Bristol's food scene in 2008

Thursday 1st January 2009

All things considered, it’s been a good year for Bristol’s food scene. Mark Taylor takes a look back on 2008.

Despite the fact that as many restaurants closed as they opened, 2008 turned out to be something of a vintage year on the food front.

The credit crunch may have resulted in fewer people dining out generally, but it cannot be wholly to blame for the closure of some of the city’s restaurants, which in many cases simply weren’t good enough to last the distance. Likewise, the opening of more than 20 eateries in Cabot Circus cannot be blamed for sucking business away from the Harbourside or independent restaurants in other parts of the city.

The roll-call of restaurants to close in the past 12 months includes a number of long-established places (Colleys Supper Rooms, Conrad at Jamesons and Bocanova among them), but also a worrying number of establishments where the paint hardly had time to dry before closing (The Big Bang, Bossa Nostra and Riverside Oriental).

I’m sure there will be more restaurants closing over the next few months – post-Christmas is historically the worst time for restaurants and this year could be worse than ever – but the sheer number of high quality establishments to open in 2008 is reason enough to start the new year with a degree of optimism.

And it’s not just new restaurants which made 2008 such a hopeful year. The number of excellent food shops where people can buy fantastic produce at source seems to grow apace. Over the past 12 months, we have seen several high-quality food shops opening, all of which would give similar London establishments a run for their money.

Trethowan’s Dairy Shop in St Nicholas Market is a fine example of this. Run by cheese-maker Todd Trethowan, this specialist cheese shop may only stock a small selection of cheeses but they are the best of their type. Todd’s own award- winning Gorwydd Caerphilly can be found on the cheese boards of many of London’s top restaurants including The Ivy and St John, and the Stichelton sold at the St Nicholas Market shop is regarded as one of the best blue cheeses in Britain.

St Nicholas Market continues to be a foodie hub for the city, thanks largely to the council’s markets team which continues to strive for excellence when it comes to running its markets and finding new stall holders. They deserve more praise than they get.

In June, the Corn Street farmers’ market celebrated its 10th anniversary and it is a weekly event that goes from strength from strength, with a fiercely loyal crowd of shoppers who have made an informed choice of buying local, seasonal food from the farmers and artisans who produce it. It remains the highlight of my food shopping week.

In September, the launch of Taste in the market was the icing on the cake for Bristol’s foodies. A fishmonger, butcher, cheesemonger, greengrocer and cafe under the same roof, Taste has fast become one of the must-visit places for foodies. The cafe kitchen run by Steve Blake (pictured top) is producing some of the best and most reasonably priced food in Bristol, whether it’s the full English breakfast (in my opinion, the best in the city by a country mile) or daily specials such as steamed lamb and mint pudding or braised ox cheek with mustard mash. I enjoyed more great meals in Taste in 2008 than anywhere else.

And it’s not just in St Nicholas Market where great food can be bought at source. In Fishponds, Sicilian chef Vince Castellano opened Castellano’s, a French-style deli and traiteur where charcuterie is the big seller. Vince’s sausages and home-cured bacon have already built up a big following with the discerning foodies of Fishponds.

High quality and affordability was also the mantra at Tart, a fabulous new cafe on Gloucester Road run by former social worker Jennie Bashforth (pictured middle with daughter Ellen). Jennie gave up a high-powered, well paid job to run the tea room of her dreams and recruited former Culinaria chef Andrew Griffin. The result is a classy cafe with fabulous tarts, cakes and daily specials at a price that doesn’t require an overdraft. Places like Tart and Taste have raised the bar for Bristol by offering restaurant-quality food at cafe prices and I think we will see more of these sorts of places in 2009.

People will be watching their pennies carefully this year but they still want good food so we will hopefully see a lot more informal places where the food and good value is more important than white linen cloths and wine poured by waiters with one arm behind their back.

One of the finds of 2008 was Coulters Wine Cafe in Clifton, run by Lisa Coulter and Nevil Hade. A wine shop with seven tables for diners to enjoy superb tapas and charcuterie, and drink wines from the shop, it was exactly the sort of place I would like to see replicated all over the city.

The past year also saw a number of excellent new Indian restaurants opening in Bristol. Kohi Noor on Blackboy Hill was a genuine delight thanks to the skilful spicing and delicate touch of chef Dilshad Bahadur, who arrived at the diminutive Clifton restaurant after a stint at the Hotel Continental Jordan, where he literally cooked for kings. And Bedminster acquired two very good new Indian restaurants: the more traditional Kolkatta’s Kitchen (run by the same team behind Old India in the Centre) and Ganesha, a small 30-cover restaurant specialising in Southern Indian cuisine such as king prawns cooked in a sauce of raw mango, coriander, coconut and pepper.

Bedminster was also the setting for the launch of the best new pub of the year – The Spotted Cow on North Street. Run by DJs Dave Smeaton and James Savage, this uber-cool pub ticked all the right boxes with the South Bristol crowd and the food (Pieminister pies and specials cooked by chef Tremaine Plummer) matched the excellent drink offering.

Although pubs are closing every day, Bristol was lucky to gain some cracking new ones. In John Street (off Broad Street), The Bank was revived by passionate new owners who have turned it into one of the friendliest and cosiest pubs in central Bristol. Over in St Philip’s, architect George Ferguson and the Bristol Beer Factory took over The Barley Mow, a great little pub where real ale and good conversation have turned it back into the vibrant local it used to be.

And no review of the food year would be complete without mentioning Cabot Circus and its 20 or so restaurants. Raymond Blanc’s Brasserie Blanc in Quakers Friars (pictured bottom) has been the most impressive of the new openings in this new shopping quarter – a place where snails
 in garlic butter and steak and chips are cooked exactly how they would be in a French bistro.

Harvey Nichols Second Floor Restaurant also impressed, as did the Italian chains Piccolino and Zizzi, and Chandos Deli’s charming upstairs cafe. The restaurants in Cabot Circus seem to be packed all day, which does beg the question of where were you all eating before it opened? Although looking at some of the empty restaurants around the Harbourside, I think I know the answer.

For me, one of the highlights of 2008 was the series of Love Food festivals which took place at Paintworks in Brislington. Organised by Prince’s Trust protégé Lorna Knapman, this wonderful food festival brought together the very best of the region’s food producers and
chefs for a number of sunny Sunday afternoons. A food festival that managed to feel more like Glastonbury, it was laid back, informal and still hammered home serious messages about food, farming and the importance of local sourcing. I can’t wait for the festival to return in 2009.

The year ended with the long-awaited opening of The Lido in Clifton. A spa, swimming pool and restaurant, it lived up to the hype and the restaurant excelled in producing some great Mediterranean and North African-influenced food. If they can keep up the momentum, it looks like Bristol may well have another restaurant that will gain a national reputation.

Finally, the sad news that Marc Crewe, the restaurant critic for our sister publication Venue, died just before Christmas, aged 50. Marc and I had covered the local restaurant scene for about the same time and although our paths rarely crossed, he was a fine journalist who I first met 20 years ago when he covered music for Venue. His restaurant reviews were well respected and his opinion mattered.

Although we were technically competitors when it came to the race to review new restaurants first, I will miss having such a fine sparring partner. His larger-than-life character will be sorely missed by many people on the Bristol food scene.