The Undercroft Café

The newly opened Undercroft Café beneath St Mary Redcliffe Church has been busily amassing followers on their Twitter account over the last week so I decided to pay them a visit after lunch today.

Hidden away down some stairs by the church’s main entrance, the café is quite a find. At 2.30pm, I had the place to myself but I hear that the jazz evenings on Wednesdays are very popular.

It is a beautiful vaulted space, with candles on each of the small tables and on one of the walls. In a room of such archictural beauty, anything too heavy-handed could have spoiled the essence, and the new custodians should be applauded for making the Undercroft so welcoming while retaining centuries of history.

There was no latte this time as they haven’t worked out how to use their coffee machine yet, so I settled on a normal coffee, but a large blackboard proudly displayed all the food on offer, made in the small open kitchen. Two particularly tempting dishes were baked camembert with crusty bread (£3.50) and roast butternut squash risotto (£5.50). The lemon and coffee cakes (£1.50) also looked worth a try, if I hadn’t already gobbled down a Mars Bar.

There are bottled lagers, San Miguel and Bristol Beer Factory, cider, whiskey and sherry and a small choice of wine. The café is also available for private hire.

The chimes every 15 minutes from the church upstairs were a reminder of where I was, as I had completely lost myself in a book of old photos of Bristol where I learnt that St Mary Redcliffe (parts of which date back to the beginning of the 12th century) is one of only two parish churches in England to have stone vaulting.

I could have stayed in the Undercroft Café for much longer than the brief time I had given myself, but I will certainly be returning soon, hopefully to find this historic place a bit more lively.

Price of a coffee: £1.50

The Undercroft Café, underneath St Mary Redcliffe Church. 0117 925 5989.

www.theundercroft.co.uk

Bristol cafes. Cafes in Bristol.