Bill's - Cambridge

Bill Collison, founder of Bill's, opened the first Bill's in Lewes, East Sussex, in 2001. Built on the same site where Bill had been running a successful greengrocery for several years, Bill's Café & Produce Store, as it was then known, was an instant success. The aim was to make a place that was colourful and exuberant, with dishes that were really tasty and also made you smile, that put every day and unusual seasonal ingredients together and gave everyone lots of ideas to take home with them. The team at Bill's baked, cooked and served deliciously different food, hung skeins of raffia from the ceiling, stacked towers of produce for people to buy and hired lively, enthusiastic staff to look after their customers. They wanted Bill's to be somewhere that really celebrated food and was welcoming to everyone, a place that felt like the next best thing to home. Breakfast at Bills is a great way to start your day; from a humble bacon or sausage sandwich to a bells-and-whistles super classic great British breakfast. Weekends are a different story, time to kick back and turn breakfast into brunch, complete with newspapers, freshly squeezed orange juice and plenty of tea or coffee. There's a special feel to Cambridge Bill's. Tucked away on a small back street, though close to all the action, the restaurant opens up like a Tardis once you step inside. There's a really nice bar that sweeps down one side and the seating is arranged in groups. It even has it's own little library area, complete with books, newspapers and old leather chairs. There are also two private dining areas, seating 15 and 20, which can be hired for parties and business meetings. Since it opened, Cambridge Bill's has been hugely supported by the locals, which pleases us no end, of course. Maybe it's the decor - a little bit urban, a little bit shabby chic. Or maybe it's the way the restaurant slips happily through the day, from coffee to cocktails, as Bill likes to say.