Pop-ups and supper clubs seemed to have been steadily slowing down in popularity before the pandemic restrictions put everything back to a crawl by default a few years back. A decade or so ago there were a few popular supper clubs in York which all came to an end but over the last year or…
Spark has done a lot for the hospitality scene in York both directly and indirectly. As a venue to be able to reliably grab decent food in a relaxed, family friendly setting, it’s broadened the city’s offering greatly and as a launchpad for new businesses it’s made a strong contribution to the wider offering and…
That was a bit more normal wasn’t it? Well aside from the potential for nuclear conflict, the pandemic continuing to wind down, the energy crisis, the cost of living crisis and the death of the monarch…but in general 2022 did have the feeling of returning to a bit of normality as pandemic restrictions were lifted…
A couple of decades ago when I was familiarising myself with York in my early days here, I was taken by some friends to a “really cool bar” on Lendal that had been a hangout in their later youth. My memories of the visit are now at some distance but I was shocked that such…
We’ve heard a lot about the decline of the high street over the last few years, with the advent of delivery services brought forward by the pandemic diminishing the need to go to venture out to bricks and mortar premises. Just how diminished it ends up being will come to light over the next couple…
York is a relatively centralised city, with only a few notable areas within the outer ring road featuring their own concentrations of shopping or leisure facilities. Bishy Rue obviously has carved out its own little niche and Acomb is on the up but otherwise shops, pubs and places to eat are scattered somewhat randomly around…
I probably labour the point a little too much that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and would generally direct my appetites toward savoury or cheese dishes than dessert. This makes the concept of an afternoon tea something of very little interest to me in general. I can (and have) accept invitations and…
A Sunday roast, done properly, should present more opportunities than for just eating. It should be an enabling factor in letting your Sunday afternoon expand toward early evening as you go through a few courses and graze on leftovers. I’ve always been of the view that having a Sunday roast in a restaurant can be…
I’ve written many times about the unfair tarnishing that restaurants based in hotels seem to suffer in York, with The Park at Marmadukes Townhouse and Hudson’s at The Grand unfairly failing to find the audiences they deserved leading to the chefs involved moving on to pastures new. One of those though is starting to turn…
Some buildings seem unduly troublesome for businesses to inhabit and seem to run through tenants at an alarming pace. This is a trend particularly notable on Petergate with Fat Hippo about to take over from Jimmy’s Bar which wasn’t a particularly long-standing tenant after taking over from Cafe Rouge, and The Tea Palace shutting up…