Hard man image? (Vanilla Cafe, Debenham)

Vanilla cafe,

Debenham,

Opening Times

Mon-Sat 8-4

Recommended 

Last week Big George had called off our planned cafe cycle ride into darkest Suffolk sighting 3 reasons

1. He was feeling poorly
2. It was too far
3. It was due to rain all day

This was hardly in keeping with his hard man Scottish image but I had reluctantly agreed to rearrange the trip until yesterday. However by the time it was finished his beer drinking, rugby loving persona was in tatters.

I had replanned the route down from the original 58 miles to a more manageable 37 to keep within Big Georges current limits. The route was due to start from Hoxne (no I don't know how to pronounce it either) in North Suffolk so we had to drive there first.

On arrival we enthusiastically got the bikes out the back of the car and were soon enjoying the Suffolk countryside, which is very similar to Norfolk but with extra hills.

Getting ready to set off from Hoxne

Big George had a quick whinge about the wind direction but despite this we made good time down to Debenham for today's cafe stop. Please note Debenham is a place in Suffolk and we didn't just pop into the nearest department store. Our venue was The Vanilla cafe on the high Street.

Outside Vanilla cafe about to cause pavement gridlock

As there was nowhere to leave our bikes we propped them against the cafe sandwich board but foolishly didn’t follow cycling guests cycling top tip no. 65

Cycling guest cycling top tip no. 65. Never leave your bikes somewhere that narrows the width of the pavement as this will instantly attract all mobility scooters from miles around and cause total pavement gridlock.

I left Big George to wrestle with bikes and mobility scooters and went inside to check out the cakes and place our order.

Today's cake selection

As well as a good selection of cakes I was glad to see brownie available so I took some away for later testing in my secret underground bicycle workshop back at Crusader Towers.

I order Victoria sponge to go with my Hot Chocolate while Big George had a Cappuccino and a pain Au chocolat which isn't really cake but close enough for him.

We sat outside enjoying our refreshments and as our bikes were now safely parked away from the pavement no more mobility scooters appeared.

Today;s hot drink and cake selection

My Hot Chocolate was fairly standard but Big George thought his giant Cappuccino was particularly good. On the cake front then the Victoria sponge was a very large nice tasting piece while I ignored Big George’s view on the pain au chocolat as it wasn’t really cake. Overall the Vanilla cafe had proved to be a decent stop and I recommend  a visit.

As we set off again Big George asked me to guess what event, in the next couple of weeks, he had managed to get tickets for. I assumed it must be yet another Scottish Rugby match so was somewhat surprised to be told he had gone ticket crazy for the forthcoming Norfolk and Norwich cultural festival. As he listed each performance I became increasingly worried about his future image rights. I could just about understand one going to see a selection of 'Songs and poems from the sea' sung and spoken by people I've never heard of but I would find it harder to justify watching over an hour of artistic acrobatics in a large tent, although apparently this is done in the nude (the acrobatic bit not the watching) so could almost see the attraction. However how any self respecting so called Scottish hard man could sign up to sit through an interpretation of the “world in free-fall” via the media of dance is beyond me.

I explained I wouldn't be going to any events again this year as during all the performance art I have been to (which isn’t any) I always end up getting bored and thinking I would rather be at home with a good spreadsheet.

Unnerved by a discussion about art I changed the conversation back to Big George’s favourites of Rugby, beer and housework before insisting on a short detour to Cocoa Mama's cafe in Eye to collect some more brownie. To comfort myself I spent a happy afternoon brownie tasting and filling in the appropriate rows and columns in my #BOTY Excel.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.5	7.5	6.8	7.37	7.05	6.84

Route

Click here to download 37 Mile Hoxne Debenham loop gpx file to your GPS