A new community café has opened next to Bristol bus station offering some of the cheapest prices for a home-cooked meal in the city. Santiago's on Cannon Street has taken over the hospitality lease of St James Priory Church, which is the oldest building in Bristol still in use today.
Liam Delaney, manager of Santiago's, has recently moved back to Bristol from South Africa. The restaurant, which formerly housed Cafe Refectoire and has been open almost a month, currently seats around 50 offering full breakfast and lunch menus with hot meals starting from just £1.50.
Speaking on the prices, Liam said: "Through the cost of living crisis, a lot of companies have raised their prices. We think that some of them have raised them a little too high, whereas here we're trying to keep it as minimal as possible."
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Santiago's sells a hot pot of tea for just £1 and Bristol brand Wogan coffee from £1.50 a cup alongside a full breakfast menu served until 12pm. This includes breakfast baps from £1.50 as well as a build-your-own fry-up with bacon, sausages and black pudding. The kitchen, fronted by chef Matthew, makes almost everything from scratch in house, with the exception of the cookies, including three fresh soups for £1.50 a portion served with garlic bread.
"We don't really believe in inflation here," Liam explained. "We're trying to help people as much as we can. A big part of that as well is minimal paying, we're trying to buy as small as possible so we're not wasting to much produce."
Customers can also get a full roast chicken dinner as the centrepiece on weekdays for £5, as well as a meat or vegetable lasagne for the same price. And they serve jacket potatoes from £2.50 as well as an assortment of cakes and pastries.
Manager Liam said food should be cooked with love, not efficiency. The café neighbours the bus and coach station as well as overlooking Greggs, which is known for its traditionally low price point. Liam said this is not a concern for Santiago's, however, which sells bakery items for less than a £1.
People can also buy vegetable soup for £1.50p - which is almost £1 cheaper than Greggs' vegetable soup selling for £2.40p.
"We're trying to compete with an established brand already, but we're not trying to beat them in what they know well. They'll have a huge reach, search and development team that will develop their sandwiches and baguettes, so how else can beat them?
"It's providing that hand touch and quality of service. We believe you don't have to pay a high price to get a good service. Lots of people have a lot going on in their lives and I think Covid has affected a lot of people. Here, we're trying to give back to the local community, be positive and treat everyone with kindness."
The café opened at the beginning of January through private investment from property owners who are working in partnership with St James Priory. Part of the takings will be reserved to offer warm drinking to people in the homeless community.
"We have a charity that we work with personally that gives support to drug addicts in recovery. We give a very large percentage of our takings to the charity."
Its current opening hours are Monday to Friday, 7am until 4pm, but it hopes to extend to the evening and the weekend in the near future. Santiago's kitchen will look to offer pizzas in the future as well as opening the upstairs room for customers and private events, which holds another 50 people.
Cannon St, Bristol BS1 3NZ
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