FRESTON: Suffolk Food Hall’s owners are set to breathe new life into a closed pub in the village.

The Boot pub, which fronts the main road from Ipswich on to the Shotley peninsula in Freston village, has been closed for some months.

However now it has been sold to Suffolk Food Hall owners Oliver, Andrew and Robert Paul, who are planning to plough investment into it so it is reopened in the New Year.

Robert Paul said the pub needed a new kitchen and a bit more space for eating but it would be still be a pub with a restaurant.

Accommodation at the pub includes a timbered bar with open fire and a 40-cover restaurant. There are three bedrooms, a car park, trade and private gardens and a paddock but these will need to be refurbished.

The Boot is only a half mile from the Suffolk Food Hall, which was opened by the Pauls in May 2007. It very quickly established itself as a centre of excellence for local food including a restaurant, fully stocked free range butchery, fishmongers, bakery, delicatessen, and a variety of local and British grown vegetables.

Property agents Fleurets sold the pub off a freehold asking price of �295,000.

Robert Paul said: “It would be an absolute tragedy if Freston lost its pub.

“We are delighted to be bringing this pub back for the community and will be fully refurbishing it and plan to open in the new year with a simple menu of local and seasonal food and great beer.”

“The Boot has had some glory years and we would like to get it back to there.

“It will have a local seasonal menu with good-quality cooked pub food.”

Meanwhile, at the Suffolk Food Hall, he said planning permission had been granted for the final barn on the site which would allow the restaurant to be moved.

There would also be a food and drink “incubator” designed to encourage local food and drink businesses to start up, and grow.

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