Popti &Beast

Popti & Beast opened on Mina Road in St Werburgh's in 2017, combining a bakery and café run by Leon Hughes with an organic butcher counter run by Tom Beswick trading as Tasty Beast, in a single shopfront split between the two trades. Hughes previously co-founded the bread stall Magic Roll and later lectured at City of Bristol College before turning to baking full-time, while Beswick worked as a freelance butcher and at another Mina Road butcher before setting up his own counter. The bakery side produces sourdough, rye and wholemeal loaves alongside pasties and other baked goods, while the butchery sells organic meat exclusively. The two businesses share premises and opening hours but operate as separate registered concerns under one roof, a format that has become part of Mina Road's identity as a run of small food specialists rather than a single larger retailer.