A new family-run, neighbourhood restaurant is opening in South Bristol and aims to bring inclusivity back into high quality cookery. COR will focus on several cuisines with Mediterranean influence, taking over an empty site on North Street.
Restaurant owner Mark Chapman was born and raised in Australia, where he trained and worked in fine dining restaurants across the county. He jumped into the Bristol food scene on moving to the UK in top venues like the Bath Priory and then worked with Season and Taste - owners of Gambas, Bravas, Cargo Cantina and Baker & Co - as an executive chef for six years.
COR will be the first business of his own, which is something he has wanted to do nice he first started as a chef at 16 years old.
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“The restaurant COR is designed to be an inclusive restaurant for everyone,” Mark told BristolLive. “If you’re a table of one up to eight people you can come in. If you have a very low budget to pop in you can still enjoy something from the menu, whether it be a drink and a croquette or a tartiflette.
“Or if you want to come in for a romantic dinner or a celebration, you can come in and enjoy that. You can come in with all sorts of budgets. There’s a lot of people that don’t have that money especially with this climate so we want to make sure the lunch offerings are cheap and humble.”
Mark and his wife, Karen Paley, noticed the opening on North Street - formerly Flip deli - and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to start their own restaurant. There has been an influx of new openings along this high street in particular over the past few weeks, including a bottle shop and bar, North Street Cheese Company and Kitchen by KASK.
“For a chef like myself I’ve got everything right next to me. I’ve got Zero Green across the road, Hugo’s Grocery, Kask wine bar, the new cheese shop, I’ve got a bottle shop right next door to me as well, and that’s just this end.”
Mark said he already has strong relationships with existing meat and fish suppliers he will bring with him to COR, which are all South West based. The menu is yet to be finalised but pictures of the sample dishes indicate vibrant, elegant yet simplistic cookery.
It will cover dishes from every corner of the Mediterranean and work seasonally with produce from Bristol and the South West. COR, which means heart in Latin, will retain high quality hospitality at the heart of its business with food, drinks and service delivered with passion.
It is a small plates restaurant that will both show off culinary classics from French, Italian and Spanish recipes as well as serve comforting home cooking. The open kitchen will be at the back of the restaurant to create a more intimate atmosphere with the front of house.
Mark, Karen, their family and friends have been working on constructing and decorating the restaurant themselves with additional assistance on plumbing, electrics and building the bar. Tallulah Small, who has previously worked at Root and Cargo Catina, will be restaurant manager while Lido restaurant’s Vyckie Colsell will be sous chef.
“We are hiring apprentices so we are focusing on training for the community. The restaurant is also going to be very sustainable…all the timber for the bar is just upcycling what I already had,” Mark explained.
He emphasised that anybody and everybody is welcome in COR - it’s both dog and family friendly and available to people on a variety of budgets.
It will seat a cover of 38 diners, with bar and table seating along with 12 window seats that will always be reserved for walk-in customers. The restaurant will open on October 26 and is already taking reservations through its website.
COR is located at 81 North Street, BS3 1ES and will be open Tuesdays to Saturdays 12pm until 10pm
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