight into the UK’s Top 50 Cocktail Bars, I’ll eat my Make Bristol Shit Again hat from Filthy XIII, currently the only Bristol bar on the list.
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