Cafes / gloucester road
New Gloucester Road cafe Fed is small but perfectly formed
“Sorry about the slanty table,” apologises Ross Rawlings on Thursday morning as he brings over an expertly made cortado with beans roasted by Yallah Coffee in Cornwall.
He had already asked what size of glass or cup a customer had wanted his cortado in, after Charlotte Hawes had offered two different types of jam to accompany a delicious croissant from The Bristol Loaf in Redfield.
There really was no need to apologise for the slanty table in the window, but it is a sign that Ross and Charlotte – who both used to work at branches of Boston Tea Party – want everything in this cafe to be just right.
is needed now More than ever
Fed is on Gloucester Road on the stretch up from Nevil Road where Bishopston starts to become Horfield. It’s an area certainly not short of cafes but is already attracting a loyal stream of customers.
Speaking in Bristol recently during the recording of Radio 4’s The Food Programme, Tim Hayward divided new food and drink openings into two distinct groups. Type A, with accountants, investors, a business plan and pound signs flashing. Type B, run by friends or family with love and passion coming before big profits.
Fed fits firmly into this second category.
Greenery dangles from the ceiling at Fed
There is room for some 20 people to fit inside here, with a counter groaning under the weight of cakes, pastries and sausage rolls; rediscovered white tiles; and greenery dripping from pot plants.
It’s a cross between Albatross on North Street, the original home of Salt on St George’s Road in Hotwells and a cafe ready to be discovered in the Condesa neighbourhood of Mexico City.
A menu chalked up in one corner gives breakfast options from £2.50 to £5 including fruit salad and yoghurt with maple pecan cherry granola; overnight oats with roasted fruit, toasted coconut, flaked almonds and yoghurt; and a choice between a BLT or a TLT with smoked tofu.
For lunch, with items from £5 to £7.50, there is a daily soup, salads, slices and salads – and probably options coming soon not beginning with ‘s’.
People walking by on Thursday morning regularly do double-takes at this beautiful brand new cafe in their midst.
You won’t just be fed well in Fed. It’s one of those rare places that make you feel immediately at home, so long as you don’t mind a slanty table.
Fed, 303 Gloucester Road, Bristol, BS7 8PE
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