Cafes / Cafes
Milk Teeth cafe and stores opens on Portland Square
The wedding cake spire of St Paul’s church still proudly overlooks Portland Square and Brunswick Square beyond.
It may be a constant landmark – but all around it, things are changing rapidly. Hoardings cover many of the grand old buildings now being turned into luxury flats and soon to be a boutique hotel.
Canny marketing copy sings the delights of their proximity to Cabot Circus, with any mention of being in St Paul’s noticeable by its absence.
is needed now More than ever
Milk Teeth is one indication of this rapidly-changing corner of Bristol. Located on the corner of Portland Square and Bishop Street, barista-turned-businessman Josh Bowker – who used crowdfunding to finance Milk Teeth – describes it as “at the crux between the clean lines and affluence of the new flats, and the older, more ramshackle side (where I live) that gives the area its vibrancy”.
Milk Teeth can be found in what was most recently Portland Cafe
A deli area will soon stock basics like milk, bread, cheese and coffee. For now, it has preserves from Gingerbeards, coffee from Extract and tea from Bristol Tea Co, with Josh promising to use any profit that he makes to micro-finance other small businesses, particularly St Paul’s-based ones.
A piano sits ready to play in one corner, with small posies of flowers on the mismatched tables and a curious selection of objects scattered about including a small wooden step ladder, silver candelabra and metal filing cabinet.
One seating area is separated by old crates – like most of the wood here from Bristol Wood Recycling Project – while a splash of colour comes from a vivid mural in one corner.
The St Paul’s Breakfast Tea is blended in-house from a mix of teas from the Bristol Tea Co, with the Lapsang Souchong also turned into a cake for £2.50. Other cakes were still due to arrive soon after 9.30am on Tuesday morning, with pastries and sandwiches from local bakeries promised soon.
“Looking nice,” says one visitor as he walks into Milk Teeth for the first time, before apologising to Josh for not being able to visit more often: “It’s difficult for me with my house being so close and coffee being so readily available.”
But he promises to be back soon, in a corner of Bristol that may well have changed some more next time he pops his head around the door.
Milk Teeth, 21 Portland Square, St Paul’s, Bristol, BS2 8SJ
0117 942 6868
www.facebook.com/milkteethportlandsq
Read more: St Paul’s attacked by giant octopus
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