A relatively new and welcome addition to the Mercia Marina, the Butcher Baker is approximately half…read moreand half, farm shop and coffee house. The farm shop has an interesting, if slightly on the expensive side range of items, include pasta, fruit and vegetables, cakes, preserves, cheeses etc. A perfect place to find an interesting gift for someone who has a passion for food. There used to be a Butchers on site (hence the name) but that seems to have gone, replaced by a chilled counter selling a more limited range of meat, pies etc. I did notice though, that you can place an order, from a more extensive range, if you wish.
The coffee house is a real find though, very popular, with an eclectic mix of chairs and tables to suit all types of party, with outside seating out on the boardwalk, making full use of the panoramic view of the marina. They have a fantastic selection of homemade cakes, including tempting slices of coffee cake, chocolate cake, Millionaires shortbread, to name but a few. A good range of hot drinks too, including strong and flavoursome coffees and the full range of Teapigs tea, all accompanied by a small bottle of milk, a nice touch. The hot food is equally impressive too, I can heartily recommend the breakfast sausage cobs, generous in size, richly flavoured sausages and Wilkin & Sons tomato sauce, perfect! We've also had a couple of lunches here too, roasted vegetable paninis with a dressed salad and generous bowl of vegetable crisps, enough for two, if you just fancy a light lunch.
The staff are friendly and helpful too, even when the coffee house gets very busy, which it invariably does. All in all a great new venue; they strangely don't serve lunch on a Sunday though.
