Features / Spicer+Cole
‘We love good coffee and we love good food’
When Carla and Chris Swift opened the first Spicer & Cole on the corner of Queen Square and Welsh Back in July 2012, they always planned on it becoming the first of five cafes in Bristol and perhaps further afield.
With their fourth cafe due to open in Finzels Reach in late-January, they have almost reached their target, with Spicer & Cole swiftly becoming a firm favourite in its trio of locations so far across the city.
After opening in Clifton Village and Gloucester Road, Carla and Chris say that they are looking forward to returning to a city centre site. The Finzels Reach cafe will be their first new build, with the pair able to decide exactly where they want everything to be.
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Finzels Reach will be Bristol’s fourth Spicer & Cole cafe
Spicer & Cole will be one of the first food and drink businesses moving into Finzels Reach, following Cafe Matariki and Pacific Yoga who opened at the beginning of 2017, and joining both Casamia and Left Handed Giant who are also due to open this year on top of each other, Casamia with a development kitchen and Left Handed Giant with a new brewery and brewpub.
“In a few years time we hope that Finzels Reach will be a very vibrant part of Bristol,” said Chris. “We are staking our position early. We are very optimistic that it’s going to be another success.”
Like their other cafes, Spicer & Cole at Finzels Reach will be open seven days a week, with Carla and Chris hoping that it will appeal to both office workers and local residents, and the cafe retaining the brand’s emphasis on good, healthy food and coffee including regularly changing guest beans.
Since the first Spicer & Cole opened, Bristol’s food and drink scene has seen an explosion in both choice and quality, with Carla and Chris, who live in Redland with their two children, naming the Lido, Mockingbird, Bosco and Flour & Ash among their favourites.
Carla and Chris have lived in London, working in telecommunications and hotel marketing, then spending three years in Andalucia in Spain restoring a dilapidated farm house, and first dabbling in property when moving in 2009 to Bristol, a city where Chris went to university.
“We love good coffee and we love good food. We knew that we wanted to work in hospitality,” Carla said. “It took a long time to get the first cafe off the ground. Now we have to work incredibly hard to keep the consistency.”
Read more: New independent cafe opens in Temple Meads
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