June Digest: Bristol food and drink news
Fancy some car tyres on your pizza?
Greetings Saucers! I write to you today from Worthy Farm, having sacrificed valuable drinking time at my inaugural Glastonbury to bring you this update. Whether you’re somewhere in these fields with me (it seems half of Bristol is here) or back at home, thank you for reading. If you find this informative or remotely entertaining, please help us out by telling your friends about The Bristol Sauce or becoming a paying subscriber. Love, Meg
The news
It’s been a smashing month — quite literally, if you were eating pizza on Stokes Croft. The poor team at the newly opened Pizza is Lovely had a car fly through the window a couple of days ago, destroying almost the entire restaurant. Fortunately no one was hurt and although the pizza oven emerged from the incident unscathed, it’ll be a while before they’re back slinging pies again. Drive safely. Your pizza will still be hot in ten minutes — no need to crash for crust.
Closures
While we’re getting the bad news out of the way, here are this month’s closures. Gloucester Road’s Malaysian restaurant Rasa Kita has closed its doors after only 100 days of operation; citing rising costs making margins impossible to manage. It’s a real shame as it had generally been very well-regarded by those who had visited and I was looking forward to trying their roti canai.
St Stephen’s Street’s absurd and adored steampunk cocktail bar, Clockwork Rose, bowed out — theatrically, of course — on June 14, which also happened to be International Steampunk Day. After eight years of absinthe and artifice, the gears have stopped turning.
Goldbrick House on Park Street has closed once again — vanishing just a year after its much-trumpeted rebirth. The multi-floor bar and restaurant previously closed in 2016 before being resurrected some eight years later by new owners. Third time lucky?
Over in Clevedon, Puro, in its current incarnation, is calling it a day on June 29. Plates by Puro will soldier on inside Vintage & Vine, and yes — the Sunday roasts survive. Head chef and ex-Masterchef Professionals finalist Tommy Thorn will be moving on though we are not yet sure where he’s headed. Read The Bristol Sauce review of Puro.
Awards and press
In much brighter news, Bristol has once again been in the national press in the last few weeks. Chandos Road continues to lead the charge: both Dongnae and Wilsons made it into the UK’s top 100 restaurants at the National Restaurant Awards at #46 and #68 respectively.
Meanwhile, over in Wapping Wharf, recently opened Ragù has already earned the affections of The Guardian’s restaurant critic Grace Dent. Well done, all! I suppose the real question is, did Grace visit any other restaurants while she was here? Only time will tell. Unless a few too many drinks at Glasto loosen my lips.
New openings
Bristol also has some shiny new places to visit, and even more promised. For burger lovers — Prime by Pasture opened at the beginning of June and was packed on a recent visit, and Fat Dads have started serving their deliciously dirty patties at The Gallimaufry.
The maestros behind Old Market’s Chido Wey have sprung open a second site almost next door, having transformed 25a into ‘Tocayo’ which serves a Mexican-inspired brunch. Review to come, which I sincerely hope mentions the PowerPoint-esque transitions they’ve gone to town with on their website.
Taqueria-cum-vinyl shop Alta Loma is almost open on Upper Maudlin Street, opposite the BRI. I reviewed them last year when they popped up at Filthy XIII — read it here.
North Street’s Kask have teased that they will be opening a second site by the arches on Cheltenham Road. I couldn’t possibly say which former French corner restaurant they’re moving into.
Just a few doors down is the newly opened East African Basma Cafe, which will be serving a range of sweet and savoury foods as well as the very traditional East African drink matcha.
If West African is more your thing, perhaps try Suya Hut which has also recently opened on Upper Maudlin Street, serving favourites including suya and jollof rice.
As well as new openings, there’s also been a couple of rebrands. The Strawberry Thief on Broad Street has become Froth and Fries and will be focusing on beer and, you guessed it, fries. I preferred the previous name — Froth and Fries sounds less like a bar and more like the name of a fresher’s week tragedy. Brace and Browns on Whiteladies Road has become Terrace at 43 and is hoping to remind people that it is open for breakfast and lunch as well as dinner. At least there’ll be no confusion over the address.
If you haven’t already, upgrade to paid to continue reading about a new site for Sky Kong Kong and six other new restaurants.