The pop-up post Kathers Kitchen at 40 Alfred Place

Twitter is a powerful thing. Twitter told me about last week’s Bristol Big Market, part of Bristol Green Week. Twitter told me Whitney Houston had died before it had even hit the press. Twitter will I’m sure, keep me updated with all the Glastonbury gossip (and further fuel my jealousy). And so it was through Twitter that I found out about 40 Alfred Place, “the world’s first permanent pop-up venue” nestled in Kingsdown.

What a seriously good idea. This place can be rented for parties and events, be an Italian one night, a Mexican the next and finish the week with a wine tasting. My route to work takes me past 40 Alfred Place every day, yet somehow I’d never spotted it. Now I’ve been however, it’s a different story as I’m constantly looking for any faint signs that there might be a new pop-up night being prepared (the biggest clue is often copious amounts of tealights).

BBQ, burgers and brilliance Grillstock Smokehouse

I have a friend who hates any word used to describe food. Well not any word, but those words that people who love talking about food will bash around: delicious, tasty, succulent, smothered, gelatinous, lip-smacking. Oh, you know the sort I mean.

So...I guess he’s going to hate this blog entry, because it’s going to be pretty hard to talk about Grillstock, Bristol’s king of the BBQ, without launching myself into fifty shades of food porn. Indeed, it seems I’m not alone. Nearly every review, tweet or Facebook mention I’ve read of it so far has been dripping in alliterative adjectives (smoky, sticky and succulent – hell, the company’s slogan is ‘Meat, Music and Mayhem’).

So I’ll try my very best but be warned friend, you’re not going to like it. Not one tantalisingly tasty titbit of it.

Bakery beginnings Hart's Bakery

It started with a toastie.

Actually, a lot started with this toastie. Mainly the conviction that I can’t keep eating all these amazing things and not writing about them. Being whisked around the finest coffee haunts in the south west courtesy of my partner's coffee habit, it occurred to me that neither of us were talking about the food. And dang Bristol, you do food well. So sorry all, I’m starting a food blog. It was always going to happen. I don’t know why I denied it for so long.

My first blog post is to shout from the rooftops the virtues of Bristol’s Hart’s Bakery. Seriously, listen up because this place is banging. Being pretty housebound at the minute due to tedious back issues, I was driven to Hart’s Bakery last weekend for a small brunch outing – one of the best kinds of outing in my opinion. I had heard a rumour that Laura from Hart’s Bakery does the best custard tarts in town so I was prepared to be pretty happy at the end of my visit. Well, I was (and pretty laden down with various bread and pastry based items too).