A Windy Day In Chester

Compared to Birmingham, Chester feels like a step back in time. There are no climbing glass buildings filled with annoying office workers, intrusive metro systems and the buskers are well known in the community and respectfully abide by the 30-minutes in a spot rule.

I lived in Chester for three years while I worked towards my degree. Of course, everyone thinks that University is your golden years and something you hold onto for a very long time. I agree with the ides; University is the time where you're let loose and given a chance to make poor life choices; it's like the training wheels of adulthood but a lot more memory loss.

But Chester is a pretty cool place regardless of the messy nights at the student union; Chester is a hub of independent entrepreneurs and creative folk. Everywhere you turn, there are local coffee shops, deli and even cinemas. Every few months there is a flurry of new people trying to make their business flourish within the old Roman walls; out of this trend, some fantastic things have happened. Amble and Tortoise both started as independent publications that encourage creative minds, promote unique events and review independents for the benefit of the tourists.

All the points mentioned above are precisely why I'm obsessed with the place, even though it's a city nobody feels isolated. So four months after moving back home to the big city, I decided to bring the boy to visit the place I moan so much about regularly.

Coffee Shop Tour

On our whistle-stop tour of Chester, coffee shops were an absolute must. Our first place to stop was the fantastic Bean and Cole, the owners are good people, but unfortunately, they weren't in the shop to give the boy a good first impression. Instead, we sampled the filter (coffee shop review coming soon!) and chatted with some regulars. 

The conversation itself is not essential, the critical thing here is the confidence of coffee shop regulars to introduce themselves to strangers. 

Bean and Cole are very much known for being the 'puppy place', it's easy to clean wooden floors, and wide-open space in the centre is perfect for tangled leashes. When the shop first opened, the owner's shop dogs would regularly be sat in the corner with a chew toy. Many people copied the idea of shop dogs after Neville and Ginny hit the business Instagram page. 

There were three reasons why I was so keen to bring the boy to Bean and Cole; 1) It was the closest to the train station, and I was gasping for a cuppa, 2) their coffee is arguably one of the best and 3) they were one of the first independent coffee shops to open up in the city centre.

After Bean and Cole, we ventured over to Flower Cup, hidden in the old city walls. The boy was pretty much captivated by this point, he enjoys history and victorian style architecture but was quite sad when he saw empty shops and chewing gum stains on the old wood floor.

Flower cup is another big one in Chester, the queen of flowers and brunches. The food was so fabulous I didn't even get the chance to take a picture before the boy started tucking in. I remember when it first opened, a tight little cafe that was filled to the brim with succulents and finding a seat was so tricky. I remember hearing the rumours that they'd bought the shop space next door, but instead of expanding the cafe they opened a flower shop. It's even harder to find a suitable table now, so we settled for an elevated one (Which was difficult for me to get onto because of of...short. 

The coffee in flower cup is good, but not as good as the other places around. The coffee feels almost burnt compared to other sites.

We did visit a few other coffee shops, but I'm nowhere near experienced enough to give a comprehensive review so the boy will be guest blogging on here soon.

Cigar Sampling lounge

With a traditional city like Chester, old-fashioned trends are sure to follow. I've known about the Whisky and Tobacconist shop for many years. I've visited a handful of times, but I've never smoked a cigar in the lounge or tried their drinks. The boy likes these things, and I was determined to make his trip to Chester as enjoyable as possible, so of course, we went in.

£11 for a cigar which was supposed to last 20 minutes. We were sold before the host even started speaking. The service was impeccable, the free coffee as a palette cleanser was smooth and firm but so needed. The lounge was by far a highlight in our day, but unfortunately, as neither of us we're pro's at smoking the cigar, we left after 45 minutes with a right half a cigar left in the metal tubes.

If you have a vice or two and decide to visit Chester, I would 100% say that this is the place to be. I knew many people who would go after an exhausting day of work or right before they'd go to the pub on a race day. Quite a lot of residents were big smokers, so it didn't surprise me that the place always had a flow of people through the door.

Either side of the small lounge there was a standard cigarette or pipe section and a large selection of expensive gins and whiskeys for sale. Both of which were extremely tempting. But our difference in taste became evident when I bought a bottle of unicorn tears gin, and he was eyeing up a bland bottle of £45 whiskey.

The Market

Our trip to the market was very brief, so I'm afraid this section will be the same. When I first moved to Chester, the market was nasty, ugly and always empty. In the space of 3 years, the market into an award-winning tourist attraction. It became the place to go for food and a beer on a Friday. With sites like That beer Place...and Death by Tacos in the market, its no surprise the place is so bloody popular. 

Meltdown

I wonder if I would get a discount from Laura if I told her how often I promote meltdown? Probably not but worth a try. Meltdown Is the spot for cheese lovers anywhere. The basic concept is if you can eat it, you can eat it with cheese in a toastie, and I would not have it any other way.

My toastie of choice is the bacon, brie and cranberry sauce, which mixes ridiculously well and tastes just as lovely in February as it would in Christmas time.

The boy had initially ordered a Mac and cheese with peppers and sausage but opted to have it in a cheese toastie and almost had a heart attack. To put this choice into perspective, this was a cheat day from veganism, and the boy went so hardcore with meat and dairy. I think he may have regretted it afterwards.

But it was so worth it to chat with Laura and have a laugh, play with her puppy called Kitty and indulge on some seriously good food. 

So there you go; a whistle-stop tour of Chester told in one sitting. We had an absolute nightmare getting back home and may have train hopped a little bit. But we regretted nothing! As I travel back and forth more, I shall aim to provide more depth on these trips. But for now, here are the juicy highlights.

Thanks for reading!