The Halfpenny, Widcombe

This month, The Halfpenny – the gorgeous little (but not that little) all-day café-bar on the north side of Widcombe Parade – celebrates its second birthday… and thriving for two years in the current hospitality industry climate is most definitely a landmark to celebrate. How do you continue to make your business stand out in a crowded market? How do you offer customers decent bang-for-buck without cutting quality corners? How do you turn what’s ostensibly a daytime neighbourhood merrymaking zone into a post-sunset destination well worth deserting the city centre for? Like this:

We rolled along to The Halfpenny on the hottest night of the year in Bath so far: 35℃ and counting. We were fully prepared – in fact, almost looking forward to – chilling out inside the spacious, airy contemporary bistro pretending nothing untoward is going on with our weather (as I did when I last visited The Halfpenny, escaping the pouring rain for what I believe to be The Best Brunch in Bath just a couple of weeks ago). But hey, the pavement tables here are, when the sun starts to recede at this time of year, in shade, glorious shade! And, y’know, if we were in, say, Andalucia, we’d make like a local, wouldn’t we?

Okay, so Widcombe Parade has little in common with downtown Ronda or uptown Seville. But having said that, once The Halfpenny’s immediate kerb appeal has grabbed your attention it’s not too far of an imagination-stretch to allow yourself to indulge in the Mediterranean vacation vibe. The tapas/small plate selection (served from 4pm-8pm Wednesday-Saturday) further endorses such a mood, celebrating classic Iberian inspirations that waltz through meat, seafood and vegetable/cheese options with the grace of an experienced Flamenco aficionado at prices that make you double-check they’re not actually in Euros. 

Where to start? Everywhere, all at once! Generous chunks of moist chicken thigh drenched in green herbs and garlic butter topped with proper pickled red onion? Tick. Pork belly rolled in smoked chilli crumble, the (naughty!) fat rendered to perfection, served with a hot honey butter sauce that I want to slather on pretty much everything I eat from here on in? Got it! Salt and chilli squid, the squid super-moist inside its super-crispy overcoat, a creamy aioli calmly regulating the pungent piquancy of the classic fiery partnership? Addictive! Slices of crispy, golden breaded aubergine, succulent and silky within and drizzled with maple syrup, resulting in a grown-up version of American breakfast pancakes with an eggplant twist? Don’t overlook it.

We had a dish of green beans too, tossed around with garlic, parsley, sherry vinegar and almonds. And when is houmous not just houmous? When it’s Halfpenny houmous, nudged with (I’m guessing) cumin, coriander and other complementary spices and enriched by lashings of very good olive oil.

The rosé was excellent, the beers properly chilled, the service utterly lovely. Happy birthday to The Halfpenny! As a whole, it’s doing everything right.