Reviews

Bristol food and pub review : The Steam Crane in Bedminster

Posted on: 2014-08-04

The Steam Crane is a refreshing & welcome addition to the Southville/Bedminster pub restaurant scene, perfectly suited to the more vibrant artistic and bohemian social set and anyone in the wider community with a penchant for good food and fine ales.

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The Steam Crane has undergone a change of ownership, new management and a fantastic refurbishment. Named after the world-famous Fairbairn steam crane in Bristol docks, the pub takes an arresting position on North Street, a stone's throw from the ever-popular William Fitzharding Wetherspoons.

It has an intriguing history of its own and was formerly a courthouse. But perhaps more interesting than that has been its varied and chequered past as a string on other, inauspicious and occasionally downright lousy pubs, including The Bay and Bar Salt. 

Stephen Wallace is the new owner - he also runs the Golden Guinea in Redcliffe - and has dramatically shifted the tone and clientele of the venue, and has unquestionably now marked it out as one to watch in the constantly-changing, forever improving pub and bar scene in the area.

In fact, it sits very comfortably alongside other fine alehouses and establishments in the general vicinity, including The Old Bookshop and Spotted Cow. The ethos here is to attract patrons with a more refined and discerning palate and not the kind of belligerent riff-raff stumbling in and out of the dingy London Inn across the road.

To this end, you don’t get any cheap lager or Fosters, rather than the more premium and more expensive Grolsch, alongside other superior beers such as Singa and Blue Moon. 

There's a good selection of ciders, but the emphasis here is on real ales, several of them from South West breweries, with six on tap and eight keg craft beers available. Recent Breweries have included Bristol Beer Factory,  Thronbridge, Buxton, Beaver Town, Tiny Rebel and Wild Beer.  Recently on draught have been Southville Hop, New Bristol Brewery Super Natural IPA and AyAyAy , Beerd Silvertip and Convict and Moor Nor’hop.

The pub itself looks great and has been given a tasteful, slightly quirky make-over. There's Victorian print wallpaper, frilly standard lamps, luxurious leather sofas, elaborate chandeliers and mirrors, plus silver stag heads, old radiogrammes and art by local artists mounted on the walls. 

But to the food. 

Head chef Josh Hutson has now been at the Steam Crane for around eight weeks, having previously worked at, amongst others, Clifton's Somerset House, The Lock Keeper in Portishead, The Pump House and Hotel du Vin.

For starters I plumped for the duck scotched egg (£3.50) – a generously sized sphere of breaded unctuousness, the yellow of the egg still slightly runny, and perfectly suited to a few vigorous dips in the accompanying HP sauce.

My partner went for the butter milk fried chicken with thyme salt and bacon jam (£4.90); the chicken deliciously crunchy on the outside yet moist inside, and the bacon jam an interesting but perhaps too dense a garnish for it. 

Like a moth to the flame, I went for the Steam Crane beef shin burger with Wookey Hole Cheddar, pickles and fries (£10), an impressively stacked burger that melted in the mouth and was packed with juicy flavour. It would have been nice to have the bun toasted, but the fries were thin and crispy and delicious.  I've never liked gherkins though, but thankfully they'd been heartily chomped by the other half before I'd even had a chance to nibble a chip.

My partner opted for the pork jowl cooked for 8 hours, apple and potatoes baked in cream (£12). It was a sensationally cooked and unbelievably flavoursome slab of meat, melt-in-the-mouth, the potatoes soft, delicious in the style of potato dauphinoise, and adorned with generous chunks of pork scratchings.

Orange rice pudding, orange curd and whiskey and marmalade ice cream (£4) finished it off for me – initially an unusual combo of warm rice pudding and cold ice cream, but an amalgamation that worked well.  My partner went for the strawberry and lavender parfait blood orange sorbet and candied pecan (£4), the mixture of parfait and blood orange blissfully refreshing, and the candied pecan adding an interesting textural, crunchy dynamic.

Bar manager Ian Timmons was on hand throughout the evening and made for a friendly, affable host, and the bar staff were prompt, pleasant and efficient, ensuring the evening ran smoothly and everything was catered for.  

365Bristol's Summary of The Steam Crane

In its new incarnation, The Steam Crane is a refreshing and welcome addition to the Southville/Bedminster pub restaurant scene, perfectly suited to the more vibrant artistic and bohemian social set as well as anyone in the wider community with a penchant for good food and fine ales in a dynamic and idiosyncratic setting.

4/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol

The Steam Crane, 4-6 North Street, Bristol. BS3 1HT

Tel. 0117 9231656

Web. www.thesteamcrane.co.uk

Email. info@thesteamcrane.co.uk

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