Hallelujah! Hart’s Bakery is back. In a new location underneath the arches on the way to Bristol Temple Meads – just follow your nose – this is the former Cotham favourite, but bigger and better. Reopening at 9am tomorrow, let us celebrate the return of Laura Hart’s custard tarts, pastries, sourdough breads and of course, Eccles cakes.
Open on Saturdays until a week-long operation commences in January, Hart’s Bakery can now also offer a small cafe area, seating about 10 people.
Extract coffee will be provided by The Paper Cup Cafe and cheese toasties will be made with unpasteurised cheddar from Westcombe Dairy in Evercreech, Somerset, winners of the BBC Radio 4 Food & Farming award for best food producer.
December treats will also include gingerbread biscuits and mince pies, made with homemade mince meat and topped with an almond crumble.
“People kept trying to sit beside the oven in the old bakery, so they can come right in now,” Laura said when I had a sneak preview visit earlier this week and a taste of a delicious mince pie hot out of the oven.
“I wanted everything in one room; the kitchen, shop and cafe area. It’s a great big space and I’m so excited to be opening.”
It has taken more than a year to find a suitable space for Laura’s business, but only three months since she snapped up the rent on this arch two doors up from The Tunnels music venue, owned by Network Rail and walked over by thousands of people each day without most probably even realising it is there.
While no longer part of a residential neighbourhood as Hart’s Bakery was on Hampton Lane, Laura talked enthusiastically of being part of a growing area made up of businesses and commuters as the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone springs up around.
“There is a different type of community down here,” Laura said. “And they need this sort of hub as much as people who live in a residential community. It’s currently a food wasteland, and we will certainly be changing that.”
Arch 35 is also a short train journey from stations along the Severn Beach Line including Clifton Down, around which outlets such as Ruby & White and Earthbound will begin to stock Hart’s Bakery wares once again. The new bakery is also near the Bristol & Bath Railway Path; and within walking distance of St Philip’s, Totterdown and Knowle.
Laura lives in Bishopston, and to open tomorrow morning at 9am, she will be up baking from 4am. The shop and cafe will be open until there is no more bread to sell.
“It’s going to be a bit of a shock to the system,” Laura admitted, “but I get to see the dawn. The phone doesn’t ring either. I’m a morning person and once I’m up, it’s alright. I love being up in the city before anyone else and I can’t wait to get baking.”
Hart’s Bakery, Arch 35, Lower Approach Road, Temple Meads, Bristol, BS1 6QS
Website: www.hartsbakery.co.uk
Twitter: @HartsBakery
