EDitorial ± 9-Apr-2015

Light Lunches: Waitrose, Saxmundham

I guess we thought that sunny Saxmundham should be a relatively straightforward centre of population to tick off, cafe-wise. T'ain't so. Even as we make our first / second / third / fourth trip, we find that there's a pie & mash place (Cafe 9) about to launch, a new ice cream shop (Katie Custard) open for the first time today and another previously unknown eatery (Pear Tree Cafe) on the edge of town. There's even, on Market Place, a Macdonalds, which is handy if your telly's on the blink.

Plan was to do the Christian bookshop cafe but, maybe still celebrating Easter, the lights are off. Fairy nuff: let's retrace our footsteps (and buy a Big Issue) to Bracknell-based Prosecco purveyors, that Waitrose. True, we've waited in the Ipswich branch before, over two years ago: maybe this'll be different and, we can hope, a tad quicker. Only other time I was here, there seemed to be all of two-and-a-bit tables. My, how it's grown. Busy, too. We provide unintentional amusement for the chatty ladies in green by failing to find the external door press and having to go the long way in. Gifted and talented, that's us.

High on the wall is printed a large menu similar in physical size to the 'Swich. Too late for breakfast, Andy opts for a pre-packed fine-sounding bean & chorizo salad while I, like a fool, order the tuna flatbread. Top selection of broadsheets, by the way, one of which we take outside to soak up some rays. It's a prime view of the war memorial and the bike racks, there on the patio. My banana milkshake and most of Eco's leaves are gone by the time my flatfish is delivered. Same old same old Waitrose wait, though that's some tasty tuna and rocket.

Door entry system well and truly sussed, I head back in to survey the ever impressive array of John Lewis baked goods. Where to start? That Andy's a pushover for a pricy slice of carrot cake, whereas I'm a dummy for a butterscotch yum-yum with, naturally, a large latte to sip. Yep, another of those must-we-really-go-back-to-work situations. Nibbling sugary goodies and slurping hot coffee in the sun, this Sax is on fire.

If it was a car -- Bentley EXP 9 F.
If they were passing by -- Victoria Derbyshire.