Thursday, 18 April 2013

Beverley's 100 Year Old Food Store

I briefly mentioned in an earlier blog post that G Jack & Son in Wednesday Market was my saviour last week, coming to the rescue with most of the things I needed to make my homemade cereal.  But I wanted to say more about this Beverley institution.

Jacks has been selling fresh food in Beverley for over 100 years.  How's that for tradition?  It definitely makes our 7 years look like a flash in the pan!


Now owned and run by Duncan and Joy Jack, you'd be hard pushed to find two people who care more about Beverley.  Duncan sits on Beverley Town Council as in Independent Councillor and they're both involved with numerous community related things from the Chamber of Trade to the Christmas Lights Committee.

So what about the shop itself and why is it worth a visit?  Well, let me give you the grand tour but first a piece of advice.  This is a long, thin shop and it often gets really busy with people queuing to order lunch so if you're coming for a browse, best to avoid lunchtime.

If you're looking for lunch though, put this on your list of places to visit - they do sandwiches, a daily soup (we love tomato & chorizo day!), jacket potatoes and salads, all very reasonably priced.

Down the right hand side of the shop are all the counters where you'll find, baked stuff like pies, sausage rolls and cakes...


.... a delicious looking chocolate counter....


... and the cheese counter, where you'll find both British and European cheeses.


Down the right hand side of the shop is all the stuff that's come in really handy in our little & local experiment.  A mixture of quality everyday things and more unusual goodies.

Big baskets of dried fruits and nuts....


... shelves of tea (I took pics of the pretty stuff but we also got our Yorkshire Tea here)...


... jams and preserves...


... impressive looking fruit liqueurs from Devon (note to self, find a recipe so that I can give them a try)...


... a good selection of dried herbs from the Shropshire Spice Co ...


... and even the same Cartwright and Butler (Beverley Company) biscuits that we found stacked so high in Harrods last week.


They even do outside catering and made to order hampers.

This is a shop that is about substance rather than show.  It's not shiny and flashy - and I say that as a compliment.  It's the sort of place where you can imagine the owners (not that I'm privy to their conversations) talking about how a prospective new product tastes rather than how it looks.  Good on 'em.

Even though Jacks is literally just across the road from the shop, I have been guilty of buying things at the supermarket that I could get there but now I've properly taken the time to see what they have, I'll make sure that they're my first port of call.

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