Description

A Taste of Spring in Chester is a brand-new food and drink trail, featuring the best of our local produce right here in the City, Cheshire and North Wales.

This is a collaboration between local promotional platform We Love Good Times, local produce specialists Taste Cheshire (who also run the much-loved Chester Food, Drink & Lifestyle Festival), Marketing Cheshire and a whole host of fabulous bars, restaurants, dining pubs and bistros who are bouncing back from the pandemic so admirably.

A Taste of Spring in Chester is a month-long celebration of the best use of local produce on our menus, as well as separate cocktail trails and a real ale trail, featuring a superb selection of locally brewed beers and spirits from award-winning distillers.

Hypha

We kick off our Local Produce Trail with our only Michelin Green Starred restaurant in the city. hpha is most definitely a jewel in Chester’s food and drink crown, and all of the ingredients in their delicious, plant-based dishes are sourced or foraged locally. Most of the produce comes from local grower Alice Leech from Veg & Petals who is based in Malpas, and is an integral part of hypha’s fully-sustainable, closed-loop food system.

Pictured : Pumpkin Tartlet, pickled pumpkin, squash puree, chervil 

The Chester Cheese Shop

The Cheese Shop is one of Chester’s longest-standing independent food retailers. They have been sourcing and serving the most fabulous cheeses, chutney’s and accompaniments for as long as I can remember, and their local selections are always particularly good.

Mr Bourne’s Cheshire cheeses are the most traditional. His family have been making cheese on this farm in Malpas for hundreds of years using recipes dating back to 1845.

They also stock cheeses from two younger innovative cheesemakers from Cheshire.  Ann Clayton makes Crabtree, an Italian Alpine-style cheese on her farm in Malpas, and Clare Burt makes a deliciously mild and creamy blue cheese on a farm close to Knutsford.

The Chester Cheese Shop also stocks a large range of chutneys from the Cheshire Chutney Company, as well as 9 Meals from Anarchy, (real organic stock) which is also made in Cheshire.

 

The Yard 

Carl Noller is most definitely one of the city’s finest chefs and has been championing local produce long before it was a headline. This delicious starter includes two locally produced ingredients; a fabulous Cheshire cheese from and superb seasonal pears from Oliver Perry’s in Nantwich.

Pictured : Tortino di formaggio et sanguinaccio; Black pudding (homemade in-house) & Cheshire cheese, hash, mustard butter sauce, caramelised pears.

The Chester Fields Country Pub & Restaurant

Any local produce trail worth its salt would include The Chester Fields Country Pub & Restaurant, seeing as they have won so many Taste Cheshire awards for their outstanding use of local produce on a menu.

For this campaign, we are bigging up their breakfast, which includes two very locally sourced super-star ingredients. Hayrack Church Farm bacon (from just down the road in Thornton Le Moors), and the freshest free-range eggs from Orchard Range in Christleton (honestly, they’re just delicious).

Hoole Food Market

Definitely one for a local produce map is Hoole Food Market, a food retail concept in Hoole, which provide the finest food to local residents, restaurants, cafes and dining pubs in an ethical manner. Their carbon footprint is kept even lower by the use of the delivery cycle which you will see buzzing about the city delivering their superb produce in a super-sustainable way.

The Forge

The Forge burst onto the Chester food & drink scene last Spring, and we thank the lord that TV Chef Mike Robinson and his fantastic team chose our city for their fourth restaurant, located at Hotel Indigo on Grosvenor Park Road. Mike is beyond passionate about sustainability and delivering a true taste of the wild – and their No.1 rock oysters really are something to behold. Sourced from Menai, they come three ways (tequila, shallot mignonette, sriracha), and their quality is always guaranteed. You can enjoy them with a cocktail in the bar or in the restaurant for a fabulous, Michelin recommended dining experience.

Christleton Orchard Range

Based on their family-run farm near Chester, Christleton Orchard Range supplies the best independent restaurants, hotels, cafés and shops of Chester, with deliciously fresh, local, free-range eggs – and the great news is that everyone is welcome to buy directly from Manor Farm and meet the hens too (and that includes you and me!). Buying locally-sourced, fresh produce just makes sense on every level, as when you buy local, you support local farmers. Christleton Orchard Range is proud to be a fully sustainable Chester producer. This is a fourth-generation of farmers running a family business, that started with The Yard saying they would use them if they could match their demand. The rest is history! They now have around 1000 free-range birds roaming the fields and orchard of the farm, in the village of Christleton. They are delighted to support lots of fantastic local businesses with their superb produce – all of whom want to ensure they offer their customers the very best of what’s on the doorstep, with eggs very often being served the day they are laid! Sarah (or The Egglady!) also delivers in Chester every day to the shops, restaurants and cafes in addition to a local house delivery service, ensuring everyone can enjoy freshly laid, local, free-range eggs.

