Location: St Mary’s Row, Moseley, Birmingham, B13

Public transport/parking: Small car park in centre of Moseley. Buses: 50, 35, 1.

Web site: www.lewissdg.co.uk (not yet working)

Telephone number:

Date of visit: May 2012
Review:

For those of you who haven’t yet noticed, St Mary’s Row has sprouted a brand new business. That every changing spot at number 11 is now home to Lewis’s: a lovely, independent new delicatessen/grocer. On the 13th April, Lewis opened his doors to the residents of Moseley and invited them into his world of fresh, locally sourced produce.
I spent a delightful afternoon in Lewis’s and it would seem that he has already stolen the heart of the Moseley community. Impressively for a Wednesday afternoon, the shop was never empty and many of the customers popping in had already discovered this gem. Lewis himself has a gentle, approachable manner and is happy chatting away to his customers. He is keen to develop the business to meet the needs of the Moseley community and to take on board feedback and comments being offered to him. Happily, these seem to be almost entirely positive.
“I think it’s really nice to have a local shop like this in Moseley,” said Linda, a Moseley resident, “I’ve been watching it and I’m pleased it’s a grocers… It’s about getting that quality within walking distance.”
The shop stocks natural produce, sourced from suppliers all over the Midlands (there is a helpful map on the wall showing exactly which ‘shires’) and local business BAKE provide all of the (extremely tasty) cakes. If nothing else, it is worth popping into Lewis’s just to sample the 70% cocoa brownie samples. Whilst I was there, it seemed that everyone who tasted the brownie proceeded to buy one. One gentleman even came back for a second helping, saying, “I made the mistake of sharing the first one”.
Lewis’s has a clean, simple design which feels like a traditional grocers with a high quality twist. Lots of rustic wooden crates, metal shelving units and blackboards. Instead of baskets, there are milk pails for you to load your shopping into, which adds to the country village feel. As well as fruit and veg (possibly the largest potatoes I have ever laid eyes on), there is also an olive bar, olive oil (bring your own bottle to fill if you like), breads (supplied by local baker Lucky 13) and a whole range of deli products. It’s a bit like being at a little slice of the farmers market.
I asked Lewis about his vision for the area and he tells me that he would to see more independent businesses on the streets of Moseley. “I would love Moseley to have some new vintage shops, other food shops, specialist shops,” says Lewis, “I think people would support them.” He has already thrown himself into the heart of the community, linking up with other local businesses, such as Indigo. They are making plans to develop a delivery service, to bring local produce to peoples doors. SusMo will be glad to hear that this would be a bike run service.
Lewis’s has well and truly won me over and I hope that our wonderful Moseley community will welcome this latest venture with open arms.
Opening times:
Tuesday-Saturday      10:00am – 7:30pm
Sunday             10:00am – 4:30pm
Monday        Closed

 

Lindsay

 

Location: No.1 Unsworth Yard, Cartmel Cumbria LA11 6PN

Public transport/parking: In Cartmal Village

Web site: http://www.cartmelcheeses.co.uk/

Telephone number: 015395 32845

Date of visit: 06/03/2012

Media link:

Review:

The village of Cartmel is a food lover’s dream – on the third Friday of every month they have a farmers market which lines the street, and for every other day of the month it is home to homemade beer, bread and L’enclume, which is featured the most recent series of The Great British Menu.

Tucked away on a small cobbled street is Cartmel Cheeses. Inside the shop is an impressive array of cheeses, both local and international. The staff were, friendly knowledge and passionate about quality products and each cheeses is sourced back to its individual maker on the label – a nice touch I felt.

While shopping I purchased a very pleasant local cheese, known as ‘Brother David’ and a beautiful caramely flavoured Gouda, known as Coolea.

All in all, an excellent shop, which I hope to visit again in future.

(Cheeses are also available to order online.)

Jo

 

Address: Nash Lee Road, Terrick,  Aylesbury, Bucks,  HP 17 0TQ

Opening times: Mon-Sat  9-5. 7pm on Friday. Closed on Sundays

Telephone number: 01296 613 647

Parking: plenty of spaces

Date of visit : 1 March 2012

Brewery tours: By arrangement

Prices: Not cheap and not too expensive

Summary:

Small shop with all their draft beers available for take away in containers (from 2 pints). All their bottled ales are also available. My past experience with Chiltern Beer was that it is quite a decent pint.

