Suffolk: the coast with the most

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The buzz is not a familiar sensation on the decidedly low-key Suffolk coast. But in late October, when 30-year-old friends Will Orrock, his girlfriend Cassidy Hughes and chef Harry McKenzie opened the Greyhound inn in Pettistree – a tiny village so off the radar that even locals would have to think a lot about locating it – there was a palpable thrill of excitement. It was a long-held dream for Orrock, who had spent the last decade in advertising, and McKenzie, who quit a seven-year stint at The River Café. Over the summer they renovated the interior, opening up the bar, giving the place a smart paint job and decorating it with mismatched paintings and furniture, much of which was bought by Hughes, an interior designer, at auction houses locals. And they toured the county visiting regenerative farms and producers who shared their back-to-basics mentality.

“When you make this type of food it’s like wearing your heart on your sleeve. Do it differently, almost service by service,” says McKenzie, whose daily menu captures the best of what’s on offer locally, often informed by morning chats with purveyors in his kitchen, and then artfully ramping up the flavors. Celery earthy turnip – grown nearby Companion farm – a handful of saffron milkcap mushrooms and braised kale, or baked cod with mussel butter sauce and celery are both absolutely delicious. So too an amazing chocolate tart made with Via della Pompa85% Ecuadorian chocolate and garnished with salt and cocoa beans. The wine list, curated by George de Vos, takes a similar approach to food, choosing small vineyards committed to sustainability. Despite the quietest of tosses, Keira Knightley was one of the first diners in.

The trio are part of a new wave of entrepreneurs and young chefs who have moved to the county, breathing new life into the food scene by partnering with superlative farms and producers on their doorstep. Bread at the Greyhound Inn is baked by the way of Alexander and Emily Aitchison’s new restaurant Farm Acres bakery, where everything is cooked in a wood oven imported from Germany. They planted 1,500 nut trees and 400 fruit trees on 11 acres of their larger farm to also supply fruit and nuts (Emily also runs The Food Hub cooking school in Kenton Hall estate). Raw milk, bungay butter, cheeses and curds come from Jonny Crickmore’s Fen Farm Dairy, where the herd grazes in the Waveney Valley. The locally caught fish comes from artisanal fish dealer Mike Warner (his shop, A passion for seafoodis located at Grange Farm, Hasketon) and the meat from artisan butcher Gerard King of Salter & King, which partners with farms to produce slow-growing meats that are unique to the area, like the grass-fed Lincoln Red cattle that graze in Iken’s lush meadows. Organic produce is grown by Fellows, a 70-acre farm and kitchen garden owned by E5 Bakehouse, and by Maple Farmowned by visionary farmer and serial entrepreneur William Kendall, both spearheading agroforestry, growing traditional wheat crops and milling their own flour.

A pub should be at the heart of the local community

In Aldeburgh, restaurateur George Pell opened bubbly L’Escargot Sur-Mer, a sister to his Soho outpost, in the summer of 2020. That pandemic pop-up has expanded to become Suffolk, with a 60-seat restaurant, Sur-Mer, a bar, a roof terrace overlooking the beach, private dining rooms and six cozy bedrooms in a handsome building which originally housed a 17th-century coaching inn. The menu focuses strictly on Historic Coast seafood, with sublime oysters – grown by Bill Pinney at Butley Creek – lobster bisque and roasted halibut filet with champagne and Avruga caviar sauce. As well as working closely with the coastal fisherman who sells his catch from quaint beachside huts and on the best local farms, Chef James Jay also works with small local growers, often to order. With writer and gardener Tilly Gathorne-Hardy, he’s scouring heritage seed listings and planning crops for the kitchen in the walled garden of the nearby Glemham Estate. Gathorne-Hardy’s mother-in-law Caroline, Countess of Cranbrook is a long-standing advocate for local producers and co-founded the Aldeburgh Food & Drink Festival nearly twenty years ago.

Alice Norman, former chef at Emilia of Mayfair, has also settled in her native Suffolk. She came into contact with William Kendall of Maple Farm, who happened to be setting up a small kitchen. She offered her space and in the spring of 2021 Pinch I was born. He started with restaurant meals in a box to eat at home – think pappardelle and wild boar ragout with asparagus and sea herb butter – before launching his own café, where creations have included cakes such as crullers (fried choux glazed pastry with Suffolk-inspired toppings) or chouffles topped with St Jude’s cow’s curds. He is currently perfecting his ice cream flavors with new equipment imported from Bologna, ready for the summer.

At Walnut Tree Farm, a short drive along the A12 in Thorington, Joey O’Hare and Katy Taylor trained Peel – a supper club in a converted stable where groups eat around a huge live oak table hewn from one of the farm’s 350-year-old storm-felled oaks. Guests arrive at seasonal beverages like a Quince Sour or Orchard Gimlet made with syrups and syrups from the farm’s fruit trees, while dinner might include crusted Sutton Hoo chicken terrine with tarragon gravy and herb and verjus salad, or blackened venison fillet with walnuts, cacciatore ragout, cauliflower purée and Thorington green sauce made with prune olives and parsley.

BallymaloeTrained O’Hare has developed a kitchen garden and flock of birds, so vegetables, herbs and eggs are produced on the farm and biodynamic wines are sourced from small producers. They will be adding four guest rooms in June with additional rooms to follow in two converted grain silos.

There is a strong sense of community, not just among the cooks and growers, but among the locals as well. TO Canteen in Southwold, owned by The Old Hospital, head chef Nicola Hordern, who was previously head chef at the defunct Darsham Nurseries, also advocates local, sustainable ingredients: braised pork, chickpeas and wild garlic boranes could be followed by cream orange blossom pastry, apricot jam and almond tuile, or lemon and ricciarelli ice cream – and syrups and liqueurs are homemade. One Sunday a month, community lunches allow guests to pay what they can afford or receive a free meal funded by a “pay-it-forward” program.

Similarly at Pettistree’s Greyhound, the team plans to hold community days where surplus ingredients — like the mindless glut of birds that end up in landfills during filming season — are turned into cakes that locals can pick up or customers can buy. “A pub should be at the heart of the community,” says Orrock. “And we should use our skills to help as much as possible.”