New menu launches at Cobblers cafe in Hadleigh, Suffolk

Faye Wicks admits the last three years have been exhausting. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever, ever done,” she says of opening Cobblers on Hadleigh’s High Street in 2020. 

Just weeks after she and husband Rob welcomed their first customers, Covid struck. Followed by the war in Ukraine, rising energy and food costs, and nationwide staffing issues in the hospitality business. 

“This struggle for hospitality is, I think, unprecedented,” she says. “We had to change our business model a lot according to the climate in the last few years.” 

Today, after listening to customers, Cobblers is a different kind of place. Faye says she feels more relaxed. More in tune with the business, which she has pared back, aiming to keep things simple. And the proof is in the pudding, with the café getting busier by the day. 

The foodie now heads up the kitchen alongside kindred spirit Ruth Anderson. The menu (which used to fill two pages) has been stripped right back, with tapas removed. And a new front of house manager Gemma Hewson has been appointed. “She really knows her stuff,” adds Faye, revealing Gemma’s background formerly running Marmalade’s café in Boxford. 

There certainly is a different vibe inside Cobblers, where the new deli counter is laden with deep-filled homemade cakes made by Holbrook’s Two Penny Baker, the whole ground floor packed with customers enjoying a stream of winter sunshine beaming through the windows. 

The only thing missing is the café's new, big, fat homemade sausage rolls with caramelised onion chutney and Cheddar. They’ve become so popular in the short space of time Faye and Ruth have been making them that they sell out almost as soon as they leave the kitchen, leaving nothing but an empty wooden plinth and speckle of crumbs in their wake. 

“It is quality over quantity,” Faye says of the new all-day menu, which runs from 9am to 3pm. “Ruth and I have been cooks all our lives and are loving bouncing ideas off each other. We’re a great team and there’s been a noticeable shift here. Everyone’s happy to be working. Customers are loving what we’re doing. And I feel so much more content. These are scary times, but making these changes is the best thing we could have done in this climate.” 

Breakfast is now available all day, ranging from French toast with maple syrup and bacon, to porridge, filled brioche rolls, creamy garlic mushrooms and a full English, with the option to pay £14.95 on top of any main meal (excluding bakery items and porridge) for 90 minutes of bottomless fizz. 

“On the other side of the menu we have some really chunky ciabatta paninis filled with things like brie, bacon and cranberry sauce, and sausages with caramelised onions and cheese. Our sandwiches are made to order on hand sliced bread. And people are loving our classic ploughman’s boards and Greek mezze bowls.” 

Perhaps one of the most notable changes is the chalkboard, marking up a dish of the day, bowl of the day, soup of the day, quiche of the day, and jacket potatoes with a choice of fillings. 

“Most recently our dish of the day was a four-cheese toastie with mango chutney. The bowl is a big hearty bowl of things like homemade chilli con carne, or our Spanish chicken with olives, or lamb tagine. Nice, warming food. Our most popular soup so far is broccoli and stilton. 

“There will always be something different to try – so customers will never get bored. No two days will be the same. And that keeps it fun for us too. I just think we have a really different vibe here now. I’m feeling quite positive about 2023.” 

Find Cobblers at 76 High Street, Hadleigh. The café is open 9am to 4pm Monday to Thursday, until 5pm Friday and Saturday, and closed on Sunday.