We tried the cooked breakfast at the new Bristol cafe run by greasy spoon veterans

It has only been open under its new owners for three weeks but Gillian’s Cafe & Sandwich Bar in Speedwell is already busy with old customers and fresh faces.

The new team used to run the legendary Fountain Cafe on Church Road in St George for 13 years. That iconic greasy spoon had been there since 1955 in total but the owner of the building left in his will a desire for the building to be sold and it soon goes to auction.

Charmaine Daveridge and her family decided to leave the Fountain Cafe name with the old building and retain the name of Gillian’s Cafe & Sandwich Bar in Crofts End Road, which shut around the same time.

Before running the Fountain Cafe, Charmaine used to be the canteen manager of Bristol bus station so you could say she knows her way around a frying pan and hot griddle.

But at this new venture, she’s also showing customers she’s a dab hand at sandwiches and takeaway food in the separate shop area next to the cafe.

Charmaine says so far the shop side of things has actually been busier than the sit-down cafe, but plenty of old regulars from Church Road have made the journey to Speedwell.

The takeaway trade is mainly coming from people working in the nearby trading estates. The cafe itself is a lot more contemporary than the Fountain was and there’s a doorbell on the counter which diners have to push to get the attention of the staff in the kitchen and sandwich shop.

The cooked breakfasts cost from £6 for a regular to £9.50 for the ‘special breakfast’ (two sausage, two bacon, two eggs, black pudding, two hash browns, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes and toast or fried bread).

Also on the blackboard menu are ‘main meals’ (all £9) including homemade chilli con carne, cottage pie, lasagne and chicken curry. There are lighter bites, too, including scrambled eggs on toast, jacket potatoes and paninis.

My medium breakfast (£7.95) was hard to fault and everything was cooked to piping hot perfection. OK, the sausage was a touch pappy but the bacon was of a high quality, the fried egg had a perfectly runny yolk, the black pudding was generous and the mushrooms, beans and tinned tomatoes on point. The thick slices of lavishly buttered toast mopped up the remaining juices and egg yolk.

All breakfasts come with a cup of tea or coffee and also a glass of orange juice, which I don’t recall at the Fountain Cafe and it’s a nice touch. It reminded me of fry-ups in seaside B&Bs which always come with a glass of fruit juice.

They may have moved the short distance from St George to Speedwell and trade under a new name but the Daveridge family continues to cook one of best cooked breakfasts for miles. It’s the beginning of a new dawn for Bristol fry-up aficionados and I’m sure they’ll be at their new location for as long as the last one.

Gillian’s Cafe & Sandwich Bar, 20 Crofts End Road, Bristol, BS5 7UW.