Monty’s Deli, the Jewish soul food concept, is weighing up expansion options, including an additional food hall site, and a more upmarket iteration, MCA has learnt.
Co-owner Owen Barratt told MCA said the original plan had been to open a series of A1 delis, using the Hoxton flagship restaurant’s production kitchen to supply meat and pickles - however the emergence of food halls like Market Halls has led to a rethink.
He said alongside a further food hall site, there was a desire to open a more premium format in West London, with marble counters, smoked fish and champagne.
Barratt, who runs Monty’s with founder Mark Ogus, said there was ample production capacity on Hoxton Street to supply further satellite sites, as well as develop a retail business selling sides of salt beef and pastrami.
The salt-beef and pastrami sandwich specialist raised £215,230 investment on Crowdcube last year from 319 backers to finance its expansion across London.
With core spending focussed on lunchtime sandwiches and bagels, Monty’s is now diversifying its evening offer at Hoxton Street and Victoria, with a beef frankfurter and a Shabbat-style sharing feast of roast chicken and trimmings.
Barratt told MCA: “There’s so much culinary history to draw on in Ashkenazi Jewish food. I’m really excited to get more deep into it, and move slightly away from sandwiches, in the evening at least. Though our focus will remain on brunch and lunch – that’s what people want.”
On future possibilities, Barratt added: “We now have the strength of brand that people will come to us, and know what we do
“In terms of whether we have the perfect format yet? I don’t think we do
“There’s a big difference between Spitalfields and Victoria that we have to change what we do to suit who’s around
“But we have something that could suit anywhere. We’d love to do a posher version – smoked fish, lots of marble, champagne rather than frosty beer. That’s another side of deli dining we’re really into
“In Hoxton we tried to do everything at once, but now we’ve pared it down a bit. We’ll diversify a bit later on.”
Monty’s Deli is backed by Berber & Q co-founder Paul Katz, Joseph Mount of indie band Metronomy, and retired City lawyer Graham White, formerly of Linklaters and Kirkland & Ellis.
