Former British Larder site damaged in early morning blaze
Firefighters were called to the newly reopened site, which was formerly run by chefs Ross Pike and Madalene Bonvini-Hamel as award-winning gastropub the British Larder before they sold it in February this year, at about 2:20am this morning.
The fire burned for four hours and destroyed roughly 20-30% of the pub, spreading through a number of outbuildings. A large external LPG tank also caught ablaze.
At approximately 6:20am Suffolk County Fire & Rescue Service extinguished the flames, which Suffolk Fire Service station commander Steve Rhine told BBC Radio Suffolk had reached up to around 30ft high. The operation involved close to 50 firefighters called from the nearby towns of Woodbridge, Leiston, Saxmundham, Aldeburgh and Ipswich
A statement from the Unruly Pig’s owner Brendan Padfield on the pub’s website currently reads: “Dear customers, we are devastated to report that due to a fire in the early hours of this morning, the Unruly Pig is closed for business until further notice.”
Padfield later tweeted that no one had been injured in the blaze and thanked the emergency services for their efforts.
Distress
Fans of the pub took to twitter to express their upset at the news.
Fomer glory
Padfield took over the site earlier this year when Pike and Bonvini-Hamel announced they were closing their Top 50 Gastropubs-ranking pub to focus on other aspects of their business such as retail, food consultancy and publishing, with Pike recently taking on the role of executive chef at 13-site pub group Oakman Inns and Restaurants.
The Unruly Pig had only been trading for roughly 2 months before the fire, having undergone a significant redesign and refurbishment following Padfield's acquisition.
Fantastic meal tonight at @unrulypig highlight was the quail starter, the marinated baby veg were perfect pic.twitter.com/QYuhFuUbu2
— Michael Avis (@iMichaelAvis) June 10, 2015
