In Spain, you don’t ask for a hot chocolate in bars and cafes, you ask for a ColaCao, the brand name of seemingly the only hot chocolate drink available on the Iberian peninsula.
There’s ColaCoa for sale in Alioli, a cafe with a very Spanish feel on Upper Maudlin Street opposite the Children’s Hospital.
(Rather endearingly and showing a typical mañana attitude, the sign above the door didn’t quite fit and had to be taken down, so for a few weeks now Aliloli has been masquerading as Lowes while a new sign is made.)
Other items alonside ColaCoa in Alioli’s small Spanish-themed deli section include olive oils, cakes, pies, salsa, paella rice and chorizo.
Strictly speaking, Alioli is not just Spanish, but Galician, the province in the north-west of Spain. Alioli has a picture of its largest city Santiago de Compostela, and also the shell that pilgrims wear on their journey by foot to the famous cathedral, believed to be built around the body of apostle James.
More nationalistic rather than regionalist are paintings of bull fights; black and white portraits of a girl in a flamenco dress and an old man enjoying an outdoor fiesta; and a charming photograph of a young Spanish football fan pictured in this very cafe, beaming in the national kit, the team crest of which is almost as big as his face.
The Spanish theme continues with the menu del dia, which when I visited over the weekend was tortilla española in a rustic Galician baguette.
This part of Bristol has plenty of cafes which you can quickly nip in and out of, and for the largely NHS crowd the takeaway selections are extensive, a big choice of fillings available in a sandwich, baguette, panini or jacket potato.
I hold a real love for Spain, and in Bristol that means visits to El Rincon in Southville and El Puerto on Prince Street whenever possible. Aliloi now joins that list.
My only criticism is that it would be great if they played Spanish radio in the same way that French cafe Cafe du Jour on Whiteladies Road plays French radio, just to give it that extra slice of authenticity. That would make Alioli even more typically Spanish, so ColaCao could be enjoyed just the way intended.
Alioli, 14 Upper Maudlin Street, Bristol. 0117 904 4495.
