Wednesday 11 November 2009

Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shop - Hampstead

I wouldn't normally get excited about such a naff franchised chain of Victorian themed sweet shops - but I've just let my sweet tooth get the better of me and spent a small fortune on sugar coated memories. How can a grown man resist buying what his Nan used to buy him?
I'm now sitting at home sugared up and smiling guiltily. The hero product for me? A Chocolate Tool Kit. It's made of poor quality chocolate and it's cloying but thirty years ago I'd have happily spent the night watching the A Team and choosing whether to eat the little saw, or the hammer or the chisel first- so that's the plan for tonight. Without the A Team.
They also sell boxes of Wilhelmina Original Dutch Peppermints - lighter than an extra strong mint and already empty.
It's hardly worth a long trek to find this shop but if your passing perhaps you should pop in. My nan certainly would.

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Cocomaya - Connaught Village

I'm not going to spoil the fun and beauty that is Cocomaya by describing it's charms. Just go and visit it today - it's that good!
They make their own chocolates (which surely you've tried by now?) and in this new location, only yards from the old store, they make rather wonderful bread, cakes and lunches too.
This store made me smile. A lot.
Go today.

Monday 2 November 2009

The De Beauvoir Deli Company - Pointless

I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of this new deli for some time now. I got especially excited when I started browsing facebook and saw so many great recommendations from future customers.

The wait is over - It's awful.

They've spent a small fortune on branding and admittedly the signage is rather stunning, yet the window itself, which is over twenty foot wide at a guess, has 5 soggy looking pumpkins and 12 dead leaves in it. It's not a display, it's a sign of worse to come.

Once inside the shop is huge, yet the fit-out seemed to consist of a visit to Ikea for some shelves and a quick call to 'The Bargain Hunters' to see if they have any junk left over from the last series.

I'm sorry but I don't want to hear radio 2 blaring at me and yes I would quite like a 'good morning' when I walk in. The food? Well I can buy half of it from my local supermarket at a better price and the other half I can find at just about every tired deli in the country.

In the world of TV and film they often talk about the fourth wall. This is the imaginary wall that separates the viewer from the actor. This wall should never be broken - unless your Hitchcock.
How does this relate to a deli? We as customers expect theatre and spectacle when we shop; leaving the anchovy fillets in the vacuum wrapped plastic, plus bar-code!, that they came off the white van with and then dumping them onto your chiller, the illusion is smashed. I now know where (and for how much) they buy the anchovies, the chorizo and the pasta. I should never see how a shop works.
This should all have been learnt on the first day of shop keepers school; maybe in De Beauvoir they skipped class to visit the graphic desingner!