Blas arFwyd

Blas ar Fwyd — 'a taste of food' — has been the standard-bearer for Welsh produce in the Conwy valley since Deiniol and Chandra Dafydd opened it in Llanrwst in 1988. It is really several businesses in one: a delicatessen and wine shop on the street, a café, an outside-catering operation, a wholesale arm that supplies Welsh food across the north and the borders, and a kitchen turning out more than a hundred handmade products under its own name. What holds it together is a straightforward mission — to prove that Wales makes food and drink as good as anywhere, and to sell it properly. The cheese counter, the Welsh charcuterie, the wine chosen with real knowledge: this is a serious food shop in a small market town, the kind of place that raises the standard of everything around it. Llanrwst is a handsome old bridge town in the shadow of the Carneddau; Blas ar Fwyd is the reason food-minded travellers stop.