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H
onesty Inkpen sits next to the Crown
and Garter pub, restaurant and hotel,
in the heart of the beautiful West
Berkshire countryside and it truly is a super
location.
In the winter, the coffee shop is cosy and
inviting and in the spring or summer when
the sun shines there are tables outside
where customers can soak up the sun.
It’s an ideal spot for walkers or cyclists to
sit and have a break, with plenty of room to
leave cycles. It is also welcoming to children
and dog walkers.
We are still working on our homemade dog
biscuits, which I do hope to see on sale in
the new year.
It is important for me that when we open
coffee shops they sit well within the
community which they serve.
For too long commerce has helped to
destroy community, so with that in mind we
want to develop Honesty Inkpen as a casual
meeting place for groups within the vicinity
and we shall be working on this in the new
year.
Once upon a time the coffee shop was a
barn and part of the coaching inn.
I imagine a place where the horses might
have been rested, fed and watered on a
journey somewhere.
It was also used on one occasion as a place
to lay out the corpses of two people who
ended their days swinging on the gibbet at
Combe.
Thankfully it fills a happier role now.
In later years it became a skittle alley for the
pub and when I purchased the pub in 2014
it was a place of residence for the previous
owner.
I took a gamble turning the barn, as it was
then called, into a tiny coffee shop and
artisan bakery, because it would have been
easier to turn it into another bedroom for the
hotel, but I like a challenge and I thought that
it would add another dimension to the Crown
and Garter having a coffee shop, and I think
it has achieved this aim.
Some people do just want somewhere
to break a walk or a cycle ride and a pub
restaurant can often mean you end up eating
more than you originally intended, so it
attracts a different clientele.
It was lovely seeing it work as a coffee shop
and a bakery when we first opened. The
bakery walls, facing out to the coffee shop,
were perspex sheets so that the customers
could see the baker at work and the smells
were enticing to say the least.
It did quickly become apparent, however,
that as soon as the demand for bread and
cakes increased so the space at the bakery
became inadequate. It did not take long to
move the bakery to the unit at Greenham
where we now produce the cakes in the day
and the bread at night.
The upside is that we have a lovely roomy
space for a coffee shop that also doubles up
as a private dining room in the evening.
It is one of the nicest private dining rooms I
have eaten in and although you could argue
I am biased I am also my harshest critic so
I feel my views can be taken as impartial
overall.
The space also makes a great place for
business meetings and as the coffee shop
is served by the Crown and Garter kitchen a
variety of hot or cold food for lunch or dinner
is not a problem.
Take the time to pay us a visit in the new
year. I can assure you that you will not be
disappointed.
There is something about Honesty Inkpen
that makes Romilla Arber happy and she talks
about the challenge of turning it into a place
to enjoy breakfast, lunch or a cup of coffee.
is a box of delights
CHELSEA BUNS FROMTHE BAKERY
Inkpen