In terms of other products:

Western cider and scrumpy – £8.20 for 2 litres.

They  have different types of spirits including Scottish and  English Whisky – yes, from Norfolk  – at around £30 a bottle and  sloe infused products: gin, whisky and vodka.

I bought a bottle of sloe whisky – sweet, more like a liquor – for £29.30 and a  pack of ales – 3 X 500ml and 2X 330mls – in a gift box with a glass for £18.60

They also have  products – made with their beer – on sales e.g. cheese, sausages, bread etc. and non food gifts such as glasses and pint mugs.

I think that there is a restaurant/cafe at the back of the shop.

E

March 2012

 

 

 

Address: Green End road, Meltham, Huddersfield, Yorkshire, HD7 3NW

Telephone: 01484 850571

Website: N/A

Opening hours: 8.30- 14.00 (12.30 on Saturday). Closed Sunday and Monday. Mail order available

 

Speciality: pork pies

 

Summary:

I have always wanted to try a northern pork pie as against the Melton Mowbray’s you get down south.

I have tried Mrs King’s in London’s Borough market and thought that it was fine but not that special.

Vicars has just started offering pork pies in their Sweeny Todd (pie and Pub). The pastry is good but I did not like the texture of the meat as it was too finely minced.

See also articles : Independent (see link here on 9 March 2011) and Xanthine Clay (Telegraph)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinkadvice/8594210/Pick-of-the-pork-pies.html

So whilst I was in Yorkshire, I thought that I should visit Raymond and Janet Lodge’s shop which was highly rated by Henrietta Green in the 1997 edition of BBC’s Food Lover’s Guide.

The shop is on the corner of Green End Lane (parking on the street outside). They only do small pork pies now. They no longer make the exortic ones mentioned in the book – pork and cranberry etc – but they do offer cornish pasties, sausage rolls, potato and cheese slice. Everything was around £1.

They also offer home made black pudding (£7.40 a kilo), dry cured bacon and their own sausages. They also do cooked breakfast and various filled rolls on site.

Analysis: The pork pie was good. Nice pastry and pretty coarse cuts of meat inside but it was nothing special – I must go to Ludlow and check out their pork pies – my last hope? The real find was the cheese and potato slice and black pudding.

The cornish pasty (which they can longer call cornish) was actually a minced meat and potato pasty – no swede.

If you are in the area, try them. Note early closing on most days.

E

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Ffostralsol  Arms

 

Address: Ffostrasol Arms, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA 44 4SY, Wales (Pub is on A486)

 

Telephone number: 01239 851348

 

Website: N/A

 

Date of visit: 19 August 2011

 

Approximate cost per head: Less than £10 for most main courses.

 

Comments on wine list/beer: HB at £2.90 a pint. Wines available – nothing special.

 

Cuisine: basic pub food

 

Likes and dislikes: decent car park, spacious restaurant and very good value food.

 

Summary:

 

You may ask: what is in Llandysul ? Not a lot, but this is a famous cheese making area –Teifi Valley Cheese  http://www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com/english/contact/index.htm

 

I was in the area to procure some cheese and ended up in this pub for lunch – not many decent looking places around here – my criteria was that the car park must be big and was at least half full.

 

Inside a pleasant looking building on the corner of the main road aws to my surprise a very large pub. There is a drinking area complete with  pool table and large screen TV. The dining room and sun lounge on the other side of the bar is huge and would easily offer seating for 100 plus. There were easily over 30 diners on this Friday lunch time. The restaurant is waitress serviced but you pay at the bar and nothing was leaving a tip.

 

The beer selection here is pretty poor – one bitter on hand pump and the rest were gassy lagers. The bitter was HB and it was pretty good at £2.90 a pint.

 

For lunch, they was a choice of sandwiches – priced by the number of fillings – from £5.

 

The you have the usual suspect: burgers, scampi, fish and chips etc. They also offer breakfast (served between 12-2) for £5.75 (bacon, egg, beans, sausage, hash brown and tomato) or the large breakfast (double everything except the beans) at £7.

 

I had the beakfast which was as far as breakfast goes, pretty decent. The susage and bacon was of good quality. Pity they don’t do toasts. Looking around the fish and chips, scampi etc were all pretty decent looking.

