A new Honey + Harvey coffee shop in Ipswich town centre is set to open this summer.

Signage has appeared on the outside of the building in Queen Street, close to the Giles statue, with the message "Coming soon".

Jackie Ha, operations director for the independent Woodbridge-based company, said: "We are very excited and really looking forward to opening in Ipswich - it's been a long time coming.

%image(15136192, type="article-full", alt=""Coming soon" is the message on the new Honey + Harvey coffee shop in Queen Street, Ipswich")

"We are hoping for August. We had been hoping to open last year, but then Covid happened."

Mr Ha said the new coffee house, in the former Mambos Bar and Grill, would have a "very similar offer" to the two existing H+H branches in Woodbridge and Melton.

He added they were looking to open a bar on Friday and Saturday evenings.

"I think it will be something exciting for the town and bring a lot of people into Ipswich, who will also support other independent businesses."

%image(15136193, type="article-full", alt="Signage for the new Honey + Harvey which is set to open in Queen Street, Ipswich")

H+H has already had a good response after posting about the new outlet on social media. "We have had more than 1,000 comments on Facebook and Instagram."

Plans for the Ipswich coffee shop were announced in 2019, but the building, which had been empty for several years, needed more work than originally anticipated, and then the pandemic caused further delays.

Honey + Harvey, founded in 2011 by Harvey Allen, is known as a casual dining eatery with a focus on organic local produce. Mr Ha said it would fill a gap in the Ipswich high street.

Although the new cafe is opposite Costa Coffee, he is not worried about the competition, stressing that H+H has something distinctive to offer.

"Costa are very successful at what they do, but we offer something very different. We roast our own beans, and we keep everything as local as possible."

The H+H cafe in Melton is currently open for takeaway orders, while the Woodbridge branch is also set to reopen for collections from April 2.

Mr Ha said: "To start with, the Woodbridge branch will only be open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for a couple of weeks, before we go back to the normal seven days, because we are having some maintenance work done."