News / chandos road
Tapas bar and restaurant opening soon on Chandos Road
It has been a quite a journey for Stephen Curtis, who grew up above his dad’s butchers shop in a small town in New Zealand, worked as a chef in restaurants in his home country and London, and late last year opened Shop 3 Bistro in Clifton Village with his Devon-born wife Kathryn.
Next month, the pair are opening both a restaurant and a tapas bar within a former butchers occupying two neighbouring shops on Chandos Road, a brand new concept for Bristol which Stephen and Kathryn have been working on behind closed doors for the last few months.
The key for the couple will be just how different Otira will be from anything else. “It’s not modern British, it’s not modern European, it’s going to be inspired by flavours from my travels across the world and from my life,” says Stephen.
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At Otira there will be no individual prices on each dish; instead diners will select either two, three or four courses.
Next door but linked by a doorway will be Chandos Social @ Otira, serving Argentinian-inspired tapas, craft beers from Bristol and New Zealand, and wines from Argentina and New Zealand.
Stephen grew up in Kaikoura in New Zealand and Kathryn in Morchard Bishop in Devon
Simply replicating Shop 3 Bistro – named as one of Bristol24/7’s best new restaurants of 2016 and winner of Best Newcomer in last month’s Crumbs Awards – was never an option for Stephen and Kathryn.
Instead they have followed the formula of fellow husband and wife duo Kieran and Imogen Waite, who after the success of Spanish tapas bar Bravas came up with two entirely different concepts, Bakers & Co and Cargo Cantina.
Stephen and Kathryn want Otira to be a fun place to be, as well as paying homage to both the shop and Stephen’s roots, with butchers tiles on the walls of Chandos Social, a drying room for meat and charcuterie boards served at the bar (which has been made out of a table from an old Bristol Uni science lab).
Their arrival on Chandos Road next door to the Michelin-starred Wilks will add to what has over the last few years become a destination for food and drink lovers, with the most recent opening Pearly King serving cakes just a few hundred yards down the road.
“It’s a really great area,” says Katherine. “We want to bring a different offering to it to add to the diversity. The more amazing places there are, the more this street will continue to grow.”
Otira is due to open at 5-7 Chandos Road on November 10. It will be open for dinner from 6pm on Monday to Saturday, and for lunch from midday on Thursday to Sunday. For more information, visit www.otira.co.uk
Read more: Shop 3 Bistro – restaurant review
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