10 Hot Things In Bristol

I was *so* excited when I heard Grazia would be doing regional specials, where readers could show off the amazing things in their city. I love finding new things to do in my city – I’ve been here 4 years, but I still feel like there is so much more to explore. As soon as I heard it was on sale, I headed to the shop, picked up a copy and flicked straight to the Bristol section.

Firstly, Bristol is lumped in with Bath. This isn’t unusual, but what was annoying was that the majority of places were in Bath. This unfortunately is also not unusual. Magazines like Grazia and Stylist prefer to talk about Bath because it’s just oh so quaint – Bristol has areas that are prettier than Bath, more varied than Bath and – look, Bath is nice for an occational visit, but Bristol is just a nicer place to be.

With that in mind, I thought I would put together my own list of things you need to visit in Bristol…

Best speakeasy
I’m going to generalise this as BOOZE EMPORIUM (because I like the word emporium) and say that my favourite place for cocktails in Bristol is, hands down, Goldbrick House. They have a decent sized menu of cocktails, and have a gin list of 16 different gins, which I think is a reasonable amount. It’s been my favourite place to go on Park Street for food and drinks for a long time, and their fabulous food nights are pretty brilliant too.

Best Pop Up
This heading was about shops, but what we do well in Bristol is pop up restaurants. 40 Alfred Place is a permament popup venue which I visited last month for Gurrilla Burger with some Twitter friends for sliders. Look at them! They’re so teeny tiny!

Best cup of tea
I don’t feel like I have found the best cup of tea yet. If you’re looking for somewhere with a huge range of tea though, Lahloo Pantry in Clifton Village knows their tea, and also has some pretty good cakes to go along with them.

Best denim
The heading was used to talk about a boutique in Bath, but there are *so* many good boutiques in Bristol. The two main areas to check out would be Park Street and Gloucester Road – perfect way to kill a few hours is just wandering down the road and popping into the interesting shops!

Best for mooching
Clifton Village is a good place to start for a mooch – I could spend hours just wandering around there! Quakers Friars is also a good place, although perhaps a little small for a proper mooch.

Best cakes
Oh, well, now – THIS I know. I mean, erm, this I need to do a lot more research on. Ahem. My favourite place for cupcakes has to be Swinky Sweets, who do things like these cupcake bouquets (you’ve missed my birthday, but I’m sure you can buy them for Christmas) but a very close runner up has to be Cordial and Grace, which had to be my favourite discovery of the cake crawl we did earlier this year.

Best Diner
Perhaps this one is a bit obvious, but ooh, Rocotillos at the top of Park Street has been a long time favourite with my friends and I. Sit in a booth, drink a chocolate and hazelnut milkshake (so thick that your straw stands up in it!), and eat burgers and cheesy fries. (If you can manage it at least – the milkshake fills me up alone!)

Best for a Sunday stroll
The Downs is a lovely area to walk, or for a short stroll (a lunch time one is good!) I love Queens Square

Best Supermarket
I know, a weird heading that obviously wasn’t in Grazia’s version. But how can I say what is awesome about Bristol without talking about the talking supermarket who is a little bit crazy (or the craymart, as I prefer to call it now)? Wai Yee Hong isn’t just quite good at the Twittering though, but also sells seaweed crack and will bring it’s own snacks to a restaurant. (NOM)

Best Social Media Experiment
We do social media here quite a bit. The best way to see what is good about Bristol though is to follow @bristol52, where one citizen takes charge of the account each week and talks about whatever.

So, thats a small part of my Bristol. I know I’ve left stuff out here (I didn’t even touch on Grillstock, my new favourite lunch place – pulled pork baps omg) so what are your favourite things to do in my beautiful city?