All roads lead to Holt (Treehouse community cafe, Holt)

The Tree House,

Holt,

Mon-Fri 09:00-2:00,

Highly Recommended

Back in May, when I was first riding again after my 7 weeks on crutches (not sure if I’ve mentioned my knee injury before🤔) Ray wrote to me and suggested I check out the Treehouse community cafe in Holt. I thought I had replied thanking him for the suggestion as I added it to my cafe recommendations list.

So, a couple of weeks ago, when Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) said he could only manage a short ride, due to an urgent afternoon appointment, it was no surprise when he suggested Holt as our destination (as he always does). However rather than go to one of the usual suspects I now had Rays suggestion up my sleeve. 

I showed Andrew where it was in Holt and he quickly said he knew where it was (he didn’t).

On the way to Holt (again)

We have ridden from Hard to Please House in Aylsham to Holt more times than I’ve had cake served on serviettes so I won’t bore you with the details other than say once in Holt Andrew unsuccessfully guided us around the town looking for the treehouse community cafe for sometime before I insisted on asking Dr Google. The Doctor knew what he was talking about and we soon found our destination in the middle of a housing estate.

Outside the Treehouse in Holt

The barista was extremely friendly although rather surprised I wanted a hot chocolate on such a hot day. However this was nothing as Andrew requested a cortado which is the latest poncing coffee fad. The poor lady had not heard of it but pointing to her lovely coffee machine she said she was prepared to give it a go if he could give instructions. 

Once he had explained the number of shots, amount of milk and order it was all put together we picked our cakes and went to the out the front, outdoor seating area.

Andrew was rather shocked when I explained they were a community cafe staffed by unpaid volunteers and weren't expected to be able to produce fancy coffee for hard to please customers.

When it arrived he was very apologetic for his actions before telling her although it looked nothing like a cortado it did indeed taste like one, which I think she took as a compliment.

Excellent drinks and cakes in the out the front, outdoor seating area

My hot chocolate was pretty decent as were the cakes and it was nice to be away from the tourist cafe area of town. I would certainly highly recommend a visit and they may even have a cortado on the drinks menu.

Coincidentally later that day I happened to notice I had never replied to Rays original message (rude) but was now in a position to rectify my oversight by telling him I’d now actually gone there (nice save). If anyone ever has any suggestions of new cafes to visit let me know and I’ll try and check it out.

Next week I'm off to Yorkshire for a weeks imaginary racing with Andrew, Big George and Ali meaning plenty blogging action from me to clog up the cloud with even more.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.1	7.2	7.6	7.4	7.9	7.24

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS

Feedback. (Back to the Garden, Letheringsett)

Back to the Garden,

Letheringsett,

Mon-Sat 08:15-5:00, Sun 09:00-4:00,

Highly Recommended

I had arranged to meet Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) at Hard to Please House in Aylsham for  a ride. I had recently spotted the Back to the Garden farm shop and cafe at Letheringsett near Holt so decided this would be the perfect opportunity to check it out.

I asked Andrew if he could provide a 40 mile route to encompass the cafe. I knew this would be done old school with the ride organically developing as we went along rather than getting sent a GPX file to follow on my Garmin, which seems to be most peoples preferred option these days.

Once at Hard to Please House I unpacked my bike while Andrew faffed with his cycling clothing choices for the ride (it took 3 changes of top before he was ready) but eventually we were on our way.

I had picked excellent conditions, if a bit windy as we enjoyed an incident free ride while Andrew let fly with a series of rants. Topics included tourists ruining the Lake District and that there are too many people with dogs in St David’s, Wales.

Andrew's excellent route unfolded until, unfortunately, the last mile down to our venue was down the main road. Never a pleasant experience but we safely arrived at Back to the Garden.

Safely arriving at back to the garden

Once inside I immediately checked out the excellent cake selection which made me think the other food would be good too.

Excellent cake selection

There was a choice of a large barn style indoor seating area or a delightful outdoor garden area at the back (which I assume is where the cafe gets its name from). As it was a bit windy we decided to stay inside.

The garden you can go back to

When it came to ordering we hit a bit of a conundrum, the breakfast menu ended at 11.30 and lunch menu didn’t start until 12.00. It was now 11.40 and we had found ourselves in the menu twilight zone. The waitress confirmed it was cakes or nothing for the next twenty minutes, an interesting business model for a cafe, but we went with it. 

