Features / Cafes
Meeting the faces behind one of Bristol’s best known cafes
Just before Burra started pouring coffee from their third site in Clifton Village, co-owner Jake Heenan and head chef Toru Yanada shared their secrets behind running one of Bristol’s most loved coffee and brunch spots.
When I think of a perfect brunch spot in Bristol, one of my first thoughts is always Burra. Their cafes are always buzzing with chatter, laughter and peaceful chaos. More often than not, on a Sunday morning you’ll find me people-watching from one of their bar stools in their North Street home.
On a recent morning, I had a tingling feeling in my stomach and was trying to mask my excitement. After all, you don’t get the chance to meet the co-founder of your favourite cafe along with their head chef every day.
is needed now More than ever
Many might know Jake Heenan as a rugby player for Bristol Bears. But sat in front of me was the entrepreneur version of the charming New Zealander, with two successful Burras under his wing and – when we spoke – planning to open their third cafe on The Mall in Clifton Village.
Burra opened its third site in Clifton Village in March – photo: Martin Booth
I started with a question that had been bothering me for months. What does Burra mean? Jake chuckled: “It’s a play on Kookaburra, obviously being an independent cafe.
But my thoughts when we discussed this first, was that Burra is going to mean to people what we do. A name only represents what it makes people feel.”
Jake, who has also lived in Australia and Ireland, was keen to bring the Antipodean culture to his venture in Bristol, which all started with a message to his former Bears teammate Luke Morahan.
“So it was November 2020. I’d been on holiday with my wife Adele and we were talking about these things,” said Jake. “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do and I thought that maybe this is something I can do while I’m still playing. So I texted Luke, to see what he thinks. I texted him, ‘Do you want to open a cafe?’ And he texted back saying, ‘Yeah okay.’ And that was it, that was literally how it started. We sort of took it on and we learnt as we went.”
Bears chief exec, Tom Tainton, also played a key role in the early days of Burra. And in October 2021, a few months after the first Burra on Lower Redland Road had opened, Toru Yanada brought in his experience from Michelin-starred restaurants, Japanese origin and knowledge from around the world to create what is now Burra’s menu.
The soft French toast and a cup of cappuccino from their menu always hits the spot – photo – Alston D’souza
When Toru took became head chef, he said it was like finding his calling: “My background is a restaurant background, from Michelin-starred restaurants and more. Then I got involved with my family for a bit, before I went back to school. But after a point I couldn’t stay in school any longer.
“When I found this job and came here and talked to Jake, I could feel this really positive energy. They always listen to what I think, and not only what they think. I always exchange opinions. I ask other chefs for their opinions. Because of that I also feel that I have to improve.”
Burra’s menu is all heart, just like the people that work in this little cafe. Flat whites, lattes and cappuccinos can be seen flying out from the other side of the counter, before a warm friendly face serves you water and asks if you’d like to eat something. But one thing that has given me sleepless nights, and made me almost burn down my own kitchen, is poaching an egg. Somehow every person in Burra’s kitchen knows how to poach a perfect egg: soft on the outside, runny on the inside. I couldn’t resist and asked Toru for the secret.
Bursting into laughter Jake nodded, and added that they might start holding poached egg lessons like their latte art lessons that are incredibly popular.
“More important than poaching the egg, is the ingredient,” said Toru, with a disclaimer that his answer might be a little boring for non-poached egg aficionados. “You have to really carefully choose your ingredients. I just talk to the farm, from where our eggs are brought. They will directly bring it to me. But if there’s anything wrong I would talk to them first. It’s very important to listen to what ingredients say.”
The third Burra is due to open in Clifton Village on March 1 within what had been the site of Bar Chocolat for 25 years. The site will have familiar faces from both their previous cafes and some new faces, but in all other ways Jake assured that it will be the “same Burra”.
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For the Burra team, it is about “growing up rather than growing out”. Jake said: “My thoughts on it is that what makes Burra special is the people, the community and the way we can really get into the weeds and we can get in with people and work on really small things like how do we greet customers when they walk through the door.
“I worry that if we expand too big and too far, we will stretch our people. Toru is working on three sites in Bristol for quality control, training and attention to detail and if he has to go to Bath, Cardiff, etc, I worry that we’ll lose the quality because everything for us is around quality. The only thing that matters is that we do a really, really good job. So I’m not in a hurry to expand.”
Before I enjoyed my poached eggs, Jake emphasised how important quality of service is for the Burra team across their sites: “One of the reasons that we opened Burra in the start was that I found good coffee came with poor service, and they were almost interlinked. That was one thing that I found early, and that I really wanted to break down, was bringing hospitality and good coffee together. How can we make people feel better when they have their coffee? How do we make people feel when they walk through the door?
“We really want this experience to be like inviting you around to my house and you coming into my living room. I think it’s these really simple things and obviously it starts with our people.”
Main photo: Burra
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