Anyone who’s been to Glastonbury Festival will tell you it’s possible to survive for days on Pieminister pies and cider alone. This is especially true if you choose Pieminister’s ‘Mothership’, a behemoth of a meal, with a pie on top of mash, mushy peas, gravy, grated cheese and shallots.
Thankfully, though, us Bristolians don’t have to go all the way to a muddy field to find the Mothership. Pieminister was founded in Bristol, with its original Stokes Croft home recently refurbished and better than ever. This was where all the pies were once cooked before the family business (the co-founders are also brothers-in-law) moved production to a Southmead factory that used to make aeroplane meals.
A Mothership costs £9.50, while pies on their own come in at £4.50, as do the ‘topless pies’, or pots with no pastry at all. Old favourites are the Matador with beef steak, chorizo, olive and butter beans, and the Wildshroom with wild mushrooms, asparagus, white wine and cream. Beer on tap comes from the Bristol Beer Factory and Somerset’s Wild Beer Co, with 15 bottled ciders to choose from and gin from Thornbury’s Bramley and Gage.
If the pies don’t get you drooling, other menu options include popcorn crayfish and a cheese board, with the pick of the puddings the Bristolbocker Glory served with cider brandy. There’s also a smaller restaurant in St Nick’s Market, with less choice and fewer beers, as well as a regular Pieminister presence at any other market in town worth its salt.