‘Nowadays, cooking good food is not enough’

With all the new openings across Bristol in recent years, it’s easy to forget about the restaurants quietly getting on with business. Away from the PR hype surrounding the latest burger place, older restaurants continue doing what they do best with not a social media hashtag or last-minute money-off deal in sight.

John Watson opened No Man’s Grace on Chandos Road in 2014, just at the start of Bristol’s current food and drink boom, with the restaurant awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand just over a year after opening.

A recent change has seen Watson and his small team now only offering a tasting menu on Friday and Saturday evenings, with dishes such as a duck liver parfait and crispy chicken skin; and Orkney scallop and pork belly with caramelised cauliflower velouté.

“I’m so happy with my food right now,” says Watson, who almost trained to be a doctor and opened No Man’s Grace with his dad Alastair, a former Lord Mayor as Bristol, as his business partner.

“I’m also so happy with my team and a big part of why I do this is my love for training people and teaching them how to cook. It’s not about the money. It’s just about teaching people and passing on this knowledge. Which is something I think most chefs feel.”

The 31-year-old’s career in Bristol has seen him work in The Mall and The Clifton Sausage in Clifton, and Kensington Arms just around the corner from No Man’s Grace. He later became chef de partie and then joint sous chef at Casamia when it was in Westbury-on-Trym, before helping to open The Gallimaufry on Gloucester Road.

He says that the success of Casamia is a perfect example of how a restaurant can improve over time. “Casamia progressing into what is now officially the second best restaurant in the UK is an example of what a restaurant can do when its given the time to develop,” Watson says.

“But some restaurants don’t get the chance because there are just so many other places that people are going to. None of this is customers’ faults or the owners’ faults or anyone’s faults. It’s just the way that the restaurant scene in Bristol is going. And it’s a bit terrifying.”

Watson thinks “it’s already becoming very clear” that the current restaurant scene in Bristol is not sustainable, and predicts that 2018 will see the closure of much-loved independents in the city as well as more chains.

“I don’t think we’re a particularly fashionable restaurant but what we do and what I’m really pleased with is the fact we have got where we are in three and a half years,” Watson admits.

“What we do, we do as well as possible. But nowadays I don’t think just cooking good food is enough for people, unless you’ve got the accolades where people want to go to your restaurant due to your star. I don’t think people see it as fashionable to go and eat in restaurants if it’s just about the cooking.”

A difference between the eating out scene in Bristol compared to London is that in Bristol, restaurants tend to be quiet during the week, especially at lunch.

Watson has had to change the opening hours of No Man’s Grace to reflect this change, but one thing that he hasn’t done in the time that the restaurant has been open is to change his prices to reflect the increasingly expensive price of produce. For lunch on Friday or Saturday, two courses cost £16 and three courses cost £20, with his new seven-course tasting menu at dinner costing £45.

Watson says that his menu is “about focusing on the best of that season. So we’re going to change our menu every week so that people who are regular who come every month are able to have something completely different when they come back. The regular customers are the most important part of the business.”

The straight-As student at QEH who went on to study biochemistry and genetics at Nottingham University is now in the business of cooking food mostly for the well-heeled locals who live close to his Redland restaurant

“I’m glad I didn’t become a doctor,” he says. “I did some work experience as a nurse for six months or so and didn’t really like the idea of having to deal with people who were dying. So I’ve decided to do something a lot happier, which is good. I’m now trying to give people joy which I suppose is at the complete opposite end of the spectrum from being a doctor. I think by that point I had already got the bug, as when I was at university I was doing dinner parties and wine tastings with friends.

“Cooking is the only thing that drives me on because it definitely isn’t the money. It’s just a massive thrill. I massively enjoy it when things go wrong and you have to fix them. I suppose that’s always something I quite liked. But when you know how to do it and you can teach the chefs how to not just look at a singular problem but in fact applying something you know to several situations. For example, bringing back a cream sauce with just a spoonful of cold cream and managing to re-emulsify it in the last second.

“Pete (Sanchez-Iglesias, chef-patron of Casamia) is the most natural chef I’ve ever worked with. He can naturally just pull a dish out of nowhere and it looks amazing. I’ve never seen anything like it. He approaches it in a very exact way, a really amazing scientific way which is testament to his drive.”

The No Man’s Grace general manager recently left which has meant that Watson is currently cooking in the daytime and serving in the evening, an experience which has made him rethink the importance of front of house in his restaurant, something that he says has clearly propelled Pasta Loco on Chandos Road being talked about as one of Bristol’s best.

On the day that Watson is talking to Bristol24/7, the news has come out that Jamie’s Italian on Park Street is to close. Gazing into his crystal ball, he says: “I think there are going to be a lot of surprising closures which is going to shake people up a bit I think.

“I am never glad whenever a restaurant doesn’t succeed whether it’s independent or a chain. But I’m pleased that Bristol has chewed up and spat out some London stalwarts. It is not a place for them, they don’t belong here. They’re just trying to make money out of it.

“This is a city for passionate young chefs to open up their first restaurant and for people to see that. It is very evident form these places that Bristol is not a place for people to come and just make money. That is not what this city is about.”