Southwold Harbour has an undeniable charm. No matter the weather – be it high summer or the crisp depths of winter – this corner of the county throngs with visitors.
Walkers. Birdwatchers. Daytrippers taking a little voyage on the foot ferry. Hungry folk salivating on the rugged riverbanks, waiting for Mrs T’s (some of the best fish and chips in East Anglia) to open. Few (besides those in the know) will have heard of Le Roc at the Harbour – a simple Mediterranean dining spot that’s starting to make waves on the outer reaches of town.
Hilariously, despite having lived in Southwold for almost a decade, Le Roc owner Gerard Amiel hadn’t ever been to the harbour before he started to put roots there.
“I think it’s fate we’re here,” he says, talking about the café's beginnings. “The lady I am with said for the first time in the five years we’ve been together ‘let’s go for a coffee in the harbour’. I’d never put my feet there. The place we were going to was locked. Some boys working next door told us the place had closed. So we knocked on the door...and we were in.”
Gerard went from harbour virgin, to new café owner, almost instantly. But it’s not the Frenchman’s first business foray here.
Born in Narbonne on France’s sunshine-soaked south coast, Gerard grew up with good food in abundance. “My family were in catering,” he says. “Even in the past. My grandad used to have a restaurant. He went onto making wine and having a wine merchant. I always looked at his bottles of wine when I was a kid. That is in my DNA.”
Gerard undertook training in the hotel and catering industry in his homeland, learning all aspects of hospitality, and travelling across the world to further his career.
That path would be veered towards the UK when, by chance, he saw an advert for a restaurant in Southwold in a catering magazine. “I didn’t know where Southwold was,” Gerard admits. “But I packed up and came here to take a look. It was a Sunday and the place was packed. I thought ‘if you can’t make money here, you won’t make it anywhere’.”
Gerard opened Le Roc on Southwold’s high street in 2014, offering light bites during the day, and French-inspired tapas plates on Wednesday to Friday evenings. “Little tasters, like coq au vin. They would be put in the middle of the table for people to help themselves. It was quite popular and worked well.”
An increase in rents and interest from another business saw Le Roc close...until that little hand of fate stepped in last year.
Le Roc at The Harbour (in the former Harbour Café) seats 45 inside, and another 35 on the terrace.
The bright, seashore-themed space opens from 10am, Tuesday to Saturday, serving up a little slice of continental sunshine, alongside classic British bakes, all made in-house by the kitchen team, led by head chef Michael.
“In the morning we do tea and coffee and a few homemade cakes. Then it’s lunch from 12noon to 3pm,” says Gerard. “It’s very homely. Our concept of good food is not fine dining or Michelin Star style. It’s the kind of food my mother would do. Because of the talent of Michael – the flavour, the smells – people come here, and they are coming back. The dishes, they speak for themselves.”
The menu at Le Roc is refreshingly small, using as many local suppliers as possible to take guests on a culinary journey of France, Spain, North Africa, Portugal.
Recent additions have included seafood platters, smoked haddock, leek and crème fraiche tart, local bacon loin with mustard sauce, chicken and tiger prawns in spiced coconut, and “a very nice ribeye steak”.
“Desserts are made in-house too,” says Gerard, “and they’re not too sweet. We have lots of different things like crème brulee, strawberry and white chocolate cheesecake, chocolate mousse and sticky toffee pudding.”
Though he loves food, wine is very much where Gerard’s heart is – he leaves the cooking to Michael, and spends his days tending the wine list for the licensed café-bistro. “The list is my concept. I work with a guy from Southwold who supplies all the wine from the south of France. From Corbieres, where my family is from, to Picpoul. We’ve only got one Spanish wine from just over the other side of the Pyrenees. These are wines, because of my background, I can talk about very well.”
Beer is sourced closer to home, largely from Lowestoft’s Greenjack Brewery.
It’s clear Gerard is enjoying Le Roc’s new home, where he has just celebrated its first anniversary. “I feel so grateful to be here,” he says. “And grateful I found this place.”
Book a table by calling 01502 722593.
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