If you like the White Swan in Pickering – and we do – you’ll be pleased to hear that Victor and Marion Buchanan have just opened a food shop in town that is committed to locally sourced foods from local producers.
We haven’t been yet and rather hope that among all the ‘exceptional’ cheeses and rare breed meats that it’s not just another high price delicatessen for the passing tourist trade rather than a practical, quality grocer.
The signs are good with Marion promising to give the local community ‘a general store with a 21st century twist.’ Other attractions are an area for coffee, home-made cakes, light lunches and children’s teas. There’s some homeware and ‘great gifts – all gingham and 1940s seaside posters’.
It’s called Feast and is right next door to the White Swan at 3 Market Place. We hope it lasts rather longer than their partnership with butchers Ginger Pig which opened in 2008 at the bottom of Market Place and never recovered from the serious floods and closed in 2009.