Bristol is fast becoming a gastronomic delight, with new bars, restaurants and supper clubs opening all the time…not to mention the fact that we are at the heart of a stunning food-producing region showcased at food and drink festivals in the city throughout the year.
Bristol, frankly, loves food and drink! Now, Bristol Bites and Bristol 24-7 are joining forces to bring you the definitive guide to food and drink in this great city of ours…
Before we plan too far ahead, however, we need you – the great Bristol public and local food and drink-related businesses – to tell us what YOU want to see.
Rather than simply listing venues throughout the city, we want this to be a food and drink community. We want you to be able to find out about restaurants, bars, cafes, markets, food shops, special offers and more…but we want there to be something in it for you too.
The more you contribute to the site – be this via reviews, telling us where you’ve been, inviting friends to join or suggesting new venues and events, the more community “points” you’ll build up, which you’ll be able to redeem for food and drink-related freebies and discount vouchers throughout the city.
Obviously we’ll also want to be talking to local businesses too – what are you looking for in a definitive guide to food and drink in Bristol that will help you to reach more customers and attract more diners and drinkers through your doors?
Interested? We’re really excited about the possibilities! So, if you want to find out more and to contribute your ideas, contact Em at emily@breaksandbites.co.uk or Chris at chris@bristol247.com. Alternatively, leave your comments below and we’ll take all ideas on board.
Emily Knight, Bristol Bites
Christopher Brown, Bristol 24-7
Great idea – random comments coming up…
Striking the balance between building the city's food-loving community, and having a credible voice, is tricky – will there be negatives as well as positives on the site? If reviews etc are unfailingly polite, readers could struggle to catch an angle.
Similarly, I wouldn't want it skewed too heavily towards Bristol's food/drink retailers – like you say, you don't want it to just be a list of places, and nor is it any good having the site monopolised by people selling their product/restaurant/event.
But Bristol's foodies are such natterers (well, twitterers), I'm sure the non-professional community would flock to the site really quickly!
What I'd love to see, too, if you did get the voucher thing off the ground, is offers at interesting places, not just, I dunno, Ask or Cote or Caffe Gusto. It's the chains that are the most amenable to those kinds of promotions, but I think it can demean the credibility of a proper food community site if all the offers are 2-4-1 chain pizza deals.
Random whingeing aside, I think it's a very exciting idea. You could have so many good community events: meet-ups, cook-offs, foraging trails… pub crawls!
Good luck – if you need willing (if not expert) writers, I'd be interested…
Thanks for the feedback, very helpful! In response to your points…
Yes, there will be positives as well as negatives – and members of the community will be encouraged to write reviews of the places they've visited. A simple star rating system for each place (both overall, and on different aspects of the venue) will also help to provide as accurate a representation as possible of the city's foodie haunts.
The idea is that the site will be geared at members of the public – but there will also be parts that are more relevant for retailers/venues themselves. It may also be interesting to see it as a place where the businesses can engage with consumers – something which already appears to have had a great deal of success via channels such as Twitter.
Offers-wise, we're hoping that we can persuade local businesses to get on board rather than chains – we want to celebrate the amazing diversity that Bristol has to offer!
Great thoughts re: community events too – I'm always amazed when I find out just how much stuff is happening under the radar, which shows that there's definitely appetite for something like this!
Em
Can you review the Old Stillage in Redfield – Doing surprisingly good pub grub food for about £5. Recommend particularly the Sausage and Mash night on Wednesday when they have about 8 types a sausage and 5 mashes. A place like that in dusty old Redfield needs the publicity!
Oooh sounds good. I went past that place on the bus the other day. Can't believe how many of the pubs in Redfield/Kingswood area are now boarded up – it's sad!