Theatre Royal Continues To Reduce Food Miles With Ronaldo’s Ices

Theatre Royal made it their aim to use as many locally sourced products as possible in their Greene Room Bar and have recently introduced Ronaldo Ices as their new ice cream supplier, replacing Criterion, now operating from Leeds.

Ronaldo Ices is a family-run business based in Norwich that has been churning out ice cream for over 35 years. “We are so proud to be providing ice cream to the theatregoers of Bury St Edmunds – we hope they enjoy our ice cream as much as we do!” – Chris Eyde, Ronaldo Ices Co-Owner.

The soft fruits in used in Ronaldo’s ice creams, fruit ices and sorbets are all grown just a few miles away from their factory and the whole milk for the dairy ice cream comes from their local farm, Nortons Dairy. Even the oats for their vegan oat milk ice cream are organically grown in Cambridgeshire. At Theatre Royal, you can taste flavours such as Mint Choc Chip, Vanilla Seed, Chocolate, Salted Caramel, Raspberry Sorbet and Vegan Strawberry Shortcake along with a Strawberry ice lolly.

“I thought it was really tasty and creamy and just the right size for the interval!” – Theatre Royal Audience Member.

Criterion Ices, Theatre Royal’s previous ice cream supplier, was recently acquired by Northern Bloc, and moving their operations base from Thurston to Leeds consequently increased food miles between them and Theatre Royal. Theatre Royal thanks Criterion for all of its support over the years and have enjoyed working together with the Myatt family of Criterion Ices.

As well as their new local edition, Theatre Royal has been looking to locally source many of their products to keep food miles down and support local suppliers. The theatre’s Greene Room Bar now stocks Melford’s Gin from the Nethergate Brewery based in Long Melford, The English Single Malt Whisky from St. George’s Distillery based in Thetford and Whatahoot Vodka based in King’s Lynn. Theatre Royal is also in a unique position in having their beer supplier and sponsor, Greene King, just 50 meters from their historic Regency theatre with beer pipes quite literally passing underneath the theatre. Theatre Royal stock Greene King’s latest beers, Level Head IPA, Flint Eye and Aspall Cyder.

As part of their locally sourced initiative, Theatre Royal partnered with LÉA, Based in Churchgate Street, Bury St Edmunds, from restaurateurs Pascal and Karine Canevet of Maison Bleue, to provide audience members with a fantastic dining option before their performance. LÉA is an additive-free, gourmet meal range that is freshly cooked using top-quality ingredients, of which many are locally sourced, and can be pre-ordered four weeks ahead of performances via the Theatre Royal website. The starters, salads and desserts are created in traditional glass French preserving pots which are collected and reused by Maison Bleue helping to reduce excess waste and the use of plastics.

By actively decreasing the food miles of the products they stock, Theatre Royal is not only helping to impact climate change but also promoting the expanse of high-quality products from businesses in the East of England. They continue to look to source locally produced products and serve delicious food and drinks at the historic theatre.