Paul Rothe & Son
SO YOU THINK you know your condiments? Pay a visit to Paul Rothe & Son and you may be forced to reconsider. Tucked away down Marylebone Lane, it’s crammed with every variety of jam, marmalade, chutney, preserve and curd your heart could desire, as well as quite a few it probably doesn’t. Far from seeming chaotic, the overall effect is of the utmost precision, with labels on jars on shelves all in perfect alignment. This isn’t retail so much as art.
But don’t let the almost obsessive neatness make you twitchy. Paul Rothe & Son might just be the best delicatessen in this part of town. An institution since 1900, it does a roaring trade in local office-workers who know they’d have to go a long way (or at least as far as Mustard on Margaret Street) to find a better breakfast. Come noon, the sandwiches are the thing. There’s scarcely a bread or filling not on offer. Lest the options threaten to overwhelm, the blackboards behind the counter are handily subdivided into sections: Meat, Fish, Cheese and Vegetarian. If by some fluke you can’t see your preferred combo on the list, ask and it shall be made.
Almost preternaturally friendly and unhurried at even the busiest times of day, Paul Rothe & Son is to the London lunch what the Regency Café is to the London breakfast. That’s the highest accolade I can bestow.
See also: Mustard, Regency Café
