Food feature: Source Food Hall and Cafe

Thursday 4th February 2010

After Taste in St Nicholas Market went into administration, a trio have relaunched the food hall and café as Source and vowed to breathe new life into the business. Mark Taylor meets the new owners.

Starting a new food business is hard work at the best of times, but even more so when you take over one that has gone into administration in the first year of trading.

Taste in St Nicholas Market opened with a bang in September 2008 with rave reviews and customers pouring through the door.

A specialist food hall and café in the heart of the city’s historic market, it offered food lovers a place to eat great seasonal dishes but also buy fresh fish and seafood, meat, poultry, game, fruit and vegetables, cheese and cakes all under one roof.

Housed in a splendid Bath stone building with huge arched windows and high ceilings, there was a mezzanine area with a huge fridge displaying whole pigs and sides of beef hanging from hooks. It was everything a food hall should be.

But then the cracks in the business started to show and, as the recession tightened its grip, Taste started to wobble. It was eventually put into administration a year after it opened, its future left to hang in the balance as a new owner was sought.

Not surprisingly, there was plenty of interest in the council-owned site, and plenty of local businesses wanted to get their hands on it, but in the end it was sold to three members of the existing Taste staff in what was effectively a management buy-out.

Joe Wheatcroft, Liz Carrad and Ross Wills, together with silent partner Anthony Salaman, formed a new company called WCWS Ltd and took over the business before Christmas.

With its new motto of ‘good food starts here’, the renamed Source is hoping to carry on where Taste left off. It may have run into financial difficulties before, but the new owners always believed it was a great concept and one that was worth fighting for.

Joe Wheatcroft says: “We feel the concept of Taste didn’t fail which is why we set up WCWS Ltd.

“Sadly, the timing and the dream of setting up such a project was not ideal. At the time of opening Taste, the costs spiralled and this coincided with the country facing the worst recession in a long time.

“We felt very strongly that the concept was sound and for Bristol to lose something like this so quickly would have been very detrimental to the food scene.

“We have very talented and passionate staff working here and it would have been so sad to see that team broken up or run by a team of accountants. The opportunity to run our own place and to take control of such an interesting food destination was very exciting.”

All three of the new owners have plenty of experience on the Bristol food scene.

Liz Carrad has been a pastry chef since 1992 and worked at Markwicks, FishWorks, Fresh and Wild and The Better Food Company. Head chef Ross Wills started at the Swallow Royal Hotel before working at Riverstation for eight years.

Wheatcroft’s background is more eclectic, with his love of good food coming from his family, travelling and working on farms before managing a number of delicatessens and food shops, including Southville Deli, Radford Mill Farm Shop and The Real Olive Company.

He says: “Although I have a basic knowledge of food compared to chefs, I am also interested in the role food has in our society and feel that in Britain we do not give enough importance to the vital role food and nourishment play.

“My involvement in Source is a direct result of my wish to bring better food to everybody. I feel we price our products competitively, offering a wide range to suit all budgets and therefore we are helping in some way to encourage and enthuse everybody to eat a higher quality of food.”

Apart from the name change, new brand identity and a few subtle changes with the layout of the shop, it has been pretty much business as usual at Source.

It still serves one of the best locally-sourced breakfasts to be found anywhere in Bristol and the lunch menu is still packed with delicious seasonal dishes such as slow-braised pig cheek with cabbage, black pudding and apple purée and rhubarb crumble tart with vanilla ice cream.

Says Wheatcroft: “The Source template is going to remain fundamentally the same with a few tweaks. We aim to build on the relationship between customer and supplier and offer the very best food available. We will also offer more services such as event catering, fishmongering and basic butchery schools, wine and food tastings and celebration cakes.

“In the future, we want to offer deliveries, a small wholesale service to local businesses, and eventually we would like to open in the evenings and on Sundays.”

Taking over a business that had gone into administration has been quite a challenge for the new owners, not least because they had to rebuild relationships with customers and suppliers, some of whom lost money before the company was rescued.

“The problems we faced were mixed, some large and some small. For a start, none of us have experience of running our own company in this way so we have had to learn on the job and very, very quickly.

“There are many aspects to starting and running a business. Most people have a period before trading to get all this sorted, but we had 24 hours notice before we opened the doors again.”

Luckily, the support from customers and regulars has been strong and the shop and café have continued to be busy throughout the transition period.

“We have an amazing list of products available to us and the most passionate and knowledgeable team of chefs and cooks to provide advice, tips, hints and ideas to enhance people’s eating experience.

“The café showcases the food available in the shop and reflects our seasonal approach to shopping.

“If you are eating with us you are able to buy all the ingredients in the shop – everything from Cornish fish and a pig’s cheek to sea salt or a pint of milk.”

Source Food Hall and Café, 1-3 Exchange Avenue, St. Nicholas Market, Bristol, BS1 1JP. Tel: 0117 927 2998.