Pubs and Bars / Reviews
Spoke & Stringer
Buying a surfboard, a leash for your surfboard and a wetsuit so you can ride your surfboard is thirsty work. So thank goodness that Spoke & Stringer has a cafe and bar next to its shop.
You can even use your surfboard as a stand-up paddleboard and float away from Spoke & Stringer – which despite that address below is actually located on the Harbour Inlet, that bit of the Floating Harbour opposite the ss Great Britain.
For years a desolate ghost town in the winter, when the sun shines this area of Bristol absolutely buzzes, with the cool kids now sure to make a beeline for here alongside the families and promenaders.
is needed now More than ever
Brigstow Lounge started the trend in this corner of town and just a few hundred yards away on the walk towards Millennium Square a new Friska has opened, a further seal of approval for the harbourside development which is now finally having some life breathed into it.
But is Spoke & Stringer a shop with a bar next door or a bar with a shop next door?
For the benefit of these pages, it’s a tapas bar and on first visit it’s a terrific addition to the Bristol food scene, its plates bringing to mind Poco with the addition of harbour rather than hobo views.
Spoke & Stringer’s opening Friday night was so well-attended that the drinks on tap had all run out by the time that I arrived two days’ later.
Selections from Bath Ales’ Beerd brewery will usually feature on tap, and there was also an IPA of theirs in bottle, which washed down a refreshing mackerel salad (£7) accompanied by harissa, blood orange and fennel; and then a steak sandwich (£8) featuring beautiful pepper-seared steak with roasted red peppers served in a toasted ciabatta.
Expect more pintxos on the menu to be rolled out soon with daily specials. Perfect before floating away on that new surfboard.
Spoke & Stringer, The Boat House, Unit 1, Lime Kiln Road, BS1 5AD
Top photograph by Jon Craig