You may think Gail’s took over the city – but there’s at least one other bakery cafe in Bristol that beats them in numbers
Inside the new Gail’s bakery on College Green on its opening day (Thursday, September 4, 2025)(Image: Paul Gillis/Reach Plc)
It’s no secret that Bristol has no shortage of coffee shops and cafes. Big cities and coffee houses seem to go hand in hand these days, synonymous with the hectic commute and the quick breaks us Brits seem to squeeze into our working days.
They’re also places we love to meet up with friends, go on dates, take some respite from shopping, people watch, read a good book, and even settle in with our laptops for a bit of work – a coffee shop is nowadays no stranger to a work meeting either. But it won’t have eluded many of us that there seems to be an ever growing number of big chains somewhat being mistaken as independents, taking root here in Bristol.
Most of us down here in the South West may not have heard their names before they’re due to open up what is usually their first branch in the region here. But if you’re a regular commuter to London, you’ll no doubt be stunned at the welcoming, or unwelcoming, nature of Bristolians when a London chain places a hypothetical flag on some high street territory.
So who are these ‘imposters’, why have they chosen Bristol to set up shop, and what could this mean for its neighbouring independents in the future?
Who are they? And where have they opened?
In the past year or so, Bristol has seen new openings from the usual brands like Starbucks, Costa and the like, as well as others that put on a much more fanciful song and dance around their openings here in the city. Gail’s now has three venues in Bristol, marking its first branches in the South West, and some say we should be flattered.
The first Gail’s opened its doors on Regent Street in Clifton on May 2, 2024, with the second opening a matter of months later (February 21, 2025) on Whiteladies Road, and the third on College Green on September 4, after being delayed several times. There was a clear difference in interest from when the first branch opened to the brand’s most recent – back in 2024, opening day at the Gail’s Clifton site saw queues out the door at times, as the people of Bristol came along to show their support and welcome this ‘popular’ name to the city.
But by the time of its third opening, this time on College Green towards the bottom of Park Street, there were no queues out the door, and staff even described it as being a ‘rather quiet’ opening as far as the Gail’s spectacle goes. In 2024 the chain, which at the time already boasted bakeries in and around London, Oxford and Brighton, marked its very first South West location here in Bristol.
Those behind the marketing told BristolLive that while a chain, the aim of Gail’s is to fit seamlessly into the community in such a way that a local independent would. And staff described Gail’s as having a ‘vibe’ unlike other coffee shop chains, with some customers comparing the atmosphere to being like ‘stepping in to a friend’s home’.
Gail’s is well known for it’s sourdough and pastries(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
The brand also dove straight into cementing its place in the community by announcing its partnership with two local charities – Feed The Homeless and Loaves and Fishes. Any baked goods left in the bakery cafe at the end of each day were to be given away to help feed those in need, we were told, and there’s much talk of getting local schools involved in learning all about the baking industry and nutrition as a whole. Plus, the Clifton bakery promised to champion several South West producers.
However, as soon as more Gail’s were announced to be arriving to Bristol following the first’s success, locals were quick to share their thoughts, with one local independent coffee shop urging people to ‘boycot’ the new College Green site. Meanwhile, others decided to take to platforms like Reddit to share their disapproval at yet more of the chain’s coffee shops ‘taking over’ the local scene.
In January 2025, one Reddit user commented: “Yeah they’re everywhere in London now. Seems like pretty much every high street now has a Gail’s and at least one Pret and don’t even get me started on those Joe and the Juice places. I can only pray that their £10 juice never blackens a Bristol street.”
Lo and behold, by July, Joe & The Juice was announced to be opening in Cabot Circus, charging almost £12 for a sandwich and a similar eye-watering amount for certain drinks – read our review here.
Joe & the Juice at Cabot Circus PHOTO:PAUL GILLIS / Reach Plc(Image: PAUL GILLIS / Reach PLC)
Another hotly-anticipated arrival to our city’s coffee shop scene was Black Sheep which, despite opening towards the start of 2025 in a former Vodafone store on Queens Road as part of a 15-year lease, many a Bristolian would have been excited at the prospect of this brand hitting our high street when signage popped up at a unit at The Arcade in Broadmead back in mid-2024, which had previously been home to The Crazy Fox.
Coffee enthusiasts waited months for updates that never seemed to come, until it was discovered that the shop was advertised as to let for £39,500 pa on Zoopla. Black Sheep Coffee was founded in 2013 by Gabriel Shohet and Eirik Holth, who started out with a stall in Camden in London and it now boasts coffee shops and cocktail bars across the UK, France and the Phillippines – and it’s soon to open in Cornwall.
Despite these Londoners encroaching on Bristolian territory (and hilariously mostly setting up residence in or rather close to Clifton), there are local independents that have expanded to open multiple coffee shops, cafes and bakeries in all corners of the city, some outdoing the likes of Gail’s and garnering a massive following of loyal customers. Take Pinkmans as one example, which in November announced the opening of its fifth site in Bristol, just under 18 months after a devastating fire meant the permanent closure of their popular Park Street bakery and cafe in June 2023.
Or Burra, the Bristol coffee shop and brunch spot founded by Bristol Bears rugby players and their families – Burra announced its third Bristol cafe in February.
In conclusion…
Without listing all of the successes of Bristol’s local independent coffee shops and cafes (we’d be here all day), it’s safe to say there are at least some Bristol independents that are as established, or even more so, when it comes to the loyalty and love they have from their local customers – and only those customers can really tell you why that is.
In a broader sense, the debate of choosing between chains and locals is an age old one that shows no signs of disappearing any time soon. However, the evidence shows that our independents know how to give the big dogs (or sheep) a run for their money.
On one side of the coin (the chains) you have the comfort blanket of being able to get consistent products for a recognised price and that ease of finding big name brands when you’re travelling. There’s also the factor of giving jobs in such big brand names to local people and, sometimes, more time, training and pay. But then if we all supported our locals, they too could expand such aspects of their business.
We’d be keeping them open, preventing big names from being the last standing in the apocalypse and, let’s be honest, doesn’t having a favourite local independent make you feel like you are part of the best secret – one you get to share with relatives who visit or, in my case, our loyal Bristol readers yet to try it.
While we may be hoping for ‘not another coffee shop’ on our high streets, who knows – one day we may hear a Londoner say “not another of those Bristol cafes invading the capital”. After all, Bristol does it best.