DELI OF THE MONTH

Barney’s Deli is less than three years old but this Brighton business has navigated the pandemic and even managed to open a second site, in Hove. The operation has been driven by Michaela Myers and her firm belief in food and drink from Sussex.

Interview by Michael Lane

Success by the sea

IF YOU WERE EXPECTING to visit Barney’s Deli and meet the eponymous individual behind this Brighton retailer, you might be in for a shock. You’ll certainly see him – there’s a large portrait photo above the till – but whether he’d be able to advise you on what cheese to buy is another matter.

Barney is in fact a Cavapoo that belongs to the deli’s owner, Michaela Myers, who beams as she explains how she came to name the shop after her beloved pet.

“When we were going to open, I was coming up with all these clever names like ‘Fromage à Trois’ and stuff like that,” she tells FFD. “A few of our friends said: ‘Why not just call it Barney’s?’ because they loved the idea of it being named after a dog.”

Don’t be fooled into thinking that Myers isn’t taking retailing seriously, though. Yes, there are quirks (no serveover, a Sussex-first sourcing policy and a fully-fledged vegan cheese range) but this deli, in the city’s trendy North Laine area, wouldn’t have survived the pandemic without Myers’s shopkeeping nous.

Despite its (pre-COVID) bustling location you would fear for a business on a pedestrianised street 10 minutes from the beach, but Barney’s has managed to keep trading at a decent level. And it’s done so without any kind of foodto-go offer – only to recently open a second foodservice-led outlet in nearby Hove.

Barney’s has come a long way despite only opening its doors two-and-a-half years ago.

It began when Myers was made redundant, turned 50 and suffered a health scare all in a short space of time. This prompted her to start pursuing a “life-long dream” of opening a food shop at the beginning of 2018, having already settled in Brighton from her native London a few years earlier.

Unlike some who trade in their career for fine food, Myers was well aware of what she was getting into.

“My first job as a Saturday girl was working in an old-fashioned provisions shop, where we cooked our own hams and did our own smoking, so I had all of that knowledge,” she says. Myers also had stints at both Paxton & Whitfield and Jeroboams in the Capital, amassing some 12 years of deli experience before going to university in her mid-20s.

“I did my degree, and worked in the corporate world but my passion was always to have this kind of thing.”

The search for a property started in February 2018 with a few out-of-town locations but they didn’t fit the bill for Myers’ business plan. “With this kind of place you need footfall,” she says. “Out in the middle of nowhere, people weren’t going to come to me specifically.”

By June, she had found the ideal unit on Kensington Gardens and set about refurbishing a rundown former bric-a-brac shop.

Even on a street packed with independent retailers, Barney’s stands out with its dark green awning. Most of the cheese in stock is visible through the big front window and it draws in plenty of people from a steady trickle passing up and down the street.

“The customer base is very varied,” says Myers. “We get students, pensioners and hipsters.”

VITAL STATISTICS

Location: 39 Kensington Gardens, Brighton BN1 4Al and 149 Portland Road, Hove BN3 5QJ Average basket: £15 (Brighton) Gross margin: 40% (Brighton), 50% (Hove) Staff: Two in each shop

It’s no wonder, given an inviting shop floor that is brightly lit by a large ceiling skylight. Stock is displayed in a tidy fashion in multideck fridges or on bespoke shelving made from electrical conduit. The most striking thing, though, is there’s no serveover – most of the cheese is displayed in a well fridge in the front window.

“I like the openness of it,” says Myers. “I didn’t want to have a deli where people are serving from behind a counter. When you go to a French cheese shop it’s more like this.”

However, that’s where the Continental influence stops. Myers says her initial plan was to sell a classic mix of European items but then she shifted the focus to suppliers from Sussex.

“We do go over the county borders a little bit,” she says, nodding to her display of Kent Crisps. “But 80% of what we stock is locally sourced.”

“I think that consumer habits are changing, and people are more interested in buying local these days. Air miles and carbon footprint are important. People like the idea of supporting the local economy and farmers.”

This approach is most apparent in the main cheese display. Sussex cheesemakers like Allsop & Walker, High Weald Dairy and The Traditional Cheese Dairy are all well represented in British cheese selection that also includes Bath Soft Cheese, Baron Bigod and Wales’s Caws Teifi.

Since COVID hit, Barney’s has reduced its range down from 120 to around 80 cheeses but it’s still an impressive collection. There are even a few Continental crowd-pleasers – like Le Gruyère, Morbier and Manchego – but these are tucked away in another chiller.

Barney’s gets most of its range from local wholesaler The Cheese Man but does go direct for the odd product, including the most controversial part of the line-up: vegan cheeses.

“You could say we’ve had mixed reactions,” says Myers of her decision to bring them in. “But we’ve had a lot of customers that love the fact we’re doing dairy alternatives. You’ve got a lot of cheese lovers out there maybe looking for a slightly healthier option and are dabbling in that area.”

