There are Percy Ingle's all over the place, including at the top of the High Street, as this is a chain established in 1954 which has quietly become a giant. This one has got a good position situated on the corner of the High Street with Mission Grove, at a spot where there should be room to breathe and take stock on busy market days. Unfortunately, the business's attitude to its fellow pavement users has not been helping us all do this.
The sign sticking out into the street is a white tea pot on a green background, simply saying 'Teas'.(I wish there were more of these type of signs on the High Street to help people see how far they have gone on Market days and make temporary meeting points when they are out with friends who keep wandering off).
It is a self-service sit-in establishment as well as a baker. A cup of tea is 70p. Standard coffee is 99p, a cappuchino or a latte is one pound twenty five. They sell a similar range of cakes as at Greggs, but one can sit down to eat them with a beverage and rest weary feet. Jam doughnuts are 3 for one pound forty or 50p each, panini, which is for sale now at Cafe Azrou, Euphoria, Queen's Cafe and Bar Rendezvous retails at two pounds sixty for a roast vegetable one or tuna melt. Their cornish pasty, a 'new improved recipe' at one pound twenty five is 50p cheaper than at Greggs. Two can be had for two pounds thirty. The unsliced bread is not as good value as at the Turkish shop, but they will slice it for you in-store on request. Their closest serious rival as a baker, particularly for cakes, is Sainsbury's, though the recently opened Goldring's Bakery will no doubt also be hoping to compete.
2007-10-26 @ 22:11