Vespers Belgian Beer Bar — Restaurant in West Suffolk

Having been an occasional visitor to the "Beautiful Beers" shop in Burt St Ed's and having had many interesting conversations with René, the owner, I was very excited to hear about his new venture - "Vespers". This week I had an opportunity to visit the bar.

We got to Vespers round 9pm on Wednesday night. The place place is light, simply furnished and clutter-free. The outside view didn't suggest much space and the bar area is quite small; however there are two very nice, large,  comfortable rooms upstairs.

The bar has fifteen beers on tap, mostly Belgian, with a couple of others. There is also the traditional Belgian beer café menu, which lists around 50 other beers available in bottles. Look out for the "Secret Cellar" of beers that have been requested or harder to get (Westverleteren or Orval, for examples).

We ordered at the bar and chatted to the manager before finding a table upstairs. As we were getting to the bottom of our first drinks the manager (I don’t think he mentioned his name, but he is René's son) came over to ask if we’d like to order another, which was duly brought to our table. This was repeated a drink later, and that took us through to closing time.

We paid our tab and happily set off on our way home.

Round 1:

Boon Geuze Mariage Parfait & a very nice Tripel I’d not had before, but can’t remember the name of

Round 2:

Augustijn Blonde & St Bernardus Abt 12

Round 3:

Gouden Carolus Imperial Blond

Summary

A great little Belgian bar, albeit in a modern style rather than the traditional “brown” café. Good selection of beers at reasonable prices. Good, informed staff. A must go destination in Bury St Edmunds for the discerning beer drinker.

The only downside is I was only in Bury that day to move my daughter to a new flat some distance away. I now have no excuse to visit the town and just drop in; it’s a long walk back...

Nice place with friendly staff and a good beer selection however, the service we received was nowhere near indicative of the price we paid. We paid £6.50 each for 2/3pint of albeit a lovely beer, only to be approached by a bouncer less than 30 minutes later telling us to drink up and get out with no forewarning, no "last orders". 3 minutes after this warning (literally 3) we were forcefully told to leave by the bouncer, no staff had approached us, it felt like a 3am kick out from Wetherspoons. We had to skull our very expensive drinks we just bought and left. Had someone told us at the time of serving us that they were closing in 30 mins then that would have been fine, or even if someone had come to our table with a 15 minute warning, but to be approached by a BOUNCER (not staff) at 11pm on the dot with no prior warning and given 3 minutes to finish is exceptionally average and not the sort of service I would expect for the price point paid and the type of establishment this place is trying to position itself as. Disappointing as it has the potential to be a...

Well, well, bravo Bury St Edmunds! Isn't Vespers the funky, cool place?! I'd never been before and thought it was just downstairs and the courtyard. Friday night had a great vibe to it. I thought I could hear someone's party: warm sounds of talking and laughter & realised it was upstairs! It has a really awesome lounge party atmosphere. A thorough mishmash of people were there friday night: young funkster dudes, older beardy dudes & everyone in between, everyone just mingling and mixing. Was a great atmosphere 😁✨️👏🏼 Oh! And don't forget the beers! The house blonde, for me, was the best of the bunch and the staff were great in allowing tastings. Even with it being so busy, there was a real relaxed vibe (or seemed so from my side of the bar, so well done team in nailing that!). Real friendly, really great beers, super location and premises are perfect. Nice job guys! 👏🏼 I'll...