 

In conclusion, nothing special but pretty decent and good value for money.

 

 

Teifi cheese

 

Address: Glynhynod Farm, Ffostrasol, Llandysul SA44 5JY. Sign posted off  A486 at Ffostrasol. Once you are down the unnamed lane, turn right just (10 meters) before you get to the end. Take next left, farm is at the end of the lane. Please note that your sat nev will not take you to the farm gate!

 

Website: http://www.teifivalleycheeseproducers.com/english/teififarmhousecheese/index.htm

 

Tel: 01239851528

 

Sales: Farmers markets (Carmarthern, Cardiff), mail order and at farm gate.

 

Teifi Cheese is made by a Dutch lady called Patricia. She was mentioned in Henrietta Green’s Food Lover’s Guide to Britain. This was a BBC series made (1997) before BBC discovered Rick Stein. In fact anyone that was in Henrietta’s book and is also appearing in Rick Stein’s Food Hero book must be good – they will have traded for at least 10 years.

 

I tried to call before I visited but was unsuccessful as mobile signal in the area is not great.

 

The farm has a shop and I was served by a Dutch lady in her 60s – probably Patricia.

 

All the cheeses are very Edam like with sweet pepper, onion and garlic, cumin, seaweed as additive flavouring. The cheeses were not very strong more like medium with a Edam taste but more crumbly and not as elastic as the Dutch cheese. They also do a Caerphilly and a blue cheese.

 

What I tasted, I liked. They sell at £14.40 a kilo. I bought the cumin, seaweed and the normal unflavoured cheese.

The map is for Teifi Cheese

 

E

 

 

 

Address: Peachcroft Farm, Twelve Acre Dr, Abingdon, OX14 2HP

 

Telephone number: 01235 535 978

 

Website: http://www.wellsstores.co.uk/

 

Date of visit: 21 July 2011

 

Opening time: 9 – 5

 

Summary:

 

Wells used to be the cheese shop (80s) in The Thames Valley when it was owned by Patrick Rance. Patrick wrote a book on French cheeses and was considered by many to be one of the most knowledgeable people in the game. It was nearly 2 inches thick, full of wonderful descriptions but not a single photograph. It used to be my “bible” on French Cheeses until Dorling Kindersley came along and started putting wonderful colour pictures into books.

 

Patrick passed away over 20 years ago and his son moved the business onto Abingdon. The business is now owned by Gill Draycott and is housed in the Peachcroft farm (much better for parking) just outside Abingdon. Gill was an employee in Wells Stores before she bought the business.

 

I have long heard good stories about the place.

 

The store has a vegetable section on the outside with some fantastic looking vegetables – onions with the green tops etc.

 

Inside are a few counters and a tea room. One counter is devoted to British cheeses and another devoted to mainly French cheeses. They also sell bread and quiches – these look remarkably like the ones that The Old Farmhouse Bakery make.

 

On the day I went, Gill was there. I wanted some Mrs Appleby but she actually advised against it and got me some Cheshire instead as Mrs Appleby wasn’t 100% right. I had a brief chat and she obviously knows her subject as she has been in the trade for over 20 years.

 

The selection here is not ridiculously huge but still pretty extensive and everything she sells is in peak condition and comes from a decent supplier.

 

If you are in the area, I recommend this place to shop for your cheeses.

 

E

 

Address: 30 High Street, Watlington, Oxon, OX 49 5PY (Free parking on Hill Road Car Park)

Mail Order: Yes

Telephone number: 01491 613 585

Website: www.granarydeli.co.uk

 

Date of visit: 13 May 2011

Summary:

This is a strange and wonderful place in a small town off the B4009 – stop over when your are visiting Raymond Blanc’s restaurant up the road in Great Milton. They claim to have 140 different cheeses on sale – I didn’t count them but it certainly has nearly everything and is definitely the best cheese shop I have visited outside London.

 

The other weird thing about this deli is that they don’t carry a large range of cooked meat such as ham, salami etc. They do carry a lot of up market bits and pieces that you would find in “top end” food shops in London such as Irish steel cut pin head oats, crisp bread from Peters Yard , Anna’s ginger snaps from Scandinavia, Dijon mustard by Fallot etc. In fact all the non fresh consumables are all the hard to come by top end stuff at top end prices. For example, Peter’s Yard (www.petersyard.com) crisp bread is £8.99 for 300g, about 5X your normal crisp bread at Waitrose. Sirloin steak is cheaper per kilo. Howevere, in my view, it is the best around.

