Bristol in 2020: Food & drink

Even in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, with their businesses shut and uncertainty over whether or not they would reopen, many people within Bristol’s hospitality industry set to work in order to help however they could.

Efforts included preparing food packages for recent care leavers, cooking meals for NHS staff, delivering meals door-to-door and keeping the most vulnerable in our city well-fed.

Despite their own businesses taking a huge financial hit, chefs and restaurateurs volunteered for charities including FareShare South West, the Sunday Kitchen project in Barton Hill and Caring in Bristol, with its Cheers Drive project feeding more 300 homeless people per day.

A brand new organisation was also formed, Bristol Food Union, which is continuing to offer ongoing help to our city’s food community to survive this crisis.

A look around high streets is a stark indication of how serious this crisis is – with the announcement that Bristol is going back into tier three from Boxing Day another huge blow.

In 2021 we have said goodbye to some of our city’s best restaurants including Wilks, Flour & Ash and Masa & Mezcal; as well as other well-loved businesses including Convoy Espresso cafe, whose mostly office-based customers in the Paintworks disappeared almost overnight when the government advised working from home.

Yet in a positive sign, the previous sites of Flour & Ash and Masa & Mezcal have already been taken on by new restaurants – with Nadu in the former Masa & Mezcal site on Stokes Croft opening on December 19 the first day that Bristol was placed into tier two; and Koocha due to make its third home into the former Flour & Ash on Cheltenham Road.

Klosterhaus opened in the former Brasserie Blanc – photo: Martin Booth

One new opening that seemed to come from another planet was the extravagantly opulent Klosterhaus in Quakers Friars, wile two of the best new restaurants of this year both opened on Church Road in Redfield: Pipal Leaf and the Red Church.

Elsewhere, Sonny Stores opened in the former Birch in Southville, Salkaara opened in Henleaze and Jigaraki in Wapping Wharf.

One of the most unexpected happenings of 2020 was the return of Pi Shop, whose pizzas available for takeaway from their original premises in Redcliffe just get better and better.

Also defying logic to continue getting better and better is Ahh Toots, who this year moved into jaw-droppingly beautiful new premises at the bottom of Christmas Steps.

Ahh Toots moved to Christmas Steps from their original home in St Nick’s Market – photo: Martin Booth

Continuing a trend seen in Bristol for a number of years now, the team behind former pop-up Grano – which began life in Glitch in Old Market – opened their first restaurant, Number Fifty on Whiteladies Road.

Several street food vendors continue to harbour ambitions of opening a bricks and mortar premises, but for now they just need to keep their heads above water. Street food appeared in some different locations this year as traders served the communities around where they lived rather than driving across town.

Those lucky enough to catch them at the Harbourside Market also got a first taste of Steameez burgers from the Alp Mac team.

Steameez’s burgers were available from the Harbourside Market for a few weekends this year – photo by Martin Booth

One trend post-Covid was restaurateurs ripping up their current plans and starting again. So on Corn Street, Pata Negra became Four Wise Monkeys; and on Welsh Back, the decades-old Glassboat became Fish.

Pubs also had to quickly adapt, with some such as the Pump House in Hotwells becoming provisions stores during the pandemic; and others such as the Green Man in Kingsdown serving takeaway beer through hatches.

Within a railway arch on Silverthorne Lane in St Philip’s Marsh, The Cider Box opened just as the UK was entering lockdown but has since proved popular hosting both real life and virtual events.

Among Bristol’s breweries, many began delivering direct to customers themselves and Good Chemistry began canning their own beer; while distilleries including Psychopomp and Bristol Distilling Co. also switched from making spirits to making hand sanitisers.

In a year that many of us will want to forget, one of the most memorable dining experiences could be found in a collection of tipis on the Downs. Breaking Bread was a collaborative effort between the teams behind Pasta Loco, Pasta Ripiena, the Pony & Trap and the Pipe & Slippers.

It proved such a success that it is set to return bigger and better in 2021, with the Pony & Trap’s Josh Eggleton also bringing a taste of Breaking Bread to Ashton with the opening of the Pony North Street in a former courtyard behind the Bristol Beer Factory tap room.

Breaking Bread was one of the most memorable culinary experiences of the year – photo: Martin Booth

“2020 has been a pretty horrendous year, but it’s also reset a things and given us a new way of thinking,” Eggleton told me. “We were moving that way anyway, but this has given us a catalyst to get on with it…

“The economics of hospitality is broken. What we now need to see is some of the support staying in place, so we can employ more people, so we can train more people.”

Another restaurateur who has not stopped working in 2020 is Freddy Bird, whose Little French restaurant in Westbury Park became a food shop during the pandemic and reopened al fresco underneath canvas in its neighbouring churchyard when it was safe to do so. On Christmas Eve, it also received glowing praise from Fred Sirieix and Michel Roux Jr in BBC Two’s Remarkable Places to Eat.

In August, Bird, his wife Nessa and their close-knit team opened pie shop Buxton & Bird in Wapping Wharf; and in December opened The Little Shop & Pantry on North View in Henleaze just a few hundred yards away from Little French in Westbury Park, with the eventual aim for it to become a cafe and shop by day, and a wine bar by night.

As the year came to a close, food and drink businesses continued to innovate, with the team at Full Court Press – who between them have cycled more than 4,000km this year delivering coffee to customers across Bristol – beginning to roast beans in their new roastery on Broad Street.

The future may still be uncertain, but Bristol’s hospitality industry never stands still.

Full Court Press’ new coffee roastery in action – photo: Jonny Simpson

Main photo by James Koch: Magda and Keisha volunteering for Bristol Food Union

Read more: In photos: the amazing work of Bristol Food Union