As I mentioned on Friday, I had never heard of Gail’s until last week.
Suddenly, the bakery and cafe chain is all over the news and even my wife is saying there are branches “everywhere”. Where have I been?
Since then I’ve done some research and I have a valid excuse not to feel embarrassed because, although I discovered there are no fewer than three Gail’s bakeries in Cambridge, which is near where I live, there are good reasons for my ignorance.
Hear me out.
The Bread Factory, the company with which Gail’s is closely associated, was founded in the 1990s, but the first Gail’s bakery, in Hampstead, north London, didn’t open until 2005.
Thereafter they focussed on opening shops in London (there are currently more than 90) until the company made what was described as a ‘rare venture beyond the capital’.
That resulted in a new bakery in Cambridge in 2019. In my defence, however, it opened in The Grafton, an Eighties shopping mall that I hadn’t visited in years because it’s half a mile from the city centre.
Since 2022 Gail’s has been expanding fast across the south-east of England, but the second Cambridge Gail’s, directly outside the train station, didn’t open until late last year, and the third only opened in May, having moved into the old Paperchase store just off the market square.
To date, therefore, it’s the only Gail’s in the city centre, and it’s only been there for three months so that’s why I wasn’t aware of it.
But why has the company been in the news this week?
Well, the story seems to revolve around an impending branch in Walthamstow ‘Village’ in north-east London, and accusations that the ‘upmarket bakery and cafe chain’ is a potential threat to local independent businesses in the area.
The inverted snobbery is bad enough, but underlying some local opposition is something potentially more sinister.
You see, The Bread Factory was founded by Israeli baker Gail Mejia, and according to Jewish News in 2015:
[Gail’s] bakery is the brainchild of Ran Avidan, who grew up in Tel Aviv on artisan bread, and Tom Molnar who grew up baking bread with his grandmother in Florida. Their hunt for a good loaf in London brought them together. They soon came across Gail Mejia, who supplied top chefs with loaves baked by experts.
Roy Levy, Gail’s creative head baker also grew up in Israel …
Need I go on?
Meanwhile a minority investor in Gail’s is Luke Johnson, a highly successful businessman who as well as being a noted capitalist was a strong supporter of Brexit.
Read one or two reports and you could be forgiven for thinking those are the real reasons why some people don’t want a Gail’s bakery and cafe in their neighbourhood. If that’s the case, it’s pretty shocking.
Anyway, as part of my ‘research’ for this post, I drove to Cambridge this morning and shortly after 8.00am entered the ‘new’ Gail’s off the market square and ordered a double espresso, a bagel, and a cinnamon bun.
The latter was actually the best cinnamon bun I have ever tasted, so I will definitely go back, if only for that, although the croissants and other pastries looked pretty good too.
It’s certainly a level up from many of the more familiar high street cafes and bakeries. But ‘upmarket’? Let’s not get carried away.
Either way, competition is good and if the presence of Gail’s encourages rival businesses to raise their game, I’m all for it.
What isn’t acceptable is for businesses to be driven out of town or prevented from opening because of the owners’ nationality or, heaven forbid, the pro-Brexit sympathies of an investor.
If that’s the way we’re heading, Britain has a serious problem.
See also: No, Gail’s bakery is not ‘far right’ (Spiked)
Update: The best known independent cafe/bakery in Cambridge is arguably Fitzbillies which appears to have three branches. (I thought it had two.)
Famous for its sticky Chelsea buns, it’s also my favourite cafe/bakery in Cambridge.
The point I’m making is that, if they’re good, there’s room for independent shops and bigger chains, and there’s no reason why one should force out the other.
Above: Gail’s at Cambridge Station, The Grafton, and Market Hill, all part of my research this morning!
