The Food & Drink Innovation Network

As a product developer living and working in London, I’m often looking for inspiration as well as trying to spot upcoming trends and I think that one of the easiest places to get a lot of input within just a small walking tour is the area around Marylebone High Street.

So if you’re over this way I thought you might like to know the route I take. I’ve put it on a googlemap if you prefer to see it laid out Click Here.

I usually go mid-morning and finish mid-afternoon so that the shops are not too crowded.

I start at northern end of the High Street on the side opposite the church. Here you will see a Conran Shop, a Conran Café and above is Conran’s Orrery restaurant. Conran opened this little group of businesses about fourteen years ago. I’m told he refers to the Orrery as his favourite of all the restaurants he owns or runs and it is a good place for lunch or dinner and it definitely has a French feel. It’s top of the range and has prices to match. The Café has good coffee, pastries and snacks. I visit The Conran Shop itself because I find that looking at non-food shops often gives me inspiration for food dishes or products. For example while picking up some lavender and olive oil hand soap you might get inspired on a lavender and olive oil marinade or dressing. Don’t knock it till you try it, lavender is such a close relative of rosemary that it’s sometimes difficult to tell which is which.

Now head south towards Oxford Street, and on the corner of Devonshire Street you will come across Getti’s Italian restaurant. This place has been in the same family’s hands for years, but it’s recently had a re-vamp which has transformed it from traditional Italian to trendy cosmopolitan. I think the name is clever as everyone feels they know a Getti, even if it’s just the multimillionaire Paul Getti, and the menu is clever too. Frankly the portions are a bit small, but I feel that’s true about a lot of new restaurants.

On the same side as Getti’s but continuing south towards Oxford Street is Divertimenti’s china shop, kitchen shop, book shop and cookery school under one roof. Plan to spend some time there. Maybe you call-ahead and see what lessons might inspire you and build the morning or afternoon around that.

Further South there’s a Pret which is just big enough to carry all the most popular lines so you can see what’s selling and what’s not. For example they have slim sandwiches and slim baguettes, which simply means a half a sandwich or a half a baguette, but the word slim seems much more consumer-compelling. Also I’ve just noticed they’re doing stands with large wooden trays of oranges, bananas and apples, and I think that’s a clever presentation as it looks like a wholesale market’s wooden tray and gives all the fresh clues and cues.

Carry on south and you come to Ponti’s. This is a chain that’s been going since the year dot, and if you’re working on “Food To Go” then this shows where the roots came from. It’s like a family run sandwich bar which has grown into a restaurant. Good value and quite a traditional Italian feel to it.

Going southwards the same road becomes Thayer Street and then James Street. On the way south there are many more eateries to steal ideas from, particularly in St Christopher’s Place. For example The Café Creperie, or Carluccios or Eat Thai. Then there’s the Ayoush middle eastern, the Mimosa, Café Rouge, Siren Italian, The Grand Bazaar and the Seabass fish restaurant all literally next to each other and a rich ground for Menu Gazing.

La Tasca which is a clever “Spanish” chain catering to the tapas trend us nearly always full mid-day and evening.

On to Massis Lebanese and Sofra’s “Mediterranean”. I think that the word Mediterranean has become a clever catch-all when restaurateurs can’t decide whether they are Italian, Spanish, Middle Eastern or Turkish.

The point is there are so many restaurants and food shops within such a small distance that you can cover a lot of ground. When you have gone south enough to hit Oxford Street, then you turn west and enter Selfridges by the front door. You land in the perfume department, and you can pick up tons of packaging ideas from companies who have big budgets. But don’t stop long as you are heading to the far corner which is Selfridges Food Hall. This is a real working shop and I think it’s a good up-scale and adventurous combination of ambient, frozen, chilled and foodservice, but still with its feet on the ground.

You enter the Food Hall via Artisan Du Chocolat which is an opportunity to update yourself on hand made confectionery. They’ve got a mini conching machine on the counter which shows how the cocoa is beaten to death over a number of days to make it smooth. Then Vom Foss shows how they liqueurs from the cask, which is a nice look at up-scale dispensing. Go on past the bakery where you can pick up a quarter loaf of Poilane bread for £2.50. I think that now we’re now getting so used to seeing “Artisan” bread in stores for two pounds, that to see Poilane commanding this premium doesn’t seem so shocking any more!

As you get into Selfridges Food Hall there’s an ambient section where you can pick up samples of the latest “speciality” foods from the wholesale circuits, but there are a lot of fresh counters too, full of ideas.

Yo Sushi offers its usual carrousel, but also a shop version for takeaway. I like the Square Pie counter. I think it’s a clever blend of traditional and up to date. The steak and Guinness is a good seller, but the best seller is chicken and mushroom. They have mash and green peas, but they don’t have the “liquor” which made the original steak pies authentic. The “liquor” was created when the pie shop boiled its eels and drew off the liquid and mixed it with parsley to make the gravy for its pies and mash. The “liquor” that remained on the eels turned to jelly – hence jellied eels.

Take in the hot sausage counter from Banger Bros where Cumberland and British are still the two best sellers, then the Indian offering from Tiffin Bites. A RAW counter does the wheat grass and other juices, there’s a Krispy Kreme if you haven’t had your fix for a while and a Daylesford Organic section if you want to check how premium some prices can actually get.

If the champagne and oyster bar doesn’t call to you, then you can go to the Brass Rail café which has been there since time began and its speciality is Salt Beef Sandwiches and they’re almost definitive. The processors have cut back on the salt these days, so to get the proper flavour you’ll have to add some of your own.

On the way back from Selfridges, and back up to where you started, walk up the east side of Marylebone High Street Peter Gordon’s famous “Providores” which is a draw to the local set. The restaurant is tiny and packed, and to get a table you’d have to book weeks in advance. Also there’s a Paul’s French boulangerie, a Fishworks wet fish shop and restaurant, a Tesco Express, an upmarket Waitrose and a Holland and Barrett to check the “health foods” scene.

In Moxon Street you will find La Fromagerie, which is one of the best cheese shops in London and next door is The Ginger Pig Butcher’s which has some very very good old fashioned British and French cuts of meat, as well as well made pies. If you feel like going to the area on Sunday you will find The Farmer’s Market in Moxon Street. It’s open from about ten till two and has a really good selection of vegetables, fruit meat, fish and poultry.

When you almost reach the north end of Marylebone High Street once again you will find a group of interesting places on the east side.

There’s The Natural Kitchen which is a whole-foods / organic / local-sourcing shop, and it’s impossible to go in there and not come out with some ideas for new products or some thoughts about trends.

Then there is a good place for coffee called Le Pain Quotidien. This is part of a chain of half a dozen or so branches, and it’s always packed. They have the mandatory sharing-tables, as well as the more usual tables for two or four. They feature “Tartines” with all manner of toppings, and the “Tartines” are essentially pieces of toast made from wholemeal bread. What a clever re-positioning of toast and, looking at the prices, the margins probably aren’t that bad either. I think it’s the subtle variations on a theme which can often make all the difference for consumers; and that applies to both foodservice and retail.

Finally you are at the church where you started and in the church garden at the weekends there is a little market which often has food stalls with some interesting hot snacks and other produce.

So, my product development colleagues, that’s my recommended food tour. I hope you like it.

Jeffrey Hyman – Staff Writer.