Henry Eldon and wife Lauren have big plans for St Werburghs. Located at 98 Mina Road, The Cauldron will be Bristol’s (if not the UK’s) first restaurant predominantly powered by solid fuel: no mains gas supply, no induction equipment in the kitchen.
Instead, says Henry, “the heat source will be charcoal and birch wood logs burning in open pits, brick ovens and grills that will be located around a central working 60 litre cast iron cauldron.”
Pots and pans will also be heated by solid fuels, with all of The Cauldron’s cookery methods being heirloom methods from around the world: an Argentine Asado grill, an Indian Tandoor oven, South African Potjie and Hungarian bogracs pots.
Their emphasis will be on ethically and locally sourced creative fare, using plenty of different global cooking methods. Henry and Lauren are aiming to procure their furnishings, consumables and produce as locally as possible, reducing their dependency on massive supply chains and putting money back into local businesses and the local community (they apparently already have interest from 24 businesses in St Werburghs alone).
Seating 40 people (50 in the summer months when al fresco dining is possible), the menu will change weekly, depending on the availability of seasonal produce and customer demand.
At the time of writing, the website was yet to go live, but you can find The Cauldron on Facebook and Twitter…