Getting to know Food Shop

Getting to know Food Shop

Posted on: 22 Nov 2023

This time around on Getting To Know, we spoke with Darren of Food Shop - an independent deli that stands amongst the shops of everyone's favourite indie commerical street, Gloucester Road.

 

Hi Darren – can you give us a quick intro to yourself, and the business you run?

My name’s Darren, I own Food Shop on Gloucester Road. We’ve been trading for about two and a half years now – moving six months ago from a little side street onto Gloucester Road itself. We specialise in small brands and independent brands – we’ve got a lot of products that are made here in Bristol and the Southwest (but also from much further afield as well).

There’s four broad categories we’re known for: hot sauces – we’ve got a really really good selection. Natural wine is something we’re quite strong with. Coffee beans, and ground coffee, we sell a lot of that – I work with Radical Roasters out in Easton, and Hard Lines, those are our main suppliers of those. Then toasties are the other thing we’re really well known for.

 

How did Food Shop get started?

I used to work in restaurants and hospitality, and wanted to do something a little bit different that was still food related. During lockdown I saw the old shop become available, and just decided to take the plunge – I had a list of products that I loved on my phone: things I had tried, things I wanted to try. That was my starting point for getting the stock together for the shop, and I just kind of went from there.

 

 

Can you tell us a little about the thought process behind the name?

That was really difficult. I thought about lots of different names, but they started getting a bit complicated, and started feeling a bit ‘brand-y’. Food Shop is something that just kept popping into my head. I really like the simplicity of it.

In some ways it’s really, really obvious, but also it actually confuses a lot of people as well, because they want to know what sort of food shop it is.

 

What does food mean to you?

I think, for me, food is quite a lot about pleasure – enjoying the act of eating, and the social elements that go along with that. I like supporting small and local food producers, and giving back to the local community with that part. I think food systems need to be very much redesigned – from the ground up – currently, the system with supermarkets is grossly unfair on producers and makers, and a lot of profits are extracted from small communities and farming communities.

I really like working directly with producers where we can, and really small wholesalers – sometimes it’s one step from me to the farm. Having that connection is really important.

 

 

What’s your favourite dish at the moment?

One of my favourite things to eat in Bristol is at Bokman Restaurant – just off of Stokes Croft. They do a plate – it’s a mixed starter, essentially – that they call Banchan, and it’s four or five little dishes of kimchi, pickled mushrooms, and just little tasty, crunchy, slightly spicy things.

It’s an absolute favourite – I like that there’s lots of different bits to it, and I love fermented things, so it really ticks that box.

 

Now for a hard one – do you have a favourite type of product in the shop? What about your all time-favourite product?

Probably hot sauce, as a category. I’ve always liked chilli, and spice. I like products where a little of it can go a long way to transform something – particularly with hot sauce, I find that the case. Most of the ones we have aren’t super super hot, though; they’re more about flavour than heat.

My favourite product in the entire shop is Black Garlic Ketchup from Halen Môn, who are over in Wales. It’s kind of sweet, kind of sticky, kind of umami. It transforms a full english breakfast, excellent on a bacon sandwich. It was the top of my list when I opened the shop.

 

Are there any other businesses in the Gloucester Road community you want to give a shout-out to?

Istanbul Mini Mart. I think Istanbul Mini Mart is a really underrated shop on Gloucester Road – they’ve kind of got one of everything you could possibly need. It’s the kind of shop that’s always open, everything’s there. I know during lockdown particularly, they were really supportive of the local community.

It’s the place for really really obscure ingredients that even I don’t stock.

 

What would you do if you were Mayor for the day?

I’ve been involved with something called BUF, which is the Bristol Urban Forum. That is about trying to set up a citizens’ assembly in Bristol; we’ve got the second event coming up of twelve, which is people from all over Bristol coming together to talk about different topics. At the end of that, the people that run BUF are going to write a report which they hope that the city council and local MPs will take heed of and take up parts of it.

So, if I was Mayor for the day I would be looking to get involved with something like BUF, because I think it’s really key that everybody has a voice in democracy – which is kind of lacking at the moment, particularly in Bristol.

Thanks Darren!

 

You can find Food Shop at 57 Gloucester Road, BS7 8AD. For more information, or to order online for pickup, check out their website.

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Patrick Bate

Patrick is a filmmaker with so much Bristol in his blood the white blood cells are graffiti'd. Educated at the Northern Film School in Leeds, he’s returned home to be a Videographer and Reviewer for 365Bristol and BARBI. When he’s not messing about with cameras, he enjoys playing guitar, spending far too much time on tabletop RPGs, and being an awful snob about cider. Have a look at his work here, or get in touch at patrickb@365bristol.com.