The Beehive, Horringer; 24 Apr 09

The Guardian yesterday ran an article about Suffolk for the benefit of Roy Keane who’s just taken over the manger’s role at Ipswich. It talked of sheep and tractors and contrasted the pace of Suffolk life with that of Manchester and that part of Cheshire beloved of its footballers.

If you head off down the A14 east from Cambridge and take exit 42, the first one for Bury (that’s St Edmunds not Giggs lane), and head south you get t oHorringer which is a fairly tupical Suffolk village. Traffic calming, a village geeen, nice big houses and a couple of pubs. The first of these is the Six Bells which looks inviting; the second is the Beehive which is more nonedescript: there is no front door and entry is from the carpark. That’s where we were last night.

It was my second visit, I’d first been maybe 6 years ago. It has not changed. I remember the landlord and the displays of wines behind the bar. But most of all I remember good wholsome food, well served and a reasonable bill. 

There were 6 of us and we had a 2 for 1 (ie 6 for 3) deal so we only paid £20 a head for 3 course, coffee and enough wine to go around. There were sardines, crayfish and figs with ham as starters then sea bass, pork belly, duck and liver to follow. It wasn’t necessarily Gordon Ramsey but it was good.

Most important the Beehive is still a pub. There were people standing at the bar and there was a range of draight beers (although the choice of bottles was poor). And the wine list as you can see is ample with nothing over £20. Well worth a visit and I should not wait for another 6 years to go by.

And by the way: one of our number runs the rather smart gentleman’s outfitters in opposite Trinity in Cambridge and he says that his new season’s clothes are just in and it’s worth a visit.