One of three Michelin-star restaurants in Bristol, Casamia is to close in August. Executive chef Zak Hitchman is reported as saying that rapidly increasing costs have made the business financially unviable and that ‘losing just a few covers per service is often the difference between making a profit and making a loss’. Casamia’s current style is certainly different, as Zak explains:
In August 2020 we ripped up Casamia’s rule book and started fresh. We created an unconventional restaurant, serving 20 courses of food like you’ve never had before, soundtracked by an eclectic mix of music played through a ridiculous soundsystem. We filled Casamia with graffiti, record sleeve menus, neon lighting, strobes, and projectors showing interesting and peculiar cinematography. Most importantly we created a restaurant filled with a team enjoying themselves.
The Sanchez-Iglesias family has plans to turn Casamia’s space into a new, more casual restaurant that harks back to Casamia’s original days as a neighbourhood trattoria. Peter Sanchez-Iglesias still oversees operations at Bathurst Basin’s Paco Tapas as well as Decimo at The Standard Hotel in London. Press reports state that he will also look after Casamia’s replacement which the family hopes to open by Christmas.
The closure of Casamia will leave Bristol with just two Michelin-starred restaurants: Bulrush in Cotham and Paco Tapas.