I often sit by the docks and wonder what would be my first port of call if I had just arrived in Bristol for the first time by ship, didn't know a soul and wanted to find the beating heart of this great city.
Back in the days when tall ships sailed alongside Broad Quay, I'm sure the place to go for a hot meal and a pint of local ale would have been salty seadog taverns like The Shakespeare or The Hatchet.
These days, however, I think my first stop would still have to be the Watershed. Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, it has been at Bristol's cultural epicentre for three decades and I don't doubt it will still be here for many more.
In those 30 years, the Watershed Café has barely changed. If anything, its exposed brick walls and wooden rafters, and its lofty New York-style looks more on-trend than ever. It must have seemed well ahead of the game in the mid-80s.
The music is still discreet, cool jazz – the sort they used to play in smoky basement clubs in the 1950s.
OK, the black polo-necked architects of the 80s and 90s have made way for iPad-tapping, Converse-wearing new media types, but the Watershed still attracts its fair share of creative types and that's what makes this unique place tick.
The food is certainly much improved since then and the kitchen's 'plot to plate' approach to the menu means an emphasis on ethical, local, organic – all things that would have been considered 'too hippyish' when the Watershed first launched.
Still packed most lunchtimes, it's also a very useful place for a quick pre-theatre (or pre-film) supper.
The new summer menu offers temptations such as a seasonal vegetable tart (£5), risotto of the day (£7) and courgette and herb frittata (£7.95). There are sharing dishes such as nachos (£5.25 small or £7.25 large) and light bites of mini crab and coriander cakes (£5.50), all of which can be washed down with a range of local ales, a short wine list or Lovely Drinks elderflower fizz from Barrow Gurney.
I went for the beef burger deluxe (£10.95) – a mountainous stack of two beef burgers topped with melted Emmental cheese, a fruity salsa, chunky chips and a heap of salad. The burgers were juicy and boasted a good chargrilled flavour, the chips were crisp and piping hot.
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