October Digest: Bristol food and drink news
In which the independent wins the battle of the doughnut
It’s been an exciting month for The Bristol Sauce — last week we ran our first investigation; into the actions of previous MasterChef finalist Larkin Cen and his actions towards employee-owned business Daily Noodles. The week before that was the publication of our first Secret Service — the first of many fun insights into life in Bristol’s kitchens. A reminder that all our articles are delivered by email, so please subscribe to get the latest news, reviews and more sent straight to your inbox. Thanks!
The news
Really sad news from Bristol-based spirits company The Aperitivo Co. who announced over Instagram recently that their co-founder Louis has passed away after a short battle with cancer. Louis’ business partner Rich is raising money for Cancer Research UK in his memory.
Employee-owned Asian food company Daily Noodles is crowdfunding to raise £50,000 towards the £70,000 needed to reopen a second site after losing access to its St Nicks site overnight. Rewards include various discounts for future purchases — support the cause here. Read our piece about what happened and the pattern of behaviour behind it in The Larkin Cen Story — Bao by Bao.
Also crowdfunding is Co-Exist Community Kitchen, which is aiming to raise £50,000 to continue its important work running the community kitchen in Easton. It has partnered with Aviva Community Fund who will match donations up to £250, doubling each supporters' impact. Rewards have been generously provided by a host of Bristol businesses, including WANGS, Bristol Beer Factory, FED and Better Food. Support them here.
Wilsons are on the telly! Our very own Michelin-starred farm-to-table restaurant is featured in the new Apple TV Series: Knife Edge: Chasing Michelin Stars. The episode featuring Wilsons is out this Friday, so use your seven day free trial strategically.
The team from tapas joint Bravas have been appealing for the public’s support after Bristol City Council ordered the removal of their terrace from the pedestrianised part of Cotham Hill, despite it having been in place for five years. The Bravas team have stated that up to eight jobs depend on the terrace being allowed to remain and that it ‘simply isn’t sustainable’ without it. Those who wish to back Bravas can leave a comment in support of the terrace here.
Bristol Beer Factory has bought historic harbourside pub The Pump House, and previous chef-patron Toby Gritten is remaining a part of the team for now to oversee the transition. Read The Bristol Sauce review of The Pump House.
World Famous Dive Bars has bought Good Chemistry Brewing after previous owners Bob and Kelly announced they wanted to step back to focus on other projects. Bob and Kelly will retain their two pubs: the Good Measure on Chandos Road and the King’s Head on Victoria Street while WFDB will take over the St Philip’s brewery and taproom.
St Werburgh’s fish and chip shop Fisk and Frite is now offering a seafood boil, which looks enormous and needs to be booked in advance. You’ll need a suf-fish-cient number of friends to attempt this one. Read The Bristol Sauce review of Fisk and Frite.
Closures
After only a year of service the Crafty Egg cafe on Church Road will close permanently on November 9, citing ‘rising costs and a disproportionate VAT burden’ in a statement on Instagram as the reason for the closure. The other Crafty Egg sites in Stokes Croft and Fishponds remain open.
In a win for local independents, the branch of Krispy Kreme on College Green has closed, hopefully in some part due to the success of the local doughnut supplier Pipp and Co just a few doors down. Now we just have to get rid of several branches of Gail’s…
North Street chippy Fishminster has sadly closed after almost 100 years of serving the people of South Bristol fish and chips. The owner Peter Adams has been running the shop for the last ten years since his first retirement, but has now decided to give putting his feet up another go.
In other fish related news, the Seven Lucky Gods sushi shop has closed, but their wares can still be purchased in the SLG restaurant upstairs at Wapping Wharf.
Press
Stokes Croft restaurant Bokman was named the best Korean restaurant in the UK by TimeOut in a list of the 20 best restaurants in the country. Congrats to Kyu, Duncan and the whole team.
New openings
On the subject of Bokman, their general manager James Smith has opened a shack by the name of Soft Buoys on Welshback, which he will run alongside his job at the UK’s best Korean restaurant. Soft Buoys serves indulgent-looking soft serves in a range of inventive flavours and grilled cheese sandwiches. Oh buoy.
Further frozen treats can be enjoyed courtesy of Madly Gelato, a new-ish touring ice cream bike. Owner Dan is best known for being the man behind Bertha’s ice creams, and from his new bike he’s serving scoops of popcorn and brown butter, hot honey stracciatella and blood plum and cheddar strawberry sorbet. Yum.
Marmo has announced that Rita Paradis, who has worked at some notable restaurants in London, will be running an autumn residency in their downstairs wine bar. Rita will be apparently serving ‘a selection of dishes taking inspiration from her Portuguese heritage’ and will be in situ on Friday and Saturday nights from 31 October until 20 December. Sounds like it will be more than worth a visit!
Drizzle is now open on Christmas Steps serving coffee and delicious-looking loaf cakes.
It’s been a bumper month for Italian restaurants. Moltobuono has plans to open a second site in Clifton Village in what was previously home to Fishers. Meanwhile, Laura’s Pizzas has opened a second site in Totterdown, though they remain takeaway only aside from a couple of small tables outside for weather-permitting al fresco munching. There’s a new Italian in the form of Loro Di Napoli, also serving pretty impressive-looking pies, on Birchwood Road in Brislington and if that wasn’t enough dough for you, a new restaurant called Limone has taken over the site previously held by Casa and Casamia, which is also Italian. Blimey. Limone seems to be serving cocktails of such blue luminescence Count Negroni would turn in his grave, but the proof will be in the tiramisu. Which hopefully won’t be blue.
Broad Street is now home to Arc Bar, Bristol’s first sober bar and events space, serving kombuchas, CBD drinks and non-alcoholic beers with regular DJ nights and live events.
Smokebox Social is a new place in Totterdown that actually opened in August but I missed (oops). Its 18 hour smoked brisket, slow cooked pork belly and smoked Sunday dinners seem well worth a belated mention.
Beloved Sri Lankan Ceylon and Beyond is opening a bricks and mortar site in the form of ‘Sambol’ in the former site of Lucky Strike on East Street. Though no opening date has been announced yet, according to Instagram we can expect ‘Sri Lankan fusion small plates, curries, rotis’. Sign us up.
I was disappointed to see Coq Rotisserie change their name to Chicken Lunch Club, but it made sense when I learned of the opening of Coq Restaurant on Whiteladies Road. I suppose one phallically-named restaurant in Bristol is sufficient. Coq Restaurant will open in the former site of ABOE and is described on Instagram as being a ‘gourmet chicken burger bar’, that also serves ‘coq’tails’. They already have a site in Chippenham and have apparently identified Bristol as the perfect place to put their second Coq. Aren’t we lucky.
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