It did mean that Andrew couldn’t have the avocado and Brie ciabatta he wanted but I explained that eating avocado was very bad for the environment and there had been a lot of publicity about it recently. He promised never to eat one again.

The lack of lunch menu wasn’t really a problem as I went for a cheese scone and Bakewell blondie and Andrew followed suit. This caused great excitement to the couple sitting on the next table. The elderly lady came across to make sure she had heard right and that I had ordered a cheese scone. I wasn’t sure if she was about to advise me against having one but instead told me she had just had one and it was excellent so, waving a napkin with a half eaten scone in it, she would be taking the rest home. Slightly bemused I thanked her for her unsolicited feedback, she seemed happy enough and went on her way.

I was now even more excited about our refreshments (and I can get pretty damn excited over cake) but when it arrived I couldn’t believe my eyes as all 4 cake based items had been served slap bang in the middle of their serviettes arghhhhhh!. That’s 4 bits of paper pointlessly ruined and the good environmental work Andrew had done, by not be allowed his avocado ciabatta, had been wiped out with the climate crisis now moving a step closer. Remember #keepcakeoffserviettes!

Could hardly believe my eyes as 4 cakes served on serviettes turn up

Once I had calmed down we tried our cakes and Andrew confirmed that it was indeed a very good cheese scone but neither of us felt strongly enough to congratulate any other cheese scone orderers on their choice. They would have to make their own mind up.

The tea and hot chocolate were good too and the staff were very friendly so if you avoid the menu dead zone then I would highly recommend a visit.

The return trip was into the wind making it a lot tougher but Andrew managed to make the ride 39.6 miles which was a good effort seeing as he didn’t know what the route would be when we set off.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.4	7	8.1	8.0	7	7.46

Route (not the actual one as it was an Andrew “make it up as you go along special” but this is a similar one)

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS

Cycle cafe project time. (Cafe No. 28, Holt)

No. 28 cafe,

Holt,

Opening times Mon-Sat 08:30-16:00

For today's cafe cycle ride I was targeting two of my current cafe cycle projects:

1. The destination was Cafe No. 28 in Holt, which as a numbered cafe, would add to my attempt to go to all numbered named cafes from 1 to 100. 
2. Holt is a destination where I have visited a lot of cafes, as given the opportunity Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) will always take me there if I offer him a free hand to arrange a route. This meant that today there would potentially be several Holt cafes I could pick up sausage rolls from as part of my search for Sausage Roll Of The Year (SROTY). 

So I arranged to meet Andrew, at Hard to Please House in Alysham, for a ride to Holt to tackle these two objectives. As a bonus, Chris (Mrs Crusader) came along as she continued to get used to her new bike.

The ride from Alysham to Holt goes through some lovely peaceful Norfolk countryside. However today the peace was shattered. First Andrew was ranting about how; since I gave him the notoriously hard to please tag he had to rant even more as people now expected it.(So he did). But the main peace breaker was from Mrs Crusaders new bike that had developed an annoying mystery squeak, the source of which still remains elusive despite much investigation during the ride. ( Although I remain confident that some WD40 and my big hammer will get it fixed back in my secret bike workshop under Crusader Towers).

With my head throbbing, we arrived at Holt and I went to pick up my first sausage roll from the Owl Tearooms. But disaster as it was shut for refurbishment as it is moving under new management.

What no sausage roll

Undeterred it was off to the main event at No. 28 on the high street. When we arrived the very friendly staff told us a good place to park our bikes which we did, before going through the two table outdoor seating area into the cafe. 

In the outdoor seating area at No.28 before going to lock the bikes

Inside was a very modern interior where we selected a table near the window. The cake selection was a reasonable one with several sponge cakes, slices and scones, so I awarded a reasonable effective cake selection (ECS) rating.

The sponge cake part of the cake selection

I was pleased to see sausage rolls on the menu so I would be able to get my Holt SROTY search underway but before I could the people in front of us bought the last ones. I was beginning to worry that the SROTY part of today's mission would be a waste of time. 

