After an 18-month £240,000 development that cost almost as much as the freehold, it reopened last November, and the couple are on track to turn over £900,000 in their first year.
Jemima and Dominic made full use of their experience as, respectively, an interior designer and property developer, to transform the 17th-century building into a place that the people from the village and beyond want to visit, adding a new restaurant and kitchen, redesigning the bar and landscaping two acres of grounds.
Local artists produced paintings for the walls and sculptures for the gardens, while classically-trained head chef Chandramauli Dwivedi was recruited to devise a quality, fairly-priced menu, cooked to order using locally-sourced ingredients.
Greene King’s Old Speckled Hen and a changing choice of cask beers from local brewers are served and the pub is currently trialling Brewdog Punk IPA on tap “to see if Suffolk likes it”.
Jemima and her team have come up with loads of events to attract customers. As well as regular petanque evenings and quiz nights, there has been a beer festival, a gin festival and a summer party with Mauli’s spicy street food from the barbecue.
The pub has also put together a choice of suggested dog walks to help guests work up an appetite en route, and a ‘10-mile supper’, using only produce from within a 10-mile radius, is planned.