Double puncture day (Brickyard cafe, Hedenham)

Brickyard Café,

Hedenham,

Tue- Sat 8-3.30, Sun 10-3.30

Highly Recommended

Not surprisingly visits to new cafes have been in short supply recently so it was good to have the opportunity to go somewhere new (ish) today. However I haven't been idle as I have revisited many of my favourite cafes to see how they are operating in these difficult times. So if you want to know which cafes are currently open check out my guide (see Latest post lockdown cafe info).

Today I was off to Hedenham near Bungay where the Every days a Picnic café (EDAP) has changed hands and is now The Brickyard Café. After the recent wet and windy weather I have had to refresh some of my wet weather gear so today I was modelling my new cycling boots. They looked great but had an unfathomable foot entry system which I couldn't work out so even though todays cycling guest, Big George, turned up 10 minutes late my feet were still not ready to go. When I did eventually get them on I must say they were worth the effort and kept my feet warm and dry all ride.

New winter boots with unfathomable feet entry system and gloves

We eventually set off and caught up on stuff before our next incident. About a year ago I changed to tubeless tyres which has pretty much offered me a puncture free cycling experience. Big George also tried to change over to the latest technology but didn't get on with them so had gone back to tyres with inner tubes.

A few miles before the café stop  Big George demanded we stop and I wasn't at all smug when he had a front wheel puncture. I always come prepared for such events and got out a short novel to read while he changed the tube. When this was eventually complete he went to reinflate only to discover his pump must have fallen off earlier on the ride. Fortunately I have a small emergency one which I was prepared to offer him, for free, on this occasion.

Big George starts the repair process while I settle down to read my book

As I reminded him of the benefits of inner tube free wheels we completed the short distance to the Brickyard cafe which we found on the Norwich Bungay Road.

Outside the Brickyard cafe in my smart new cycling boots

As is the way now it was masks on as we were accompanied to our seats for a full table service experience, the first part of which was to scan the track and trace QR code. I did manage to snap the cakes on the way past and was able to allocate a high effective cake selection score.

Todays good looking cake selection

I was glad to see a choice of hot chocolates on the menu and, as always, went dark. I also went for the chocolate Guinness cake. (Note. Back in 2015 EDAP won my cake of the year with their Chocolate Guinness cake and had kept their winners certificate on display until they moved on. Hopefully this one will be as good).

Big George had an Americano and Norfolk Rabbit (or cheese on toast to you) as he never has cake.

Our drinks soon arrived and were both excellent attracting high marks.

Todays good looking hot drinks

My cake arrived but everything was not quite perfect as part of the napkin was under the cake and it had icing sugar sprinkled on it. It was now useless for finger/lip crumb wiping duties. Although not the worst example of this by any means I feel I have to keep my #Keepcakeoffserviettes campaign standards up.

Remember keep cake (and icing sugar) off serviettes

With serviette removed I settled down to enjoy my cake but when Big George heard it had Guinness in it he wanted to try some. Eating cake was totally out of character but he claimed it was excellent. As he has no cake based tasting reference point to comment from then I had to ignore his input, although he was quiet right, it was excellent cake.

Very good cake indeed

It had been a very good cafe stop and although its currently difficult to get a full café experience anywhere the Brickyard Cafe had performed well and maintained the high standards EDAP had previously set. The food and drink were excellent and staff very friendly so I highly recommend a visit.

After a quick sanitisation we set off for the return ride and would you believe it Big George got another puncture. This time in his rear. I was secretly pleased on two fronts. Firstly I could read some more of my book and secondly I felt it was reasonable to charge Big George for use of my bike pump this time. I'm not totally unreasonable as I charge by the minute (£5) rather than per pump, which also encourages faster pumping. £10 later we were good to go as we completed the ride in stony silence.

Big Georges 2nd puncture of the day

It was great to be able to try somewhere new again and I'm already looking forward to my next ride by which time I hope to have worked out how to take my new cycle boots off. 

Scores based on 2 visits, most recent 16/11/2021

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.85	7.50	6.90	7.35	6.9	7.30

Route

Click on link to download 31 mile Norwich Hedenham loop GPX file for your GPS

Layering. (Old Hall Farm, Woodton)

Old Hall Farm,

Woodton,

Everyday 09:00-17:30,

Highly Recommended

Yesterday I continued my mission to try and get 250 visited and reviewed cafe on my locations map. Unfortunately the last couple of weeks have gone badly as it has been too cold and wet to visit any new ones and as part of my ongoing cafe audit I had found some more closed down cafes that I have had to remove from the map. My mother did say she had recently heard of a new cafe but on further questioning it transpired it was from reading my last blog post so didn't really help take my mission forward. 

However the good news was that although yesterday was rather cold the roads were frost free and there was no rain so I was able to arrange a trip. I was joined by Mrs Crusader, regular cycling guest Alastair and renowned trouble maker Jenny on a ride down to Old Hall Farm near Woodton.

