Britain’s Best Delis: Laura’s Larder, Orpington

Laura Roberts has been a foodie forever, she smiles. “I baked for my friends at school, and catered one of my mum’s leaving dos from work. As soon as I was able to get into a kitchen, I would cook for my family,” she says.

“Sometimes,” she jokes, “it was the same things over and over again, but I was always, always passionate about food from way back, and I always said I would like to open a restaurant or deli. But I think, when you’re young, these things don’t seem possible – too hard or too expensive.”

Despite it feeling like an impossible dream, Laura spent her youth and early adulthood dutifully collecting and gathering trinkets and decor she could one day use, should her ambitions come to fruition. “And I was obsessed by farm shops and delis. I would go in, then come out with a box of stuff, taking photos of products and saying to makers, ‘if I ever get a deli, you’ll be in there’.”

Marketing and digital media were where Laura landed, however, eventually setting up her own digital PR consultancy, Good Stories, moving to Holt, where her deli-led desires were fulfilled by the well-bedecked stores of North Norfolk.

“Then, in 2017, my brother got diagnosed with leukaemia. He loved his job. He used to run ITN. One day the doctor called him at work and said, ‘you have to come in straight away’. He never went back and died in 2021. I thought, if someone calls me tomorrow and said my working life was over, would I have done what I wanted to?”

It was a moment of complete clarity for Laura, who travelled far and wide around the UK to find a deli and start a new life – the life she’d always hoped for.

Starting afresh

Laura landed on premises in Orpington, pitching the idea for Laura’s Larder to her husband in a two-minute call to her husband. She knew, she says, that it really was a dream, and that plenty of food businesses fail, but also knew she had skin in the game when it came to setting up and running a successful company. To her, it felt like a no-brainer.

“The area has a large number of primary schools, and young families are moving here all the time. There wasn’t a deli back in 2020, and the building and location were everything I wanted.”

Of course, opening just as a global disaster (Covid) struck wasn’t ideal. “However, in hindsight, that period of time was good for shops like ours. People didn’t know we were here, but 21 years of digital marketing helped me pivot to focus on social media, delivering essentials packs, and themed boxes. That got people following me on Instagram to see what we had every week. I really was basically a delivery person for a while, and I’d open up the shop for a bit, then go home and homeschool the kids!”

A vision 20 years in the making

Laura had years to think about what her deli would look like, and largely that was somewhere that celebrated sharing good food, with lots of samples.

“It’s a higgledy-piggledy deli, but in Covid nobody wanted to touch anything, and nobody wanted you to touch anything. I wanted charcuterie hanging from the ceiling that I’d slice in front of people, and all that went out the window. So the experience wasn’t there at the beginning. But I remember the first day I could put a sample on the counter. A customer came in and did a little happy dance!”

Being interactive and encouraging engagement is very much at the core of the shop.

Today, Laura says anyone who visits is assaulted immediately by the sheer number of products on display. There are jars, bottles and tins everywhere. “Some say they feel a little overwhelmed when they come in, but I love that sense of abundance. I always say to people we are a traditional deli. We champion British produce, with a little taste of Europe and further beyond.”

At the core of Laura’s Larder, Laura says, are bakery, cheese and wine, with everything else riffing off these pillars. “If you have cheese and wine you need crackers. If you have crackers you need butter and chutney. It builds from there,” she explains.

Having a younger audience, thanks to the proliferation of families in the area, Laura says she relishes the chance to bring in new food trends alongside staunchly classic deli offerings. “We have a sign outside saying, ‘good vibes and food supplies’, that’s so ‘us’.”

Something Laura’s Larder’s become renowned for is its lunchtime offering. The counter boasts homemade cakes that change daily – from lavender and honey cheesecake to oat, date and nut bars or apple and cinnamon cake. There are homemade quiches, soups and salads. And social followers wait with bated breath every morning to find out what Laura’s special sandwich of the day (all made to order) will be.

“People say it’s their appointment to view post on Instagram! At 11am I’ll have people calling up saying, ‘I’m trying to plan my day and I haven’t seen what your special is yet’, and friends say they look at it to get advice for making things themselves at home.”

A vocation, not a job

Running any business is a lifestyle, not a job, and Laura adores it. “Everyone says it’s going to be so much work, and they were right, obviously, but luckily I had run my own businesses before, so I was aware of some of the behind-the-scenes – it’s the bricks and mortar side of things that brought a whole new level of things I wasn’t aware of.”

One of her favourite parts of running the deli is sourcing, speaking to producers about why and how they make things. “When customers come in, I can talk confidently about everything we have, and if I know them, I’ll know which products they’ll like so i can make recommendations.”

Laura muses that she was “much more well off and had more free time” in the past, “but I’m happy I made the change”. 

She calls running the shop a performance, but “it’s also lovely because we’re humans and need that interaction. It’s really nice to be part of the community.”

Moving with the times

Laura gets a huge amount of satisfaction out of meeting producers and introducing to Laura’s Larder products she knows the multiples won’t have.

Trends she’s picked up on recently include a steering from younger customers towards natural wines. “And they’re also embracing things like Korean cooking in the same way. Yes you can go online and buy kimchi, but you haven’t got someone there talking about how it was made, how to use it, and how it made them feel. Our customers appreciate the personal touch.”

Something else Laura is noticing, again, with younger shoppers, is how much attention they’re paying to labels. “They’re really studying them before they buy something, and I don’t think I’ve seen that from young people as much as recently. I love it because we always fare so much better than the supermarkets in this area. We care about what we sell, and these people care about what they eat.”

What makes a great deli?

Curating lots of things from lots of different places, rather than going to one or two wholesalers is key so you don’t become an ‘identikit’ shop, says Laura. “I go to multiple sources. I have a tiny shop, but there’s 1,800 lines in my till from over 300 suppliers!”

Being personable without being intrusive goes a long way as well. “I hate walking into sports shops where everyone’s staring at their phones and doesn’t want to help. It pays to say, ‘hi, how are you?’ and, ‘can I help you?’ asking questions and following up with the ‘performance’.”

Laura’s favourite producers

Makan Malaysia: Run by two girls in Reading, who make Malaysian sauces. They’re so fun and engaging. I love people like that!

Chili Maven: She’s also so much fun, and I really love the depth of flavour in her products.

Baron Bigod: It’s something we’re synonymous with – a really fantastic British product.

Homemade: Our ‘made at Laura’s Larder’ range is popular. People make a beeline for the homemade cake, fresh salads, quiches and more. Having this element alongside the artisan British producers really sets us apart from the crowd.”