Out & About July 2017

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Let’s do brunch
Bill’s
The pancakes are often what draw
customers to Bill’s in Market Place
for brunch.
Nestling between bananas and
strawberries and dripping with
maple syrup, or just the plain bacon
and syrup version, they are a
crowd-pleaser.
But there’s also porridge, granola
and full English, with plenty of meat
or the vegetarian version, which
dishes up hummus and guacamole
with its poached free range eggs,
tomatoes, mushrooms, sweet chilli
sauce, basil and toast – and both
versions are £8.50.
For those who don’t want anything
cooked, Bill’s bread basket is
toast, mini croissant, mini pain
au chocolat, mini pain au raisin,
almond chocolate butter and Bill’s
jam, for £4.95.
Liquid-only breakfast lovers can
have the Super Greens Smoothie
with kale, spinach, mango, apple
juice and coconut water for £4.25
or Bill’s do a French champagne
at a reasonable £ 6.50 a glass. In
summer try the peach and mint
iced tea, £2.95.
Bill’s serves breakfast and brunch
until noon on weekdays and at
weekends until 1pm.
16-18 Market Place,
Newbury RG14 5AZ
(01635) 528511
restaurants/newbury
The Newbury
It’s ‘bottomless’ at gastropub The
Newbury in Bartholomew Street
at weekends – that is, it’s £5 for
unlimited prosecco at their Bubbles
and Brunch days.
So, while you top up on the fizz
your plate is bottomless too.
The unlimited brunch goodies cost
£15 and it’s a real slap-up feast
with a choice of pancakes, waffles,
a breakfast burger, a full English
and more.
There’s a two-hour window to
glug your bubbles and munch the
brunch – on Sundays from 10-noon
and pick your two hours from 10-
1pm on a Saturday.
Owner Pete Lumber says: “Brunch
is very popular and we fill up
quickly so we recommend booking.
“Children are welcome too and we
can do a children’s brunch for half
price.”
The Newbury opened in 2012 and
was formerly The Bricklayer’s Arms.
It offers real ales as well as meals
using local artisan produce.
The Newbury, 137 Bartholomew
Street, Newbury RG14 5HB
(01635) 49000
Saddleback Farm Shop
What’s handy about having a
weekend brunch at the Saddleback
Farm Shop is that afterwards you
can pick up some goodies from the
shop, deli or butcher’s.
We love the menu served from
8.30am until noon weekdays and
Saturday and from 10am until
noon on a Sunday.
There’s a host of delicious dishes,
from a simple dry cured farm bacon
roll, made with flour from Wantage,
for £5.95 or full breakfast at £8.95
with home-made farm chipolatas to
Eggs Benedict or Eggs Florentine.
The eggs used are free range, and
there are veggie and gluten-free
options and the bread is local.
Little ones can feast on the Piglet’s
Menu, which includes beans and
toast.
The shop is on the farm run by the
Whidborne family for more than
60 years. In addition to the arable
business, the farm at Brightwalton
has 100 acres of woodland and
almost 100 acres of grassland.
The woodland and parts of the
arable rotation are managed as a
pheasant and partridge shoot. This
gives the shop a ready supply of
wild venison, pigeon and rabbit,
as well as pheasant and partridge
when in season.
Brightwalton RG20 7HR
01488 638806
Coppa Club
It’s cheers to the Mimosas, Bloody
Marys and hot skillet pans at The
Coppa Club in Sonning, which is
housed on the ground floor of a
former Elizabethan inn.
An extensive brunch menu is
served Saturdays and Sundays
from 10am-4pm and one of the
specials is a full English in a skillet.
Executive chef Matt Fanthorpes
says: “The skillet is £9.45 and
consists of two fried free range
eggs, sausage, dry cured streaky
bacon, Spanish black pudding,
field mushrooms, roast tomato,
Heinz baked beans and toast.
“The reason we do a skillet is that it
stays hot – I hate eating breakfast
and halfway through it’s gone cold
and congealed.”
The Coppa Club has taken the top
sellers from its breakfast menu and
turned them into a brunch offer that
ranges from cult classics mashed
avocado and eggs to its best-
selling pizzas.
It also does a three-egg omelette
which Matt praises. He says:
“We use free range eggs from
Riverways Farm in Twyford.
“Our other ingredients are
top-notch – good quality pork
sausages from our butcher and
dry cured bacon, and our bread
comes from the Flour Station in
North London fresh every day.
“Ultimately, breakfast is so personal
to people, we try to minimise that
by having standout dishes.
“I’ve deliberately swerved away
from Eggs Benedict because I think
everyone does it but you will find
plenty to like on our menu.”
The Coppa Club, The Great House,
Thames street, Sonning, RG4 6UT.
0118 921 9890
There’s nothing quite like a lazy weekend and heading out for brunch. And while most people
think brunch is a US import, it was actually popular in England in the 19th century. Hilary Scott
looks at places where they serve up this combination of breakfast and lunch
Did you know? Punch magazine wrote that the
term brunch was coined in Britain in 1895
to describe a Sunday meal for
‘Saturday-night carousers’