Due to a poorly arranged dental appointment then renowned trouble maker Jenny could only cycle for an hour before she would have to return home. After an hour we were only 3 miles from the target cafe but she decided not to risk being late and to avoid causing trouble at the dentist she turned round as the rest of us continued for the last few miles to the farm.

The cafe is part of diary complex selling milk based products although we didn't get to see any cows today.

Outside Old Hall farm but no sign of any cows

There is an outdoor patio seating area be we opted for an indoor window seat with lovely views across the fields. The decor inside is rather functional in nature and not particularly bovine themed but still very pleasant on a cold day.

The indoor seating area in action

There was a good cake selection with the biggest, creamiest victoria sponge I've ever seen but none of us stepped up to the monster cake challenge as I went for carrot cake, Mrs Crusader had a Brownie and Alastair Cherry and Chocolate Cheesecake. (Note: Despite having the word cake in it I struggle to think of cheesecake as proper cake so his input would not have a big influence on today's cake taste mark). 

A fine cake selection featuring a huge Victoria Sponge

As well as the excellent looking cake selection there were fruits scones available which I took away for taste testing in my secret underground bicycle worksop back at Crusader Towers (Note they were extremely nice and could yet make it into fruit scone of the year finals day at the end of the month).

Mrs Crusader had a very nice americano, Alastair found it hard to find anything bad about his flat white so a high guest drinks score was awarded. I was initially delighted to see my hot chocolate was twice as big as their coffees but as a result it was a little on the weak side although still a good offering. The cakes were right up at the top end of my cake rating continuum even if Mrs Crusader thought her triple chocolate brownie was too chocolatey. As being too chocolaty is not a real thing I ignored her input.

Great cakes and drinks including my supersized hot chocolate

All in all Old Hall Farm cafe had really delivered on the refreshments front and the staff were very helpful and friendly too so I highly recommend a visit.

On the way back my cycling guests spent a lot of time stopping and faffing as layers started to come off as the temperature warmed up. This lead to today's Cycling Guest cycling top tip.

Cycling Guest Cycling Top Tip No. 71. To avoid spending your winter cycle ride putting on or taking off layers, whilst annoying your cycling host, then just wear a really good base layer and winter cycle jacket as with modern fabric technology this will regulate your temperature much more effectively. (Multi layering is so old school).

As I had followed cycling guest cycling top tip No. 71 I was toasty warm, without overheating, for the whole ride back home.

Scores based on 2 ratings

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.5	8	7.5	8.3	7.0	7.86

Map of route

Click on link to download 31 mile Norwich Hedenham loop GPX file for your GPS

Norfolk Cafe Cycle Tour Sportive 7 (32 miles via Every Days a Picnic Cafe, Hedenham)

Sportive 7,
Every days a Picnic,

Hedenham,

Opening times Mon-Sat 09:00-17:00, Sun 10:00-16:00

Highly Recommended

Yesterday saw Cake Crusader Sportive number 7 take place. It was a 31 mile ride south from Norwich towards Bungay with a stop at top rated cafe; Every Days a Picnic (see Celebrity ride). The sportive had attract a large entrance of 5 (including two sportive débutantes) and started, as always, with 15 minutes of faffing about at race HQ. Water bottle filling, tyre pumping and GPS setting occupying the faffing slot. 

Sportive competitors showing good pre ride faffing about skills

The ride out was into the wind with the peleton being split up due to the large amount of chatting and lack of pedalling. New boy Dom was showing a worrying care free attitude. First I had to pull him up on his comment that 'the rain had stayed off so far'. This is always seen as a cycling faux pas as such remarks are sure to mean that it will soon start raining. However Dom wrongly believed that he was now of the age when he could throw caution to the wind and just come out and say these type things. I'm not sure I liked this gung-ho approach as it was risking a sportive soaking. I also noted he didn't have any form of cycle computer on his bike. So no way to know distance covered, average speed etc. I was therefore unclear on how he was going to fill in his cycling stats spreadsheet and produce his monthly cycling summary report (like I do). 

Despite this laissez faire attitude we successful made it to the Every Days a Picnic Cafe at Hedenham.

Outside back entrance of Every days a picnic

After locking the bikes, using a number of different security measures (including Alarmio), we selected our cakes from the cake menu mini blackboard. Barry ordered a sausage sandwich and as a sausage sandwich is clearly not a cake (or listed on the cake menu mini blackboard) he would take no further part in any cake related rating today.

Cake menu mini blackboard

When the cakes and drinks arrived I tried to facilitate the group in the critical activity of cafe cycle rating. It quickly became apparent that not everyone was fully engaged. Barry won't rate his coffee as it was too hot, (by the time it was at a temperature he was happy with we had moved on and I discounted his drinks comments). Ali, as he does at every cafe, complained his latte was in a vase rather than a cup and wanted to deduct a point from his guest drink quality score (this is against cafe rating rules so I ignored him) and Dom said 'well it's cake isn't it' once again demonstrating a far from acceptable cafe cycle rating attitude.

