Inside London’s First Scottish Deli
We went to speak to Gregg, founder of the recently-opened 'The Shoap' from Auld Hag, to talk Scottish produce, morning rolls and, of course, Tennent’s.
There’s a disconnect in Scottish food. On the one hand there are the cliches – the haggis and the deep fried mars bars – while on the other there is the produce envied by the rest of the world, the Loch Fyne oysters, the fresh langoustine and the internationally-celebrated meat. When Gregg Boyd founded Auld Hag — and, more specifically, The Shoap, London’s first Scottish deli — he wanted to play a part in bridging the gap between perception and reality.
“It’s about joining the dots, so that people see Aberdeen Angus, or Orkney crab, or Shetland lamb on a menu and identify those ingredients as Scottish food,” Gregg says. “But the catch all term about Scottish food wouldn’t link the two. People think of deep fried mars bars, which you don’t see anywhere. And people don’t eat haggis every night.”
Gregg splits the two sides of Scottish cuisine into the cultural and the quality. For the latter, he mentions shellfish sent to Europe, world-famous cheese and, perhaps most obvious of all, whisky. In the cultural corner, Gregg points to a daily example. “Morning rolls mean a lot to people,” he says. “There are different styles, the soft, the well-fired, the crispy. Everyone has their own way of having it and there’s a certain quality expected. I don’t think people outside of Scotland understand that there’s this real cultural significance associated with breakfast.”
At Auld Hag, Gregg bakes and sells his own morning rolls, surrounded by the best Scottish produce he can find. “It’s bringing it all together in one place and shouting about it,” he says. “I don’t think this has been done before, not in a deli.” The morning rolls come with square sausage, haggis and more, while other menu staples include macaroni pies and sandwiches (or ‘pieces’) made with braised Angus beef or hot smoked salmon from East Neuk.
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Newcomer Wine to host winemaker’s evening at Carousel
Our mates at Newcomer Wine will be hosting a very special dinner this Monday at Carousel. Following a day of trade tastings, the Newcomer team will be pitching up on Charlotte Street with 10 industry-defining winemakers pouring their new vintages.
Expect fantastic natural wines from Newcomer’s home turf of Germany and Austria as well as some exciting vintages from across France. Terroir-inspired dishes will be offered a la carte through the evening.
Tickets are available now.
Auld Hag continued:
The produce on the shelves ranges from granola made in Aberdeenshire to charcuterie from East Coast Cured, there is flour milled by Mungoswells in East Lothian, and mustard made in the outer Hebrides. There’s even venison salami from SLOP favourites Great Glen Charcuterie. The process of finding this produce has seen Gregg develop existing relationships and travel across Scotland developing new ones.
“I worked in a farm shop when I was at uni, and a bunch of the people we sold there are producers we work with now,” he says, namechecking Edinburgh butchers Findlays of Portobello. “We get our bacon, haggis and square sausage from there, and I used to put their produce on a shelf working in a shop 10 years ago.”
Gregg finds other producers via Instagram, and some are even more removed. “The other side of it is me travelling up to the Hebrides to meet some producers who are so remote, physically but also in that they don’t have any idea about social media. They barely even use text messages, the only way to find them is to go and visit them and turn up at their door.” Finding these producers, though, means finding a potential bounty. “We were last up in the Hebrides in August, looking at langoustines, hot smoked salmon, scallops, really good oysters.”
There are obvious challenges with being the first of anything, and Gregg is finding that the lack of an established route for Scottish produce can be difficult. “The biggest problem is the supply chain, because it’s not a thing that’s been done before,” he says, pointing to the amount of Scottish fish that has historically been sent to France and Spain without hitting the rest of the U.K. “This is going to be a challenge until we find our feet and find the best way to get all this stuff down.”
The success of Auld Hag lies in more than just having the best of Scottish produce on the shelves. Gregg has also tapped into a more cultural feeling around Scottish food. “A lady came in who had lived in London when she was 19, and she was 65 now, she said she’d always wanted something like this,” he says. “A lot of Scottish people live in London, barely go home and miss the taste of home.” Auld Hag helps scratch that itch, with nostalgic sweets and Bon Accord soft drinks.
There are other things on offer, too, that showcase another side of Scottish culture and can rarely, if ever, be found this far south: glass bottles of Irn Bru and pints of Tennent’s lager. “That’s the cultural stuff, things that people know and miss rather than things they might not have heard of.”
Interview by Jack Stanley and images courtesy of Kestin
Dan’s Announces new and informatie Tasting Series
Our good mates over at Dan’s in Dalston have announced a new series of tastings, aimed at wine drinkers that want to turn pure enthusiasm into something more informed.
Starting with “what even is natural wine” and touring through reds, whites, oranges and sparklings, the evenings will include generous pours of wine and knowledge, all helmed by WSET certified (and all round very nice people) Ffion and Robyn.
Bookings are available here.
If you feel like you already know your lees from your Chablis, Dan’s is also hosting a night of new wave Burgundy with Emile Wines which promises to be bringing some incredible bottles from rare producers in the storied region.
Tickets for that one are also available now..