News / gloucester road
‘It’s a conscious decision to do something completely different from the Gallimaufry’
James Koch returns from the bar just as Waldo’s Gift begin their soundcheck at the Gallimaufry on Wednesday night.
The band are currently in the middle of a residency at the Gloucester Road bar-cum-cafe-cum-restaurant-cum-live music venue, following in the footsteps of George Ezra when he was a student in Bristol.
James is a co-owner of the Galli and on Wednesday afternoon announced on its social media channels that it will soon be joined by a sister restaurant and takeaway almost directly over the road called Suncraft.
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But it most certainly will not replicate the Galli’s winning formula. “We will never do another one of these,” James says. “On every level it’s so much hard work. It’s a conscious decision to do something completely different.”
There will be similarities, however, with James talking about how exciting it has been to meet new suppliers and come up with new ideas for the new business, which was most recently Thai restaurant Streetfood & Floating Market.
According to James, Suncraft will be serving “great food that just happens to be dairy-free and meat-free”, with him and many of his colleagues at the Galli moving towards more plant-based diets over the last few years.
While the Galli took only five days to open in 2012 once James got the keys to it, work has already been going on at Suncraft for a few months with a likely opening date of early September.
Head chef Kane Danaher’s most recent jobs have been at The Ivy in both Clifton and Bath. He will be working out of an open kitchen at Suncraft, with the aim to make drinks such as kombucha and other probiotics onsite, as well as other plans that James is currently keeping close to his chest.
Greeting more customers at the Galli by name as they pass by our table, James says that he is feeling “excited and positive” about Suncraft. “It’s going to be clean; it’s going to be tropical. We want to make it feel bright, uncluttered, open and warm.”
James will continue to divide his time between the Galli and Suncraft in the months ahead, with years of planning for a second restaurant almost coming to fruition.
As Waldo’s Gift, who James describes as having “out of this world musicianship”, complete their soundcheck, James goes back to the bar. It’s almost 10pm but there are still jobs to do.
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