Phew, what a few weeks ey? It’s been a tumultuous time to say the least, but it’s been amazing to watch how many of Bristol’s food & drink businesses have risen to the challenge with their own delivery services, meal packs, online events and gift vouchers systems.
Here are some of my picks for how you can still enjoy the best of the city’s food scene while staying safe – let me know if you have any others you think I should I add in.
Handy websites
Here are a few great places to start if you’re looking for local food and drink to enjoy at home:
- Bristol Food Union – a brilliant initiative to support the city’s food producers, restaurant, retailers, distributors and more. You can shop for supplies and meals from Bristol independents, buy a meal for frontline workers or donate to the Bristol Food Fund. I’d recommend following them on one of their social media channels to see the good work they’re doing across the city, from providing meals for vulnerable communities to delivering wine to NHS workers!
- Best of Bristol – search for takeaways, produce, booze and more from their extensive list. They also have a bunch of lovely city guides and online event listings.
- Indie Kitty from Wriggle – buy gift vouchers for meals and drinks to redeem once businesses reopen, helping with their cash flow until then.
- Good Sixty – a bunch of Bristol indies are on this site, including Papadeli, East Bristol Bakery, Reg the Veg, Source, Bristol Cheesemonger and lots more, so you can shop for them all in one handy place.
- How to support Bristol business safely during COVID-19 – a blog from Natalie Brereton listing which restaurants, bars, cafes and shops are open for collection or delivery.
- Bristol Alcohol Delivery Services – a handy list of boozy options from Kaya at Love for Bristol.
Events
Some online dates for your diary, whether you want to laugh at some comedy, drink wine or learn something new!
Belly Laughs ( Sun 10th May) – an evening of comedy to raise money for local charities, featuring Mark Olver, Russell Howard, Jon Richardson, Alex Lovell, Jayde Adams, John Robins and Joe Wilkinson.
A range of Bristol food & drink businesses are offering special packages for the night, including a special cocktail kit from Espensen Spirit and a 12 pack beer box from Lost & Grounded.
Hart’s Bakery are also making curries for the night for £14 per meal. You’ll get a choice of butter chicken or red lentil & coconut dal with roasted cauliflower, with a selection of sides and dessert. Collection on Sunday 10th May between 2pm & 4pm.
This bank holiday should see the first East Bristol Brewery Trail of 2020, and with Good Chemistry now offering 5L Bag In Box of their cask beers, alongside the existing draught, bottles and cans on sale from Arbor, Dawkins, LHG and Moor, you can put together your own virtual tour of your favourite local breweries!
Some of my top places to buy these local beers:
- Beer Necessities
- Grape and Grind
- Brewers Droop
- Corks
- Independent Spirit of Bath
- Bottles & Books
- Coffee + Beer
- Better Food Co
- Southville Deli
- Two Belly
- Good Sixty
Tag your pictures #EBBTathome, and they’ll be reposted on the EastBrisBrewTrail Twitter account, so lets get together as best we can at the moment and celebrate Bristol’s biggest beer event – cheers!
Other regular online events include:
- KASK virtual wine tastings
- Clifton Wine School virtual wine tastings
- Independent Spirit whisky tastings
- Virtual Yoga Brunch Club (Bristol & London)
- Weekend Wine Matching with Fiona Beckett every Friday
- Online beer tastings with Wild Beer Co.
Recipes & video guides
A bunch of Bristol greats have created videos and recipes for their most popular dishes and cocktails for you to recreate at home. Here are a few of my favourites:
- Bar 44 – video guides on how to make a range of Spanish tapas dishes including croquetas, patatas bravas, pork belly and more.
- Oowee Diner – recipes & video walkthroughs for some favourites including The Big Cheese and Marmite Fries.
- Nutmeg – some great videos on how to cook dishes such as chana masala.
- Psychopomp – head to their Isolation Cocktail Club on Facebook or Instagram for tips on how to make classic cocktails using basic home ingredients.
- Avery’s Wine Merchants – wine tips and trivia, including info on wine matching and varieties.
- Mevalco – Spanish cooking recipes and ideas.
- Milk Thistle – follow their social media for weekly cocktail tips and recipes, with more from their sibling Hyde & Co.
Home deliveries
My usual list of restaurants and bars to visit has instead switched over to a list of places to order home delivery from, whether it’s a tasty feast or a pre-mixed cocktail.
As I mentioned, you can find a good list of local places delivering food to your door on Bristol Food Union and Best of Bristol.
I’m trying to limit myself to one food delivery and one booze delivery per week, which is so hard when my list keeps growing all the time!
Here are the deliveries I’ve had since lockdown started…
- Bokman – tasty Korean dishes, available Thu-Sat, postcodes BS1, BS2, BS3, BS4, BS5 and BS6.
- For Mice and Men – indulgent cheese toasties, delivered Wed-Fri across Bristol.
- Kask – a range of wines available, plus matched cheese & charcuterie. Free delivery to BS3, contact for delivery costs to other parts of Bristol.
- Brewers Droop – a range of beers, ciders and home brewing kit, delivered across Bristol.
- Chomp – seriously good burgers, delivered Wed-Sun across Bristol.
- Niang’s Thai – really good Thai food, delivered across Bristol and Cheltenham.
- Psychopomp – local gin distillery, doing a range of great gins, grain spirits and their very own Negroni.
- Wiper & True – brilliant Bristol brewery offering free delivery across the city.
- Tsukemono – Japanese dishes including katsu curry and their own kimchi fried rice scotch egg. Deliveries throughout the week across Bristol.
- Hyde at Home – choose from a wide selection of pre-mixed classic cocktails, beers, wines and more from some of the city’s best bars.
- The Orchard Inn – flagons of cider and pub snacks delivered to your door, perfect for the weekend!
Still on my hit list are meals from Bakers & Co, Otira, Urban Tandoor, Taste of Napoli, Asado and The Ox, plus boozy deliveries from Avery’s, Beer Necessities, Grape & Grind and 6 O’clock Gin. Oh, and the pizza making kits from Pizzarova!
Tell me what you’ve been ordering, cooking or taking part in recently, I’d love to get some new ideas!
You can chat to me on Twitter, see what else I’m eating/drinking on Instagram, or see more food updates by following A Life Less Organised on Facebook.
Here are a few favourites already sent in to me by some Bristol legends:
