News / Bristol
‘We just look forward to feeding people up’
“It’s a Bristol institution isn’t it,” says Lucy Wishart as she tucks into a full English breakfast at the cafe within Rajani’s superstore on Fishponds Trading Estate.
Rajani’s is celebrating its 40th birthday this year and is helping to mark the occasion with a new-look cafe, which has been taken over by Lucy and her wife Nancy.
The pair behind The Big O Donut Co. promise to cook classic British cafe food in their new venture.
is needed now More than ever
As the plates of breakfast are polished off by Lucy and Nancy, their two members of staff Aysha Lawrence-Taylor and Ruby Hunt, and effusive handyman Marcelo Casagran, the menu for the opening weekend is still being finalised.
But expect to find the likes of liver and onions, sausage and mash, cottage pie, and ham and chips.
And of course a mug of builder’s tea, or if you prefer a cup of coffee from Extract in St Werburgh’s.
Rajani’s is an Aladdin’s cave of wonder
“It will be proper British cafe food” says Nancy. “But everything cooked by us.
“We thought that the people who come to this superstore and the people who work hard around this area deserved something better.
“Let’s say the cafe here had become tired. It needed a bit of love put back into it, to be restored to its former glories.”
Lucy and Nancy will be sourcing the best ingredients from across the South West, with many options available for less than a fiver.
They will also be offering weekly three-course meals for OAPs and regularly changing hot roasts.
“We just love everything British,” Nancy adds. “And a proper British caf is one of the most important features of British food I think.”
Ruby returns to behind the counter as customers eager for the cafe to open are given a taste of some cakes made in the Big O kitchen just across the road.
“We just look forward to feeding people up,” she says.
Read Bristol’s first truly independent food and drink guide, EatDrink24/7, online here
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