London's first Scottish café-deli to open next month
Launched by Scottish food business Auld Hag, The Shoap will be located on St John Street on the former Grab Thai site and will offer a classic deli offering with everything sourced from or made with top quality Scottish produce.
The Shoap will serve a rotational baked goods offer with sweet items like shortbread, Dundee cake and Ecclefechan tarts as well as savoury options like scotch pies and bridies. There will also be seating in the deli for those wanting to stop by for breakfast with a coffee or lunch with a beer or cider.
For breakfast there will be Glasgow morning rolls made in-house with fillings including square sausage and tattie scones. The coffee will be made using beans sourced from Caora Dhubh Coffee Company on the Isle of Skye with all milk options sourced from Scotland.
It will continue to evolve once opened with an additional lunch offering of hot sandwiches such as Aberdeen Angus topside and Arbroath smokies as well as pies, including scotch pies and steak and haggis, pork and black pudding sausage rolls, and soups, such as a cullen kkink or lentil and smoked ham hock.
There will also be the occasional seasonal lunch special, such as Scottish wild mushrooms and pearl barley; or haggis with tattie puree.
In the evenings, The Shoap will be open for drinks and snacks that will include items such as ‘mince n toast - slow-cooked Aberdeen Angus beef mince on a toasted piece of plain loaf; and Ayrshire langoustines with garlic butter and crispy pink firs with grated Isle of Mull cheddar.
There will be on-draught and canned beers from a range of breweries across Scotland including Newbarns, Tennents, Overtone and Simple Things Fermentations.
Its interior will comprise of exposed brickwork, stainless and galvanized steel and lots of beeswaxed plywood designed to create an industrial come earthy feel with a nod to Glasgow’s industrial past.
“When I moved to London I couldn't believe Scottish food wasn't readily available. Where could I get a roll and square sausage or a Scotch pie or a can of Tennents?,” says Glaswegian co-founder Gregg Boyd.
“Where was all of our incredible produce like cheese, soft fruit, seafood and beef? This is where the idea of Auld Hag was born.”
From markets to bricks n mortar
Auld Hag was founded by economist Boyd and his partner Maddi during the last wave of lockdowns and started with deliveries of hot haggis, neeps & tatties cooked in their flat to friends and a small Instagram following.
The pair later bought a gazebo and some cooking kit and started trading at Westgate Street Market in Hackney, later collaborating with the likes of Gordos Pizza, Hot 4 U, the Bagel Guys, the Cheese Bar, Dalston Wine Club, Naked Soup, Kold Sauce, Two Hot Asians and Bangers.
They opened a second stall at LSS Market, Coal Drops Yard, Kings X and traded there intermittently from winter 2021 to summer 2022.
Auld Hag later took on a residency at Exale Brewery in Walthamstow from September 2022 to March 2023, leading to Boyd quitting his full-time job and switching to hospitality.
The Shoap will also serve a range of Scottish produce, including smoked fish from East Neuk, Bare Bones chocolate made in the east end of Glasgow, cheeses from all over Scotland, and charcuterie made using Scottish pork from producers such as East Coast Cured in Leith.
It will open on 9 February.
