The Green Grocers Cafe,
Norwich,
Opening times Mon-Sat 8-5, Sun 9-4,
Highly Recommended
It has been nearly a month since I last reviewed a new cycle cafe stop. This is a new record but not one I wanted to break. I have been thraughted be the weather, illness, injury and cafes shutting over Christmas. Fortunately it is now only the weather that I'm battling against (or so I thought).However I have not been idle during this time as I have:
- held the final of #SROTY,
- announced news of brownie of the year #BOTY in 2018
- published the Cake Crusader book on Kindle (printed version available in next couple of weeks)
- worked on my new Cake Crusader website that should be 'going live' in the next few weeks.
I was therefore relieved to get back to basics and go on a real ride today. However in the end it took some effort to achieve this.
Plan A. Was to take regular cycling guest Andrew (who continues to be notoriously hard to please) on a route from Hard to Please House out to North Norfolk and return via the Farm shop and cafe at Roughton. However yesterday Andrew told me he had some good news and bad news as one of his daughters was coming on a surprise visit so he would have to call off. This all looked like bad news to me.
Plan B. Fortunately Big George was available at short notice so we arranged a 50 mile trip to a cafe just outside Beccles. However yesterday evening the weather forecaster informed me that strong and gusting winds were on the way making the trip look a little too dangerous to undertake.
Plan C. After a late night replanning session a new shorter and wind friendly 30 mile route was in place finishing at a cafe at Hellesdon Barns near Norwich.
Despite it raining quite hard Big George arrived on time as we set off on our mission. Big George was quick to tell me that he had read the first two chapters of my book as they are available as a taster on the kindle site. He was not happy. He didn't mind that I had mocked his strong scottish accent or highlighted his love of hoovering but he had taken exception when I pointed out that, despite his nickname, he isn't actually that big. I promised that in the next book (there won't be one) I would make it clear that for someone from mid west Scotland he was actually very big. Good job he hasn't read the rest of the book, I thought, as it could turn nasty.
As we got wetter and colder we were both pleased we had shorterend the ride and were looking forward to our hot drinks at today's venue near the end of the ride. But then disaster as when we arrived we were met by a locked gate and the discovery that Hellesdon Barns were having an extra long Christmas break and the cafe doesn't reopen until January 10th.
Plan D. We had an emergency replanning session and decided to go to the Green Grocers Cafe in Norwich which is only a couple of miles from Crusader Towers. When we arrived we were still not in the clear as it was very busy and we didn't fancy an outside seat as we already had hypothermia.
 |
| Outside the green grocer cafe in the continental outdoor style seating area |
There was a very warm and buzzing atmosphere inside the hipster style surroundings. The cake selection on display was small but very interesting. I was pleased when the waiter confirmed they did have brownies for me to test as part of #BOTY and keeping with the cafes image I could either have a vegan or non vegan one. I'm sure you can guess which I went for as I disappointed the waiter.
 |
| Cake selection on display |
 |
| Today's Brownie for #BOTY testing |
 |
| Excellent hot drinks and a highly recommended cafe |
Ratings
Guest Hot Drink Quality
|
Effective Cake Selection
|
Cake Quality
|
Ambiance and Atmosphere
|
Café Rating
|
|
7
|
8
|
6.4
|
7.2
|
7.3
|
7.18
|
No comments:
Post a Comment