Britain’s Best Delis: De Beauvoir Deli, London

One signature of a great business is that its growth has, or at least comes across as having, come about very organically – even casually. Rather than striving for the next opportunity and pulling out all the stops (and hours in the day) to make it work, these businesses seem almost effortless in the evolving service they provide to their appreciative customers. London’s De Beauvoir Deli is one such business.

Founded in the De Beauvoir area of the London neighbourhood of Hackney in 2009, it has moved with the times to provide a resource for its community that now nobody in the area could be without. Simple provisions such as bread (from one of the city’s most iconic bakeries, Dusty Knuckle) and coffee (from Monmouth Coffee Company) are levelled up to everyday items that feel extra special, and its format – gradually grown and shaped as demand has changed and increased – now caters to both retail and foodservice customers in a deliciously satisfying way.

“When we first opened there was a very small team of just three people, including me, and we were purely a retail operation apart from making some sandwiches to order from the deli counter, which were made in our miniscule kitchen,” begins Harry Davies, owner, who grew up in the area and is still a resident today. Now proudly self-proclaimed as an ‘artisan deli, café and kitchen’ it is clear that the business’s evolution has been pronounced.

Organic growth

“Something I’m very proud of is that in our 17 years of business there has never been any external investment; all growth has been very organic and self-generated,” says Harry. “A lot of it is down to my inability to just stand still, and I’m naturally drawn to new projects – I find it satisfying and love doing it.“We’re now based out of three buildings on the same road, including a production kitchen which services our other two kitchens, in our deli and café. A little van trundles down the road twice a day, and the production kitchen also offers catering services.” The menu has the same simple elegance as the rest of the site: sandwich platters, large salads and quiches made using premium ingredients.

Pre-Covid the deli’s foodservice offering consisted of takeaway coffees, sandwiches, soup and quiches, and 12 seats were available to waiting customers, but the pandemic inspired the addition of a service hatch for coffees, “for social distancing reasons”, and this led to the shop being “spun around”. The latest iteration of De Beauvoir Deli’s foodservice offering includes a 15-strong team in the kitchen alone.

The deli has changed too. “We’ve found because of the way food retail has changed in the past few years, what was considered gourmet maybe 10 years ago is much more commonplace – especially in London. There were products you would only find in high-end delis which are now all over the place, so to differentiate ourselves we expanded what we make in-house – if we can’t find something we want to sell, we simply make it ourselves.”

5 of the deli’s top products

- Dusty Knuckle Potato Sourdough: A deliciously versatile loaf from a London institution.
- Croissant: Made on-site at De Beauvoir’s in-house bakery.
- Fenton Farm Free-range Eggs: Flavourful eggs from the Somerset-Devon border.
- Monmouth Espresso Blend Beans: A blend of beans from Guatemala, Brazil and Colombia.
- Comte: Sold pre-portioned and wrapped.

A community hub for food lovers

This organic approach has certainly been a hit with the local community, of which the shop is a cornerstone. “We’ve got a lovely, lovely community around here but it’s unrecognisable from the early days, although some of our customers have shopped with us since day one, and some of the people who work here used to come in as small kids.”

Being a leafy, suburban neighbourhood, Harry imagined that weekdays would be relatively quiet and weekends rammed, but as time has gone on businesses have set up shop in the area making lunchtimes a booming opportunity for the site. Music industry types and architects aside, he has always been keen to be a foodie hub for all ages. “We’ve always tried to have a broad appeal, as much to an older lady as a 20-something,” he says, with older generations tending to favour the retail side of operations and younger shoppers the foodservice arm.

In an ideal, fine food-led world, every neighbourhood would have a De Beauvoir-style business. Somewhere you could pick up a coffee and bagel to-go before work, pop in for a freshly made sandwich at lunchtime, and revisit to gather supplies including a cream-filled chilled dessert to hunker down with of an evening or weekend. De Beauvoir deli has demonstrated that by getting the foundations solid before building upwards, or sideways, an independent retailer can indeed be (nearly) all things to (nearly) all people, naturally.