News From The Pier

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Events on Southwold Pier

We've got lots going on over the Bank Holiday weekend - it's going to be such fun! Here's a list of what's happening:

We'll be having a Beachside BBQ outside on the Prom everyday (weather permitting). We've got a great Caribbean steel band who will be playing on and around the Pier. And then there's the competitions! Some are on the Pier and you can just have fun and enter when you see them - kids' quiz, judging our staff crowns, looking at the sweetie jar and pinning the tail. . . Others need a bit of fore-thought and there are entry details if you click through to the pdfs. Good luck all and HAVE FUN!

Design a Diamond Jubilee Sandwich Filling - click here for details on how to enter
Beach Sandcastle Competition - click here for details on how to enter
'Guess the number of Jewels in the Jar’
‘Pin the Tail on the Corgi’
‘Guess the name of our Jubilee Bear’
Judge our Staff ‘Jubilee Crown’ Competition

Brand new Food Festival - Flavours of 2012

On Saturday and Sunday 26th and 27th May you can step into Henham Park and enjoy two days of a brand new Food Festival: http://flavoursof2012.co.uk/foodanddrinkfestival/ It's going to be packed with exciting foody ideas and our Head Chef, Richard Knights is going to be doing a cookery demonstration alongside Galton Blackiston, Chris Coubrough, Emma Crowhurst, Madelene Bonvini-Hamel and many other of the top chefs of the county. Richard's demo is at 12.45 on Sunday. Enjoy yourselves and EAT WELL!

Loads of things going on this May Bank Holiday weekend . . .

We have a beachside BBQ every day of the long weekend from 12.00 - 3.00pm. We'll be serving sausage hot dogs with lovely local chutneys and relishes.

Also on Saturday, the wonderfully talented Jack Pescod will be jazzing it up on his piano, in The Clockhouse from 5.00 - 7.00. And whilst you sit and relax, why not enjoy our special tapas and Adnams' Pink Fizz menu, click here for more details.

On Sunday, 6th the Patasy Steel Band are going to be doing their stuff on and around the Pier, so we just know the sun's gonna shine!

Monday the music goes folk and 'Shadows in the Shade' will be singing Sea Shanties for us from 12.00 - 3.00pm.

Despite the lack of sunshine, the asparagus down the road on the Benacre Estate has been growing hard and it will be hard to resist it on The Boardwalk Restaurant's menu!

So whatever you're up to this long weekend, let's all hope for sunshine and we look forward to seeing you here!

Impro on the Pier

On Saturday, 17th March at 7.30pm we enjoyed an evening of improvised theatre and a dinner of two-courses in our newly refurbished Boardwalk Restaurant all for £20.00! The Waveney Theatre Company performed sketches improvised for the audience's written suggestions - your ideas and imagination shaped the performance and created a whole new experience. It was a really good laugh!

Silver Awards for our Chef boys

Congratulations to Richard and MC, our Head Chef and his Second, who picked up a great shiny SILVER Award for their cookery demonstration at the Hotelympia 'Schwartz for Chef Flavour Pairing Challenge' yesterday at Olympia. They cooked up an amazing menu:

Spiced seabass with a roasted sesame and lentil dahl with smoked aubergine, yoghurt and curry oil and for pudding a deconstructed rhubarb and ginger cheescake with rosewater sorbet and spiced pears. Well done, boys! Any leftovers...?

Jack Pescod

The Boardwalk open for Half-Term!

We are open for business again. After a winter of renovations, The Boardwalk is finished with a new entrance porch, 30 more seats inside the restaurant and gorgeous new loos. Ladies, you will be excited to learn that you now have three really lovely loos instead of one! We're not going to talk about your facilities, gents, suffice to say you too will be pleased! A smart new disabled loo has been built with better space for baby changing. The restaurant looks completely different, with a new feel and fabulous decor and stunning artwork created for us by East Anglian artist James Dodds. There's more about James below. The menu matches the new feel, why not take a look at this PDF of the menu and visit us when you next come this way, Jamie and his team will be looking forward to welcome you.

Our Friends from the Canadian Gymnastics Team

On Friday, 6th January we entertained the Canadian and Australian Gymnastic Teams during their training at the Waveney Gymnastics Club in Lowestoft. Later on in the year we will also meet the British Team as all three teams will be based at Waveney before the Olympics in July. The gymnasts and their coaches really enjoyed the Under-the-Pier-Show, particularly the Crackenstein and the Micro-Break. They felt their work-outs were probably a bit more physical than the Quick-Fit! We look forward to seeing them again in the Summer.

James Dodds' Commission

We have commissioned leading East Anglian artist James Dodds to produce two paintings for the walls in the Boardwalk restaurant – a Punt and a triptych of a Yawl. James is well known for his beautiful lino cuts and colour paintings of boats. James Dodds was born on the East coast fishing town of Brightlingsea and trained as a shipwright in Maldon. He then studied painting at Chelsea and the Royal College of Art, London. The new look Boardwalk will be open in time for February half-term (10 – 20^th Feb).

Seaside Santa and his lovely grotto.

Santa Claus visited us at his special Seaside Grotto on Southwold Pier during December. Lots of children came to see him, wrote letters for the post box and received lovely gifts to take home! Lots of pictures on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/southwoldpier.officialpage

Grandpa came to visit us

We were so excited that Grandpa came to visit the Pier on Saturday, 3rd December at 11.00am. He and Great Aunt Loretta spent two happy hours with us before Grandpa had to go and save the day somewhere! Take a look at the photos on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/southwoldpier.officialpage Campo the Campervan was with us all weekend, families gave a donation to have photo opportunities with all the proceeds going to the Quidenham Children's Hospice - we raised £500.00!

Peter wins the Award for Outstanding Customer Service

In the 2011 Tourism in Suffolk Awards held recently in Ipswich, Peter Websdale our Promenade Café Manager won the award for Outstanding Customer Service. Well done Peter! The Pier itself was also the winner of the Best Large Suffolk Attraction Award. It was a very exciting evening and now the entries are in for the National awards with Visit England. Fingers Crossed!

Gluten-Free Batter Day

Do you miss out on fish and chips when the family indulges? Well let it be a thing of the past. Every first Saturday of the month we are offering Gluten-free battered cod, haddock and plaice & chips and battered sausage & chips in the Promenade Cafe and The Boardwalk Restaurant.