Bold Street Coffee is one of the more established eateries on the block. There is a vibrant mix of cuisines on Bold Street, and each combines to form a community of people enjoying good food and great company. We arrived early evening and it felt like a hub of activity. We chatted about the food, and of course the coffee. And then we settled down to enjoy the whole experience.
WORDS: Jean Hill
From Thursday to Sunday, Bold Street Coffee is open from morning until late. The evening menu is diverse: Lamb tagine, chorizo ratatouille, beef feather-blade…. The menu is a thoughtful one. Feather-blade takes long, slow, cossetting, but is high on flavour. It is one dish Gary Usher pioneered to good effect.
We opted for butternut squash risotto and pasta with fried chicken. The risotto was rich: you just savour that flavour. It was refreshing and totally satisfying. The fried chicken was crisp and succulent and provided that frisson to the pasta. We tried the house red, and it was soft, smooth and tasted of berries.
This was all leading to the all-important coffee tasting. I drank the Kenyan coffee black, and it was delicious. It is not bitter at all, rather a gentle hint of a fruit flavour. Then we sampled the flat white. Equally good, yet I would opt for the Kenyan brew. There are dessert options. One is Tiramisu rice pudding, which we did not have room for, but it sounds intriguing, and along with smoked paprika hummus somethings to go for next time.
This might have been the end of the evening, but it turned out to be the beginning. There was a photographic exhibition, posted around the walls of the restaurant. This portrayed people to be seen on Bold Street, with brief biographies. It is called ‘Humans of Bold Street’ curated by Adam Thompson.
The stories are fascinating. There is someone celebrating the joys of libraries and books. There is a university student who came from a village near Hull, and fell in love with Liverpool. She feels in transition between being a child and an adult. She loves the culture and the friendliness of the city which is a total positive in her life. There is the banjolele busker, who loves to meet groups of bohemian and creative people on the street. There is someone from Sri Lanka who sells the Big Issue, who claims Liverpool people are the best in the world. One man tells how his mother told him to ‘go out there and make a difference’. He does this by running for World Wild Life Fund and Peace Direct. The man in the sombrero, playing outside the Mexican restaurant turns out to be Bulgarian, and has made an album. He says that the support has been amazing. Also a shout for The Whitechapel Centre, which does sterling work for those in the city who are homeless.
Great evening and a great experience.
Related read: His & Hers Loves: Bold Street Coffee