Myers’s belief that these are bonafide deli items is backed up by the fact that plenty of customers will buy both plant-based and regular cheeses in one shopping trip.

Given the current circumstances, this roster has been pared down a little too but the dedicated chiller section still features Shamembert from Honestly Tasty and various items from Kinda Co. The line-up has also previously contained local products, such as Not-Brie from Garfields in Kent and Brighton-based Caroline Ospalla.

“The vegan cheeses we do are all artisan, not the awful stuff you’re going to get in the supermarkets. They’re made using traditional cheesemaking methods and cultures, and they’re quite a nice complement to the product range that we have.”

Carnivores are also well catered for at Barney’s thanks to a charcuterie section that again showcases regional producers – including traditional ham from Weald Smokery, salamis from Rebel Charcuterie and Sussex Gourmand venison bresaola – but they are supplemented with some Continental products.

Everything on display is pre-packed but Barney’s has its own slicer and vacuum-packaging machine. So Myers will often buy in and display whole cuts or salamis alongside slices that have been prepped and portioned in-house.

“If customers want freshly sliced we’ll do it but most people just want to pick it up and go.”

Customers don’t baulk at the prices, even of £10-plus packs of Iberico ham, but Myers says that they do pay attention to what they’re eating. She cites a recent example of one charcutier MUST-STOCKS

Seven Sisters (High Weald Dairy)

Sussex Brie with Truffles (Allsop & Walker) Brighton Blue Sussex Gourmand Venison Bresaola Barney’s House Chutney Rowdy & Fancy chocolate bars Bartie’s Chilli & Garlic Chutney Shamembert (Honestly Tasty) Haynes Candied Jalapeños Dr Trouble hot sauces The Woolf’s Kitchen Tamarind Ketchup Rebel Charcuterie salamis Weald Smokery Sussex Ham Horsham Gingerbread Purple Pod Seaweed Oil

altering its salami recipe to a coarser grind, and having to de-list the line because customers didn’t like it and stopped buying.

“It’s a shame, but you’ve got to listen to what your customers want,” she says.

Beyond the classic deli lines, Barney’s offers up an eclectic mix of ambient items that takes in local wines, a wall of truffle-flavoured products (often upsold with cheese) and, of course, cheeseflavoured dog treats.

Aside from adding veg boxes as part of a local delivery service during the first lockdown, Myers hasn’t deviated from her vision for the deli’s offer and it seems to have worked for shoppers too.

“The fact that we’re still going is testament to our customers continuing to shop locally throughout the pandemic and support us.”

Although the last year’s revenue has been lower than she would have liked, Myers says it adds up to £250,000 annually – which is on a par with earlier trading years. The shop’s takings have been supplemented by a move into online, which now accounts for around 10% of turnover and has already washed its face, in terms of setup costs.

The biggest curveball of the COVID era for Barney’s has been the expansion into a second location, just up the road in Hove. Myers attributes her decision to buy an existing food business (an organic shop-cum-café called the Black Radish) to “lockdown mentality”.

“I was thinking ‘What are we going to do in the future’, I saw the business come up for sale over there and the Government were offering the bounceback loans, which was money for nothing as far as I was concerned.”

The very favourable terms (low interest, no repayments for 18 months, up to 10 years to settle up) meant it was a no brainer for Myers to take the loan to supplement her own purchasing power and take on the shop last September.

Although primarily foodservice-led with a menu of salads, soups and sandwiches, this new shop seemed a good fit to Myers and the signs are encouraging. Weekly sales are around the £6,000 mark, despite various restrictions, and this is fairly close to the £8,000 that the previous owners were doing pre-COVID. Gross margin sits at a promising 50% (Brighton’s is 40%), thanks to the foodservice sales.

The space may have been fitted out exactly like the first shop – although the finishing of a mural featuring Barney himself will be completed later this year – but it is a very different kind of business in terms of its offer.

Myers is seeing crossover, with some customers now visiting both of her sites but the specific customer profile in Hove is something she is learning more about as she tests out various items on the shelves – having maintained a similar café menu by retaining the Black Radish’s chef.

It seems the “yummy mummy” clientele prefer their vegan dips over an expanded range of cheese, on the retail side. Meanwhile, Myers has just procured a licence and is hiring a wine expert so that she can start putting on cheese & wine evenings there. This should prove useful as the shop works towards its full complement of 32 covers (half inside, half outside) when all COVID restrictions are lifted.

You get the impression that Myers is energised for the next phase of Barney’s, both the foodservice at Hove and the increase in retail and online trade in Brighton. But FFD can’t help wondering if she’s got a taste for more expansion.

“My mum would like me to open another one where she’s just moved to in Worthing,” she says. “I’d never say never but at the moment two’s enough to focus on.”

barneysdeli.co.uk

The customer base is very varied. We get students, pensioners and hipsters