Pinnocks Café - Ripley

Pinnocks Café, Ripley - By Oli and Jay
Today we embarked on an adventure to Pinnocks café in Ripley. We had heard of it a little while ago from Jacob and Bruno’s good friends Maya and Peanut! With the location only being a 15 minute drive from where we live and the weather being as glorious as it was today, we thought ‘why not!’Jacob and Bruno were already up and ready to go when we got into the living room. They must have known we were going on an adventure today after they had packed their rucksack last night! We got them ready and headed downstairs to get in the car. With it being such wonderful weather, the drive to Ripley was rather pleasant, especially through the quant village of Send.

Pinnocks is located on the main high street in Ripley, nestled amongst quirky independent shops and near to the Ripley clock tower. Although we had been to Ripley before, we hadn’t taken the dogs, so it was nice to see that a lot of the shops and other cafés also accommodated for dogs. The weather must have brought people out of their houses, just like us, as every other person we walked past, had a dog by their side.

We arrived at Pinnocks and were pleasantly surprised at how charming the building was. It looked almost like an old country pub, with wooden beams running across the front, a little old fashioned, but matched that of other buildings on the high street, giving a real country village feel. A lady sat outside with her Border Collie and Jacob and Bruno, of course, had to let them know they were there. With a couple of barks and pleasantries exchanged, we picked the boys up and headed inside.

We opened the front door and were immediately greeted with a lovely warm smell of freshly ground coffee. The interior mirrored that of the exterior and it still felt very countrified. Being an old building, the ceilings were low, but gave it real a cosy feel. Jacob and Bruno had already picked up smells of the cakes and biscuits that were laid out on the front till point. Their eyes fixated on them, but they were soon distracted by the sound of a friendly staff member who welcomed us inside. Two ladies had finished their morning coffees and walked past us, having to stop mid walk to give both Jacob and Bruno a pat on the heads. The staff member handed us a menu and we took a look at what they had to offer. As it was 10:30am, we took a look at the breakfast menu. Immediately, the ‘pancake’ section jumped out at us and Jay had already made up his mind; ‘stack of pancakes topped with streaky bacon and a drizzle of maple syrup’ was his choice. Having a not so sweet tooth, I went for a safer (or boring, some might say) choice of a bacon baguette.

As we had Jacob and Bruno with us, the dog friendly section of the café was upstairs. We climbed the short staircase and got to the second floor. It had an even cosier feel upstairs, there were sofas, arm chairs, stools and mismatched tables filled in every nook and cranny which was rather appealing as there were plenty of places to sit with enough space from the people who would sit next to you. We think the boys had already chosen their seat by now, there was a two seater, blue and yellow checked sofa which looked very inviting. We took a seat and it felt like we were swallowed into the fabric, super comfy! Of course Jacob and Bruno made themselves comfortable and we took a moment to admire our surroundings. We loved how the café had catered for everyone, including our four legged friends. The dogs were allowed on the sofa’s for snuggles, but the place was clean. We wouldn’t have been able to tell that dogs had been upstairs previously. Although there weren’t any other dogs up there at the time, everyone up there were more than happy to see Jacob and Bruno and we heard many pleasing comments from other café goers. It was a really lovely atmosphere, one that you don’t always get when you have dogs!

Our food arrived, and Jacob and Bruno’s noses started to twitch, closely followed by their eyes widening when the food was placed on the table. No food for you boys we’re afraid! The layout of the food on the plate was kept simple which looked smart. We didn’t waste any time and tucked in. You sometimes don’t get that good a quality food from small independent cafes, but we were really impressed! The portion sizes were just right too! The bacon was a nice thick cut and tasted really fresh with a soft crusty baguette. The sweet pancakes and crispy bacon complimented each other well and the sweet maple syrup was a just what you needed for an explosion of taste in your mouth. We finished our food and were able to sit back and watch the world go by, through the little windows – full of character! Unfortunately, we needed to get back home, otherwise we could have stayed longer. We settled the bill and were given an equally friendly goodbye as we did hello.

We really enjoyed our visit to Pinnocks today, it was in a perfect location, the service was great, the food was wonderful and to top it off, it was dog friendly! If you are ever in Ripley, you should definitely pop in for a cuppa!

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Oli and Jay

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