USA Street Food Social at Somewhere Else
When I first moved to Gloucestershire, I used to go to Cirencester quite often. It is the largest town in The Cotswolds and a great place to visit if you are interested in Roman History. However, I haven’t been to Cirencester for years. I was invited over to the USA themed Street Food Social at Somwehere Else, and couldn’t resist a return to this pretty market town.
Somewhere Else is a Deli Bar in the centre of Cirencester. It serves brunch, lunch and dinner and over the summer months holds Street Food Socials at the end of the month. The Street Food Social at the end of July had a USA theme. This was reflected in both the food and the entertainment for the kids.
Somewhere Else is exactly the sort of place I would want to hang out pre-kids. They have a decent selection of wines, beers and spirits and also serve 2 for 1 cocktails every evening from 5-7pm and all night Saturdays when there is also a DJ playing. However, it is by no means an adult-only venue. There is a kids menu and there was plenty of entertainment to keep them occupied whilst we sat and chilled out in the outside seating area. On that particular day, rain was forecast, so we were grateful for the covered outside seating area should we have needed to make a dash for some shelter.
The girls made a beeline for the face painting. Although there were a few USA-themed patterns to choose from, they both opted for a flowery design – with glitter!
Once their faces were painted, the girls went straight to the crafts table. There was a huge USA-themed picture to colour in. Freyja headed straight for this, as she loves drawing and colouring in. I should say that I’m not sure that she actually knows who Bugs Bunny is! Emily preferred smaller scale colouring in as she put her own unique spin on what colour a range of USA themed food should be. After the colouring, they did some cut and sticking to make their own pizzas and hot dogs and then did a bit of painting. I think they would have been happy doing this all day!
The crafts weren’t the only activities available. There was a “Find the American” hunt. This involved finding pictures of five famous Americans dotted around Somewhere Else (inside and out). They were all at child-friendly heights, so Freyja genuinely spotted most of them before I did. She even recognised a few of them. She knew who Barack Obama was having done an art project on him at school recently. I thought the Trump darts board was a nice touch!
The highlight for me was, unsurprisingly, the food. In addition to the pizzas – for which all ingredients were sources from within a 30 mile radius of Somewhere Else, there was a pretty magnificent hot dog menu. There were five different styles, ranging from the classic with caramelised onions, mustard and ketchup costing £3.50 to the Texan and El Mexicana costing £5.50. And the best thing? Veggie frankfurters making some of the hot dogs suitable for vegetarians and vegans too!
I chose a veggie Hippie Hot Dog (£4) which was topped with crushed avocado and beans. Rich went for the China Town Hot Dog (£4). This was topped with Asian pickled veg and sriracha mayo. Mine was delicious, but having tried a bit of the oriental mayonnaise on Rich’s, I did wonder if I had made the right decision!
No hot dog would be complete without a side of fries. We ordered a portion of bistro fries and sweet potato fries – both from the regular menu. The sweet potato fries were amazing. I slightly resented having to share them with Rich. I am glad that they are on the Somewhere Else menu as I will definitely be back again before the next Street Food Social for another helping! Also on the daily menus are kids food. This lunchtime, the girls had a choice of beans on toast, soft boiled eggs with soldiers, chicken bites and chips and sausage chips and beans. They opted for the chicken – which they polished off quickly, before returning to the crafts.
To round off the food, I went to check out a stall being run by Peace and Bake. They are a vegan bakery based in Cirencester and were selling a selection of pies and sweet treats. I spent quite a while trying to decide what to buy, but eventually bought honeycomb and white chocolate tiffin, salted caramel brownie and maple pecan brownie. I have always assumed that unless you are baking with eggs and dairy products, then cakes etc just won’t taste as good. How completely wrong I was! The cakes were rich and delicious and brownies had lovely gooey centres. I would never have guessed that they were vegan. My only regret was that I hadn’t bought a couple of the pies too! Seems like another good reason to return to Cirencester on another occasion.
I am so glad we went to the Street Food Social. Apart from the delicious food, being able to have some great free kids entertainment meant that going out for some food as a family was a really relaxed and enjoyable event. I’m looking forward to finding out what the theme will be for September’s Street Food Social. If you are close to Cirencester, then I would thoroughly recommend you check it out. And if you can’t make the final one of the year next month, then do just go and check out Somewhere Else – especially those sweet potato fries!
