Paul Rothe & Son Delicatessen’s Corned Beef and Pickle

Corned beef and pickle sandwich at Paul Rothe & Son

Since my joy at finding a fifty year old deli in Fitzrovia that sells some of the best Italian sandwiches in London, I thought it would be a long time before I found another experience that so beautifully encapsulated London’s continuity with its culinary past.  Then I went walking in Marylebone and found a 114 year old deli with a very long queue outside.  It seems that my fellow Londoners are more in tune with this than I.

Paul Rothe & Son was founded in 1900 and has been passed down through the same family to the current owner, who is the great-grandson of the original one.  The sign for HOT SOUP outside can be seen from much further down the street and is enough to attract the attention of hungry passers-by.  Apparently it is the soup that they are most famous for, but they also have a menu of extensive sandwich fillings, some of which are now so rarely found in London cafes I wondered if I’d stepped back in time.

It’s not just the sandwich fillings that give this feeling of history – the window display contains both bunting and stacked jars of jam, and the interior is probably unchanged, although wonderfully preserved from several decades ago.  The furniture is antique and the way of presenting the produce reminiscent of a time before minimalism or online ordering changed the appearance of shops.  By the time I arrived there was not a seat left in the place, clearly people like this trip back in time.

My choice of sandwich was influenced by a pang of nostalgia when I saw it up on the menu board.  My Nan always made us corned beef and Branston pickle sandwiches when we were children.  In fact, she had a bit of a thing for meat that came in tins and packets – corned beef, polony, spam – I think it had something to do with growing up in the war.  I have shed many of these childhood foods as I’ve grown up, but still have a bit of a weakness for corned beef.  The good stuff you can buy in delis, obviously, but also the basic tinned corned beef you buy in supermarkets.  The corned beef and pickle sandwich at Paul Rothe and Sons was exactly like the one my Nan used to make:  granary bread, real butter,  thick slices of corned beef and a good smear of Branston pickle.  And that’s it.  When I opened the paper wrapping to see that he had cut it into quarters, as she used to, I smiled.

Paul Rothe & Son, 35 Marylebone Lane, London W1U 2NN.