The Ship Inn

This has always been a very special place. Being independently owned for as long as I can remember, The Ship has always sailed over in Handbridge, overlooking the River Dee and Edgar’s Field – the perfect place for the perfect pub. Lance and his teams’ commitment to local produce has always been at the top of their agenda, and this stunning dish of Rolled Lamb Shoulder uses the finest lamb from David Johnson at Chester Market and is served on a bed of sautéed potatoes and seasonal vegetables from Oliver Perry in Nantwich. And I speak from experience when I say that the minted gravy is sublime!

The Brewery Tap

The Brewery Tap is a shining example of what a local, independent dining pub should be. Not only do they serve the best beer (much of it from their very own brewery), but they also serve superb pork dishes – including their super-famous Sunday roast – which is reared on their very own Common Farm in Waverton. They also use their own honey from Matthew’s very own bees (click here to watch our interview), and the whole set-up is one of the most sustainable food and drink stories in the whole city.

The Townhouse Secret Garden

I knew that the fabulous team at The Townhouse Secret Garden love using local produce, but I had no idea they used so much of it! Check out this list of superb quality, locally sourced ingredients:

Meadow Churn Butter,Crewe, Cheshire
Nelstrops Flour, Stockport, Cheshire
Pen Y Lan Pork, Wrexham – all pork products, sausages, bacon, black pudding, bones and trotters for sauces, gravy etc
Veg and Petals, Malpas, Cheshire – edible flowers, pea shoots
Cheshire Farm Ice Cream – ice cream and sorbets
Christleton Orchard Range – free-range eggs (as featured above)
Cake Chester – cakes and cupcakes (as featured below)
Fry fresh, Wrexham – cooking oil

Cake Chester

We absolutely love Cake Chester! Not only do they make the most stunning wedding and celebration cakes (Jules and Lottie are such talented cake decorators), but they also sell the most delicious cakes of the day along with the very best tea I have ever tasted, from the Brew Tea Company. Every cake is freshly baked on the premises, so as you can imagine, the smell is divine. Cake Chester have a few seats to sit in both inside and out on the rows, and you can also take away their stunning cakes of the day to enjoy at home.

Hanky Panky

Hanky Panky serves so much more than the best pancakes on the planet! They also serve the most amazing dishes from their Spice Kitchen, created by Mrs Hanky Panky herself, Rekha. These guys know more than a thing or two about local produce, and I absolutely love the fact that their Sambar (South Indian vegetable stew) is made using nettles foraged from their own garden. And that’s not all… their deliciously naughty-but-extremely-nice pancakes feature Backford Belles ice cream, which is made just don the road in Backford (about 5 minutes drive from Chester Zoo).

Palm Cocktail Bar & Eatery 

Palm is the prettiest bar in the city! Just the right shade of pink and located on Watergate Street (which is full of fabulous, independently run bars), Palm transitions effortlessly from daytime eatery to evening cocktail lounge, welcoming everyone from fashionistas to foodies. The menu really is to die for, and their Lemon Passion Meringue Pie is just pure, unadulterated joy (lemon & passionfruit cream with tall, fluffy toasted meringue, served on biscuit crumb base). And the really good news is that it is made, from start to finish, by local independent baker Crave Bakes. They also use Hoole Food Market for many of their other ingredients (featured above).

Assembly Bar

Assembly Bar burst onto Chester’s food and drink scene just before the pandemic hit, and have certainly earned their place as one of our most respected independent bars, which also serves great food. This is another venue that makes the transition from day to night seamlessly, and it’s very dod friendly too (in fact, manager Summer makes a proper fuss of your pooch with treats and cuddles in equal measure!). The weekend brunch (served from 9am till midday Saturday and Sunday) is excellent, and they also serve the most delicious small plates and tapas menu – the Cajun Spiced Sea bass on a bed of soy vegetables is a firm favourite. All of their produce comes Chester Market, which is literally just a couple of minutes’ walk away. All of the meat is supplied by award-winning butcher David Joinson, and Ian’s 5-a-day supplies all of the fruit & veg, keeping those delivery miles at zero.

Kookaburra Bakehouse

An artisan micro-bakery in the heart of Chester city centre, specialising in Aussie bakes, cruffins and sourdough loaves which is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8am. This is such a good quality bakery using raw ingredients from as close to home as possible, plus they deliver using the ipedal cargo bike, making this bakery super local and sustainable too. It’s a double win for Kookaburra Bakery!

The White Horse at Chester Racecourse 

The White Horse has always been known for the quality of food and service – plus they have one of the finest locations in the city on Chester Racecourse. They pride themselves on their use of local produce, and the dish they have chosen for this campaign – Crispy belly pork with sweet potato champ, spring greens & peppercorn sauce – looks and sounds absolutely delicious! And once again, award-winning local butcher David Joinson from Chester Market supplies the best belly pork in Chester. I cannot wait to try it.

 

 

 

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