The restaurant that kick-started a foodie revolution
When the Tour de France came to York in 2014, it seemed as though a yellow bike hung from every building in the city. The following summer, the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire, created to surf the sudden interest in professional cycle racing, prompted a rash of blue bikes across the county.
One business, though, took no notice. The Blue Bicycle on Fossgate had first chained its cornflower-coloured bike to the road sign outside years before all these johnny-come-latelies tried to muscle in on the act.
Info
Address 34 Fossgate, York YO1 9TA, +44 (0)1904 673990, www.thebluebicycle.com, info@thebluebicycle.com | Public Transport 2-minute walk from Piccadilly car park. Closest bus stops: Banana Warehouse, Piccadilly, and Stonebow | Hours Mon–Wed 6pm–9:30pm; Thu–Sat noon–2:30pm & 6pm–9:30pm; Sun noon–2:30pm & 6pm–9pm| Tip Within a short walk from the Blue Bicycle you’ll find Indian, Korean, and British restaurants. Or try the Star Inn the City, which overlooks York’s other river, the Ouse, in Museum Gardens.
There’s another important distinction too. While the Tour de Yorkshire’s bicycles were there to represent healthy outdoor pursuits, that was not the case with the restaurant’s two-wheeler. Here we’re talking “blue” as in blue film. Because the Blue Bicycle is found in the premises of a former brothel.
Many businesses might seek to keep such an association quiet. Not so this restaurant. Ever since it replaced the Cockatoo Creperie some time back in the nineties, the Blue Bicycle has made the most of the building’s notorious past, including hanging tasteful nude pictures in the gloomy alcoves of the downstairs room. The owners even reckoned the restaurant’s vase-smashing ghost dates from those disreputable times.
But the BB has done much more for York than provide it with a saucy yarn. It almost single-handedly transformed the city from culinary backwater into foodie heaven. When it first opened, a national food critic hailed it as the stand-out restaurant in “a roll call of the undistinguished.” The restaurant’s menu, dominated by fish dishes as befits a location overhanging the River Foss, won awards and acclaim. And it blazed a trail that others followed, so that now Fossgate and Walmgate alone offer a host of top-notch places to eat.
The Lycra-loving boy racers from the Tour de France have long gone. Happily, the Blue Bicycle is still parked on Fossgate.
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