A café opposite the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children is marking ten years of service this week. The team at Penfold’s Kitchen has been described as “community heroes” by one doctor, led by the caring spirit of its owner, Simon Penfold, who goes above and beyond to support the hospital community.
Simon, originally from Dorset, has lived in Bristol since his university years. Now married with children, he originally worked in retail for Snow + Rock but had always dreamed of owning his own café, and took the opportunity when local hospitality group Caffe Gusto was selling its site on Upper Maudlin Street opposite the children's hospital and the Bristol Royal Infirmary back in 2013.
“It wasn’t all easy," he said. "The first two years I had to sell my house to keep going and then a big Costa opened inside the hospital, but then gradually, we built over the years and our relationship with the hospital grew and grew. They’ve kept us going, really.”
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Penfold’s Kitchen offers discounts to NHS staff as well as hosting pop-up events in the evenings where departments come together and have a meal. It has also offered barista training in the past to teach workers how to do latte art.
“When Covid happened, like everyone in hospitality, we thought ‘we’re done for’. I was sent a video of the ED consultants gathering everyone around and they said ‘right, over the coming months we’ve got two challenges, to keep Penfold’s Kitchen going and to defeat Covid. I got shown this and I was in bits, it was amazing.”
The café - which has a team of eight, including Simon and Paola Di Bella as manager - has developed a symbiotic relationship with the entire hospital community, both NHS staff and parents of children who are patients at the children’s hospital. It sells cakes, pastries, toasties and sandwiches as well as excellent coffee provided by Clifton Coffee Roasters - which is run by two of Simon’s best friends - and has been using the same four local suppliers for a decade.
Simon added: “Hospitality in Britain is undervalued and I feel wholehearted that what we’ve done is down to all of our staff over the years. I think about who’s helped us and it’s not always a career for life, but everyone has been brilliant, gone above and beyond and got what we do here to help people where we can.”
Penfold’s Kitchen works closely with The Grand Appeal next door, offering discounts and support to families of those who are staying to be near their children in the hospital. It also works with Dexter’s Odyssey to offer vouchers for coffee and cake at the café.
“My eldest was ten weeks premature and we had eight and a half weeks in hospital," Simon remembered. "One of the things I do remember is the cost because you’re not at home - every meal you’re having to fork out and the cost is piled on top of the stress of having a loved one in the hospital. Any way of trying to help with that is close to my heart.”
So many regulars have now become friends, Simon explained, likening the café to the bar in US sitcom Cheers, when you walk in and everyone knows each other; it's an extension of his home. One of those friends he’s met over the years is Dr Paul Reevely, an emergency medical consultant at Bristol Children’s Hospital opposite the café.
Dr Reevely has been a regular customer since it first opened ten years ago and highlighted everything the Penfold's Kitchen has done for the hospital community. He said likewise Simon was there to support the NHS when Covid hit the UK, launching a delivery service and taking orders to ensure there was something available to the staff on the frontline of the pandemic.
He said the café has become firmly a part of the hospital community, calling Simon the kindest human being you could ever meet. “Some examples of the kind of stuff he does is the family opened up the café on Christmas Day so that he could send breakfast over to the Children’s hospital and staff working,” Dr Reevely explained.
“A couple of years ago he provided between 200 and 300 bacon rolls and coffees for staff who were working over Christmas and parents that had children in the hospital. Particularly those who are there long term, they’re sick kids, children with cancer, they very often get to know him a lot.”
Dr Reevely said the real mark of Simon was the relationship he builds with the parents who have very sick children. “The stand-out thing is to support and provide friendship to those parents who are at the worst times. It’s one of the places they go.”
He continued: “He’s a bit of a community hero, and Paola and the rest of the team. I can’t think how many thousands of coffees he’s delivered to us, some bought but some not. During the nurses strike he’ll be providing trays of pastries and coffees for those at the picket line and bringing them to those who were keeping the hospital going too. He does this all of the time, he’s a great guy.”
Junior doctors and ambulance workers have been striking in March, with nurses calling off the most recent dates for industrial action to enter talks. NHS staff in England have been offered a five per cent pay rise from April, including nurses and ambulance workers, as well as a one-off payment of at least £1,655 - unions will now consider the pay offer.
Simon and his team are supporting them wherever they can. He said: “The things I’ve seen and witnessed, especially through Covid, is a national disgrace that we don’t fund and support the policy. The shifts they do and the sacrifices they make with their families.
“We went from clapping [in lockdown] to pretty much forgetting what they do. The NHS has helped me throughout my life and I’m very passionate about it. It’s probably the only thing we’ve got left that a lot of countries would love to have and it needs reinvestment.”
He’s seeing the strain on the service first-hand, through the workers, families and as a patient himself. He’s awaiting surgery on his shoulder, which will be carried out at a private hospital funded by the NHS, which foots the bill at a higher rate.
The caring work and support of the city centre café has touched the lives of so many people over the past ten years. Penfold’s Kitchen hosted a birthday celebration on Friday (March 16) and invited all of its regulars as a way of thanks for their support since 2013.
Penfold’s Kitchen, 28 Upper Maudlin St, Bristol BS2 8DJ. Open Monday to Friday (7am-3pm) and weekends (8am-2pm)
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