Scorchio Bites

On the chilliest day of the season so far, I was in need of a lunchtime pick-me-up. I trotted aimlessly around the city centre and soon alighted upon the police box near the former site of the BHS cafe.

Box

It had once traded briefly as a souvlaki place called Pitta, but it didn’t last long. Now giving it a go is a Spanish sandwich purveyor called Scorchio Bites.

I’d made the same mistake as on my recent visit to Forage & Chatter and stopped by on their first full day of operation, but as with that happy accident I was in for a considerable treat.

Selection

With a staggering twenty different sandwich bites on offer, the focus is on well-crafted fillings of small rolls. There’s soup on offer, too, but my eye was firmly on the brightly coloured sandwich selection.

You can opt for 1 bite for £1.50, two for £2.50, three for £3.50, with the option to add coffee to bring the total to £4.50, which is what I did.

My bites

My sandwich selections were serrano ham, pepper, sweet onion and tomato, then escalivada – an aubergine, pepper and onion paste – with anchovies, and finally tortilla, black olive paste and red pepper.

Each was delicious, fresh and packed with flavour. They’d been warmed in the oven making the bread beautifully crisp and light. They were absolutely outstanding.

I expected the coffee wouldn’t be up to much, but it was solidly pleasing.

So overall, Scorchio Bites was a very unexpected pleasure. I worry about the viability of starting such a sunny business at such a Baltic time of year, but it’s a place serving really high quality fare so it demands your attention. Visit soon and visit often.