Those of us in the field of events-based writing should always keep one thing in mind, and that’s to resist your prose being guided by the weather. It’s very easy to nod at the beaming sun outside one’s window, knock up a load of guff about how summer is finally here, and then find that between completion and publication, conditions have drastically changed. On account of their changeability. Nevertheless! Flying by the seat of our breeches here, I’m beseeching you to hit up the very first Sunday Brunch Social this very Sunday – 18 July, let the records show – which is a nailed-on heater in every Cardiff forecast going. Not even an impending climate disaster can knock this one off course – take it from me, a guy who writes about events in Wales.
The Sunday Brunch Social is a new gambit from Fresh & Wild, which is a weekly food market found at the Boneyard – which is a neat indie space in the far fringe of Canton where local traders of various types sell their wares from repurposed shipping containers. Its premise is, reasonably, social in essence, encouraging visitors to take a seat and slow down their Sabbath rather than arriving, buying and leaving as hastily as possible. Moreover, they’ve assembled a bunch of traders with a brunch-centric selection (no-one can satisfactorily define brunch, of course, you just know it when you’re eating/drinking it) who, like F&W’s other stalls, are geared towards small local businesses. This is good for the quality of produce, the local economy and the impending climate disaster, in that order of importance.
Right, what’s for brunch? Highlights, or what I would expect to be, from this list I have helpfully been handed: Dusty’s Pizza, fka Dusty Knuckle, will be spinning pies as per with a menu of toppings tailored to the day, and also cooking up pans of shakshuka. That’s theirs in the pic. Looks great, eh? Friends In Knead, a very well regarded bakery whose name I always read as “friend skinhead” when I see it as their social media handle, offer pastries and sourdough. Nomad Kitchen specialise in Asian breakfast dumplings with various fillings from bacon to vegan; Toast serve toast, as well as other things because a food stall that only sells toast is probably a silly idea. Finally, if you would like a Bloody Mary, recognised as the official drink of brunch by the World Mealtime Organisation, there’ll be a converted rickshaw selling them, made by the Wye Valley’s Silver Circle Distillery. They make it with their patented black garlic vodka, which sounds simply choice at 10am on any given Sunday.
All the regular Fresh & Wild stalls, likewise others at the Boneyard, will also be there, so in short it strikes me as a nice way to greet the fullness of the day.
Fresh & Wild Sunday Brunch Social, The Boneyard, Cardiff, Sundays 10am-2pm. Info: www.instagram.com/freshandwildmarket
words NOEL GARDNER