Bath Restaurants

Huge apologies for the gap between blog updates of late, but summer seems to have slowed things down a bit on the Bath food and drink scene, with the usual (and welcome) influx of tourist and the predictably unreliable weather turning the city into a feast or famine experience: we either wait an hour outside of our favourite watering holes to be served, or find ourselves scuttling home to escape the downpours. But y’know, life goes on!

As The Pig suspected, the inaugural Bath Food and Drink Festival at the start of this month wasn’t quite as much of a celebration of local food as it could have been. While it couldn’t be described as a damp squib (at least the weather played nice for most of the weekend), it didn’t particularly light any foodie fireworks, either. Yes, it was fascinating to see Italian kitchen maestro Antonio Carluccio strut his charismatic stuff in the flesh while local hob god Martin Blunos was his usual lively, captivating self, green goddess Rachel Demuth kept things refreshingly lively and Olive Tree head chef Nick Brodie – all effusive charm and dashing good looks – made the girls swoon. But away from the Chefs Kitchen, the rest of the event was a little bit too heavy on heavily branded, corporate sell, sell, sell and way too light on local loveliness. All in all, the Festival was indeed a version of the beleaguered Channel 4 ‘Taste’ festival’s mini-me. If you beg to differ, please do let us know; The Pig isn’t precious about standing corrected.

The Pig was sad to hear that both The Arch and the longstanding, authentic tapas tavern La Flamenca closed their doors for good last week. But on a more optimistic note, many restaurants and bars are putting up an excellent fight against the vagaries of double-dip recession rumours, with imaginative offers and fascinating makeovers proliferating. In keeping with the general Sawclose facelift vibe, Gascoyne Place has made a few tweaks to their USP of late, subtly switching the emphasis from being a pub that serves food to a restaurant you can stop by in to enjoy a drink. The Pig is particularly loving the GP lounge, now a candlelit diners-only haven softly illuminated by tealights in vintage teacups; sweet! It’s nice to see the Bistro La Barrique garden getting the attention it deserves too, while the ever-popular Garrick’s Head isn’t suffering too much from its temporary location behind a building site. Away from Theatre Royal Plaza, the Bear on Bear Flat has got some spiffing events lined up for August, and The Pig is massively impressed by the new-look Chequers, now under the auspicious auspices of Marlborough Tavern head honchos Joe Cussens and Justin Sleath (full review to appear on this very site shortly). While The Pig still isn’t too excited about the influx of the usual high street suspects to SouthGate, it’s heartwarming to see the Cake Cafe (see current ‘News’ story) getting the attention it so richly deserves; all in all, Bath’s best independents are making summer in the city go with swing.