Cakes and drinks which all looked very good

I threatened to get out my whiteboard app to restore control and this brought the group to order. It soon became apparent that everyone thought the cakes and drinks were excellent and once I had sifted through all the feedback there was full agreement that Every Day's a Picnic Cafe was an excellent stop. In fact the sportive group had come up with the same overall cafe score as I did with Big George on my last visit thus keeping it's place in high up in my cafe or tea room league table.

The ride back had wind behind with some sportive competitors getting very excited about having to cross three fords (without any one falling off). I have since checked my ride data to discover that five fords is the current single route record. Fortunately the rain stayed away but if it hadn't we all know whose fault it would have been.

Ratings for Every days a picnic based on three visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.33	7.83	7.5	8.5	7.42	7.52

Todays route

Click on link to download 31 mile Norwich Hedenham loop GPX file for your GPS

Celebrity ride. (Every Days a Picnic, Hedenham)

Every days a Picnic,

Hedenham,

Opening times Mon-Sat 09:00-17:00, Sat 10:00-16:00

Highly Recommended

Today was the first time it had been possible to arrange a ride with Big George since our epic ride to Paris a few weeks ago (see London to Paris by bike day 1). As well as catching up with him we were going to start thinking about a possible route for next years trip.

Due to Big George having a dentist appointment we only had time for a morning ride. Fortunately last week I noticed a new cafe, called Every Days a Picnic, on the Norwich to Bungay road just outside Hedenham so this seemed an ideal opportunity to check it out.

Once again I had my new Sat Nav which had failed spectacularly to navigate correctly on its first outing earlier this week (see Garden Delight). I thought I had worked out what was wrong so confidently set off. Unfortunately once again it must have got confused as it made me follow a different route from the one I planned and we were soon going in totally the wrong direction. When I eventually realised it must have gone wrong again I switched it off and corrected ourselves using the old fashioned method of following sign posts. However we had to speed up to make sure that Big George would get to the dentist. We eventually arrived at Every Days a Picnic cafe. Note to self 'open and read Sat Nav instructions before next ride'.

Outside Every days a Picnic cafe in outside seating courtyard area

Every Days a Picnic cafe has a well presented outdoor seating courtyard area where we parked our bikes before going inside to check out the cakes. The staff were very friendly so we got chatting and I happened to mention my cycle cafe review blog. I was extremely pleased when they seemed to know all about it and had even forwarded a post to a biking friend of theirs. Big George was getting very excited and didn't want to miss out. He leapt forward to introduce himself. 'I'm Big George'.he said, 'and I'm often the star of the blog'. After much more Big George led blog chat I reminded him of our time constraint and was eventually able to check out the cakes. There were lots of tempting ones to try but I was persuaded by Mrs Picnic to go for the Chocolate and Guinness cake (although I was very tempted by banana and walnut). I therefore awarded a good effective cake selection rating.

Some of the cakes on offer,
which were all made on the premises and looked very good

Now that Big George thought he was a celebrity he clearly felt he no longer had to pander to my cafe reviewing needs and instead of ordering a cake he went for a bacon ciabatta. As a bacon caibatta is clearly not a cake, celebrity or not, he would be playing no further part in any cake related reviewing activity today.

We sat outside where Big George wanted to know if the other visitors to the cafe wanted his autograph (they didn't).

Cakes and drinks ready to taste.
 Note the extra bit of home-made cake with the drinks which was a nice touch
 and makes a change from a pre wrapped biscuit

The chocolate and Guinness cake was superb and would be a definite contender for the 'Norfolk cafe cycle tour cake of the year 2014' award (if there was one). (Note there is now and it did win!!) As the barista had promised, Big George's Cappuccino had excellent froth and he thought it was a very good guest drink. My hot chocolate was nice but not as chocolaty and thick as the best ones I have had.

Mrs Picnic quizzed me on what I thought of the cafe as they had only been open 10 weeks. I said it was right up there amongst the best cafes but the hot chocolate could be a little stronger, she assured me that next time I came I would get an extra spoonful of powder. I look forward to coming again soon and recommend a visit.

On the route back I tried to arrange a date for the next ride with Big George but he only wanted to discuss image rights and his new 'Big George' merchandise range. He made it clear that in future I was only to deal with him through his agent and he set off for the dentist, I assume to have his teeth whitened.

(note I also visited EDAP on sportive 7 and again in November 2016)

Ratings for Every Days a Picnic cafe based on 3 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.33	7.83	7.5	8.5	7.42	7.52

Map of route

Click on link to download 31 mile Norwich Hedenham loop GPX file for your GPS