Our drinks (Hot Chocolate, Mocha and Cappuccino) soon arrived which were all nice but we felt needed to be a bit stronger for top marks. 

Hot drink selection

These were followed by a good selection of the sponge cakes (Victoria, Lemon and carrot) which my cycling guests let me try all of before I decided my choice of Victoria sponge was the best.

The three sponge cakes on offer

With the cafe visit complete I added No. 28 to my numbered named cafe album only to find I already had a No. 28 from the Cotswolds that I had visited on my ride across Great Britain a couple of years ago. I therefore now have a No. 28 swap that I'm happy to exchange with other numbered named cafe collectors who have a spare numbered cafe visit as well.

On the SROTY front I was relieved to find that Byfords had plenty and I was also able to snap up the last one at Horatio's before we left Holt again for our ride back.

Collecting Holt based sausage rolls

Back home I tested out the sausage rolls which were two of the best I have tried so far and could well make it all the way to the SROTY sausage roll off at the end of the year. 

The Byfords and Horatio's sausage rolls

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
5.5	6.0	6.0	6.5	7.0	6.20

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS

How long is a piece of string. (Folly Tearoom, Holt.)

Folly Tearoom,

Holt,

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

Highly Recommended 

Despite the excitement and social media frenzy surrounding my cheese scone of the year news (see cheese scone news) I thought it was important to continue with business as usual and undertake my 82nd cafe visit for the year to date. 

I had arranged to meet Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) at his house and foolishly agreed that we could go on one of his 'dynamic' rides rather than one of my meticulously planned ones. For regular readers you will know this could only mean one thing, that we were going to Holt.

The weather forecast had predicted that today would be the last 'warm' day before the big freeze hits us tomorrow but there had also been a lot of rain so conditions weren't ideal for a ride, we therefore agreed to limit the ride to 30 miles.

I asked Andrew how he would know that this was going to be a 30 mile ride. He said he had no modern GPS based tools like me and would use the old school method of a map and a piece of string. I had never heard of this method but I assumed he was going to tie one end of a 30 mile piece of string to his bike and the other end to our start point and then when the string becomes taught we would have done 30 miles. However it seemed a bit dangerous to me and I wasn't sure where you would get a 30 mile piece of string from. I told him not to bother with the string and that I would keep him informed of miles completed on my GPS so that he could adjust the route accordingly.

I was glad to have chosen to go on my winter bike, with it's disc brakes, as it was rather slippery and there were a few manic drivers speeding along what should have been quite country lanes. However despite nearly ending up in the hedge on a couple of occasions we arrived in Holt safely with 20 of our target 30 miles completed.

Fortunately Holt has the largest number of tearooms per capita of anywhere in the world so there were still plenty of new venues to try. Today we selected the Folly Tearooms and gardens. 

Outside The Folly Tearoom

We parked our bikes in the very pleasant outdoor garden seating area which I imagine would be exceptionally pleasant to sit in on a lovely summer's day. Sadly today was a drizzly late autumn day so we headed inside

Bikes in lovely outdoor garden seating area

Once inside I was surrounded by cake which was on the counter, in a glass tower and tucked away on shelves. I obviously awarded a very high rating effective cake selection rating.

Part of the impressive cake selection

It was waitress service so we picked a table and waited to be served. The tables were neatly laid out with china plates, napkins (in holders) and best of all a cake fork. There was also a lot of china on display with cups and plates adorning the walls. This was clearly a proper tearoom. Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) thought it was all 'a bit too Holt' for him which I found rather rich seeing of his insistence to come to Holt on every opportunity.

Table layout including cake fork

I ordered hot chocolate, a cheese scone (as part of my on going cheese scone serving temperature research #cheesesconehot) and chocolate cake. Andrew ordered a pot of tea and a cheese sandwich, he said he would order a cake later. I knew that he would not and he didn't. 

Our food and drinks arrived and it was clear the Folly tearoom was china mad as unusually my hot chocolate came in a cup and saucer, the scones on a china plate with butter on its own china dish and best of all Andrew's crisps for his sandwich in a china pot.

Crisps served in china pot

The quality of the food and drinks was very good, and I was particularly pleased that the excellent cheese scones were served hot, so high drinks and cake quality scores all round. 

