We all know what French toast is. But have you ever tried a French toastie?
No, neither had I until a recent visit to Procopio’s Pantry in Bury St Edmunds. I probably would have been there earlier if I’d been able to find up-to-date menus online. Tucked away down a side road in town, I love the kitsch, cutesy feel – both inside and out.
Demonstrating their commitment to supporting other local businesses, Procopio’s Pantry has local produce for sale on a shelf behind the counter. The walls feature artwork from Kim Whittingham, who has a shop just a few doors down.
Follow Procopio’s on Instagram or TikTok and you’ll notice most of the focus is on their afternoon teas and their cake cupboard. To be fair, it’s a pretty impressive cupboard, with the choices including cheese and chilli scones, blueberry scones, rocky road, treacle tart, carrot cake, Victoria sponge and more when we visited.
What the Procopio’s team needs to do more of, though, is to shout about everything else they do just as much as they shout about the cakes. If you’ve not yet been for brunch, you’re missing out.
The breakfast and brunch menu at Procopio’s Pantry has three sections: Sweet, Savoury, and Different. Between the three of us, we ordered from the first and the last.
We started with drinks. The child went for a luxury homemade hot chocolate (£3.90 – plus £1.50 for cream and marshmallows on top. It was generous. It was thick and luxurious. It had a LOT of marshmallows. He demolished it.
Across the table, the pot of loose-leaf Earl Grey tea (£2.85) came with a choice of with lemon or milk. It arrived along with a delicate china cup and saucer and a silver tea strainer, again adding to the retro, kitsch feel of the place.
I fancied something a bit different. I’m enjoying the trend for all things pistachio at the moment, so the pistachio latte (£4.75) caught my eye. I loved the layer of pistachio between the coffee and the cream, and there was just the right amount of nutty flavour when I mixed it in. The homemade pistachio brittle pieces on top were a lovely touch and absolutely delicious. If I’m being picky, I’d say they could be a bit thinner (so they’re easier to crunch through), and maybe served on the side to avoid having to fish them from the glass when they sink through the cream.
And so, the food. On the other side of the table, the Breakfast Burrito (£12.25) looked incredible. With bacon, sausage, potato, onions, peppers, scrambled eggs and cheese, this thing was loaded. The inclusion of chipotle sauce to drizzle over before each bite definitely ramped up the flavour.
The small child is quite partial to a cinnamon bun. He’s also a big fan of Nutella (hardly a surprise). You can probably imagine his excitement when he discovered the “Breakfast Rolls” section of the menu. As well as the classic cinnamon roll, topped with cream cheese frosting, Procopio’s offer two additional versions – all three served warm. There’s one where they’ve replaced the cinnamon centre with Biscoff, and one where they’ve used Nutella instead. It was this one he chose.
£7.75 might seem steep to some, but this thing was ENORMOUS – we had to take more than half of it home. The bun itself was crisper on the outside but lovely and soft in the middle, a generous amount of Nutella smeared over the dough before baking. He loved the dollop of sweet cream cheese frosting, sprinkled with nuts, on the top, too.
I’m saving the best until last as my brunch dish at Procopio’s Pantry was a REVELATION. As soon as I saw the French toasties on the menu – French toast sandwiched with a choice of two different fillings – I had to try one.
I’ll save the Nutella and banana option for another time. I decided against adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream for an extra £1 – and I’m glad I did. The lemon cheesecake and blueberry French toastie (£9) was decadent enough as it was! My plate featured a stack of two thick-cut brioche French toast sandwiches filled with a thick, sweet and zesty lemon cheesecake filling and topped with a ridiculously good blueberry compote. The photos below don’t do it justice – watch this video for a better representation of this decadence.
So, yeah. That’s why you need to try a French toastie. Get yourself over to Langton Place pronto – and buy one of their cheese and chilli scones to take home too. They’re insanely good.