 

They also do an interesting range of fresh bread. Do ring before you visit and see if they had a recent delivery and what was delivered.

 

By the way, other than the hard to come by goodies which are expensive anywhere in the country, the prices for normal commodities are quite normal.

 

The place is 25 miles from where I live but I shop there once a month.

 

E

 

Address: Welsh Lane, Heckfield Hook, Hampshire RG27 0LJ

Telephone number: 0118 932 6132

Website: http://www.wellington-farm-shop.co.uk/

Date of visit: 6 April 2011

Opening times Mon-Fri 9am-6pm. Sat and Sun 9am-4am

Summary:

Mike – the winner of the review prize for March – has heard that this place as they do nice sausages.

As the shop is off the A33, I dropped in on my way back from Basingstoke.

The farm shop sells food products and others from the Wellington estate.

As I enter the place there is a chilled deli section on the left and the meat section on the right, I have to say that the meat section offered a wonderful looking selection. However, it is not cheap – in fact, nothing is cheap in the place. I suppose the Wellington Brand adds a premium.

The cheese counter offered a nice selection of mainly British cheese and some of the cheeses are made from milk sourced from the estate.

There were a few pies on display and I understand that the pies have won awards. The bread section was a bit thin in terms of variety at 2pm.

The olive oil (nearly £10 for 500ml) is from the Duke’s Spanish estate.

Other products on offer were flour, biscuits, honey etc.

To be honest, other than the meat and pie section, I thought that very little else was unique.

E

 PS there is a tea and coffee shop on site

The area of New Malden has been mentioned by several publications including The Good Food Channel as Korean Town.

I thought that I’ll test it out.

To be honest, there are a few Korean Restaurants such as

Butchers (Korean BBQ) on the 27 Coombe Road (continuation of High Street) and

Gengis Khan on Kingston Road

The other “Korean outlet” are hairdresser, garage and a Korean Supermarket known as K-Mart

K-mart New Malden,
71-73 High Street
New Malden, Surrey
KT3 4BT
Tel : 020 8942 8374

There are 2 branches of K-Mart, the other one is in Golders Green. The products on offer are mainly Korean, Japanese and Chinese. However, they do offer Korean dumplings (frozen), soya sauce and the famous Korean BBQ sauce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_barbecue .

They also sell meat and vegetables. So you can make your own kim chee or buy ones already made.

Please note that K-Mart also offer an online/delivery service.

http://www.k-mart.co.uk/

There is also the now compulsory Polish Deli (Polski Sklep) on 23 Coombe Road and my find of  the day:

Shree Ganesh – an Indian Deli. 178 |High street, New Malden.  KT3 4ES (0208 949 7708). They offer a huge range of spices. There are still a few missing but it is pretty good.

The truth is that unless you live locally, Japan Centre on Lower Regent Street is still the best place for Japanese and Korean food.

E

March 2011

Address: 7 Market Place, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 2AA

Telephone number: 01491 574377

Website: www.gabrielmachin.co.uk

Summary:

This place is listed in Rick Stein’s food heroes as a butcher but it has everything.

They manage to squeeze everything into a tiny shop front. There is a charcuterie section with food smoked at the back of the shop.

There are also a fish and seafood section and a cheese counter. The fish on offer covered a wide range. On the day I went, there were mussels, turbot, salmon etc.The cheese counter have a variety of British Cheese from within a 50 miles radius as well as some excellent French Cheeses.

The meat counter also offered “french cuts” of lamb and beef. They also offer offals – couldn’t see any tripe, and some interesting pre-prepared meats including chicken thighs boned and stuffed with goats cheese. I also managed to finds Haggis- made by Ramsay of Carluke.

A very interesting shop. The prices are reasonable.

If you go on a Thursday, you can shop for bread in the open air market outside the shop. The bread stand (no name – but there is only one), offers a fantastic range of bread, cheese with rosemary, 3 types of rye, spelt etc.

E

PS Machin also offers a nationwide delivery service – see website.

March 2011