Food and drink had much china involved

The Folly tearooms and garden was the most tearoomy tearoom I have been to although we felt a little out of place in our cycle gear as everyone else had come in their tea room garb. I would highly recommend it especially after a cycle ride on a hot summers day when you can make use of the garden and not scare the other non cycling punters who seemed to find Lycra a bit frightening. 

With 20 of our 30 miles used up Andrew was under pressure to design a route of just 10 miles for the return to Alysham. I was relieved we had not used Andrew's original route measuring approach as we ended up doing 32 miles and would have therefore run out of string before we got back. Welcome to the 21st century.

Scores

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.5	7.0	9.0	7.5	7.0	7.60

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS

Same again. (Byfords, Holt)

Byfords,

Holt,

Opening times Mon-Sun 08:00-21:30

Highly Recommended 

One disadvantage of cafe cycle reviewing is the pressure of coming up with a new venue and suitable route on every ride. So I always look forward to a ride with Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) that starts from Hard to Please House in Aylsham. This is because I can leave target location and logistics up to him. However this approach is no longer working as on 3 of the last 4 rides he has chosen to ride to Holt. On the other occasion he took us to a cafe that was shut (see come back in 3 years) and then suggested we go to Holt instead. 

There is nothing wrong with Holt and many would consider it the tearoom capital of Norfolk, but I would rather spread my visits out over a longer period of time rather than go there every time. After hearing that we were off to Holt again I had to make it clear to him that I will once again be taking over future destination selection for our Alysham rides. I was surprised that Andrew didn't seem too disappointed with this news, maybe it had been his cunning plan all along to get out of sorting out the trips.

The only non-blogged Holt venue I could think of was, what many consider as the Daddy of Norfolk tearooms, Byfords so we decided to go there.

In a bid to add variety we went clockwise rather than anti clockwise to Holt and on the way Andrew shared his Cycling Guest Top Cycling Tip.

Cycling Guest Top Cycling Tip No. 10. To avoid spraying mud up your back or over your cycling guest make sure your temporary back mudguard is correctly aligned over the wheel. 

Mudguard correctly aligned over wheel

Mudguard incorrectly aligned, too far left

Mudguard incorrectly aligned, too far right

As I still hadn't got the hang of cycling guest cycling top tip No. 10 then covered in mud we arrived in Holt and headed straight to Byfords.

Outside Byfords in Holt (again)

We locked the bikes in the empty outdoor seating area and went inside where there are a number of large indoor seating rooms. It has a nice atmosphere but due to it's size and busyness not as cosy as some other smaller establishments. Andrew found a free table while I went to check out the cakes in the shop area. 

Cakes, tarts and slices

There was a very large selection of tarts and slices as well as sponge cake portions although disappointingly these were precut and bagged rather than having the full sponge cakes on display. Nonetheless it was still an excellent collection and got a very high effective cake selection (ECS) score.

We sat down for our waitress service and I ordered a Hot Chocolate, cheese scone and ginger fridge slice. Andrew chose Cappuccino and Bakewell tart. We were asked if we wanted our drinks in a normal cup or a large mug. We went for large mug.

Cakes and drinks ready for tasting

The drinks arrived in what I would describe as very large cups, which was not an option I remember being offered. I guess this is what passes for a mug in North Norfolk. Despite the size of the drink the strength was still maintained and both drinks scored well.

It was good to find the scone warm and cake not severed on its serviette which is in line with the 2015 cafe cycle goals (see 2015 goals), so big tick for Byfords on those fronts.

The cheese scone was very nice and the ginger fridge slice excellent. Sadly Andrew found his Bakewell tart a bit Mr Kipling for his liking, and not in an exceedingly good way. Knowing how notoriously hard he is to please I tried a bit but had to agree it was not up to the standard of the other food. I averaged out the 3 cake scores which was still a good rating.

Byfords had lived up to it's high reputation and scored well across the board putting it into my current cafe and tearoom top 10. Well worth a visit if you are passing through Holt, which I seem to be doing quiet a lot.

On the way back to Alysham Andrew worked himself up into full rant mode. He had clearly been reading the Guardian and listening to Radio 4 again which was filling his head with dangerous wishy washy liberal views. I asked if Radio 4 was the only station his radio could get. Apparently not. He also listens to the Asian network not because he likes it but as it is the first station his digital radio tunes to and he can't be bothered (or doesn't know how) to switch over.


Ratings of Byfords from 2 visits

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
7.0	8.0	9.25	7.25	7.75	7.85

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS

Note the fry up inspector has also been to Byfords. Click here for his review.

Weather Bomb. (The Barn, Holt)

Barn Cafe,

Holt,

Opening times Mon-Sat 08:45-17:00

Recommended 

I woke up this morning to hear that the UK had been hit by a Weather Bomb. Further investigation found that this was just a new way of saying it would be rather windy. As I had never done a cafe cycle ride in a Weather Bomb before I was excited to get out and see what it was all about. First I needed a guest who was up for some Weather Bomb action so I texted Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) and he was more than happy to step up to the plate.

We agreed to start from his house and head towards the north Norfolk coast for maximum Weather Bomb impact and thought that a cafe in Holt would be good. I hadn't been to the Barn cafe since before the blog started so we agreed to go there as it had been a nice stop previously.

It was difficult to know what to wear during a Weather Bomb but I knew I needed to at least double sock to keep my feet warm. Which I did.

On the way out I asked Andrew for today's cycling guest top cycling tip. Once again his top tip was focused on the winter cycle season.

Cycling guest top cycling tip No.5. To keep your cycling fitness and enthusiasm in the winter it is better to go riding little and often rather than wait for a nice day to go a long way.

We were following his top tip today and agreed that we should limited the ride to 30 miles in these conditions. After about 20 of these miles we arrived at the barn in Holt feeling rather windswept.

Outside the Barn cafe in the continental style outside seating area

There is a continental outside seating area available but despite the barn cafe's Weather Bomb proof heavy iron furniture we decided to sit indoors. We had a choice of upstairs or downstairs seating and decided on the table nearest the counter. This made it easy to check out the cakes.

On first glance it looked like a rather small selection but this turned out not to be the case. Once the friendly waitress had walked me through the cake offering it became clear that there was a good number I would have liked to try, it was just there was not a lot of each type of cake on display. I therefore awarded a high effective cake selection (ECS) rating. 

Don't be fooled by the size of the cake selection as there are lots to chose from

I went for sticky lemon cake with my hot chocolate and Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) went for fruit crumble cake, with crumble cake fruit of the day being plum. He also had a cappuccino.

Drinks (with nice decorative touch) and cakes ready for trying

The cakes were both excellent and got a good cake taste quality (CTQ) rating. My hot chocolate was certainly hot but not exceptional however Andrew thought his cappuccino was really good and gave it an 8. 

With his uncharacteristic high scoring I was worried that the Weather Bomb may have affected him. I needn't have worried as he soon went off on a rant about the Christmas music being played in the background. He became unhappy when Shaky wished everyone a Merry Christmas. I managed to distract him but he returned to the subject when each new record came on. We finished when Wizzard started to wish that it could be Christmas everyday. I liked their thinking as I'm getting a new bike for Christmas so would have lots more bikes if Wizzard got their way but as Andrew is only expecting socks he was not so keen. 

Apart from this the barn had proved to be a great stop and scored well placing it well up my cafe cycle table. They also gave me a loyalty card which I have added to my loyalty card picture library available down the side of the blog.

Just as we were leaving someone came in asking if they knew where the mystery alarm noise was coming from as no one could detect it's source. I sheepishly sneaked out as Alarmio (my Alarmed bike lock) had gone off in the Weather Bomb wind.The first part of my security system had clearly worked well but the second part (me chasing off potential bike thief's) had failed to work. I think I need to go on a bike security refresher training course. With no bike thief's in sight I disabled Alarmio and we set off again.

Although it had been windy the Weather Bomb was a little disappointing as I had cycled in much windier conditions. Worse I had overlayered (I had double topped as well as double socked) so got very hot on the way back. Fortunately the wind was from behind so we got back extra quick and I could cool down.

Ratings

Hot Choc Quality	Guest Hot Drink Quality	Effective Cake Selection	Cake Quality	Ambiance and Atmosphere	Café Rating
6.0	8.0	8.0	8.0	7.0	7.40

Route

Click here to download 32 Mile Alysham Holt loop GPX file for your GPS