Bakery where you have to get in quick
When your bread is as good as this, you don’t need to do any promotion. The beautiful smells wafting out into Shambles are enough to lure customers through the door.
Via Vecchia was created and run for many years by Alistair Lawton. As a chef, he worked at the Ritz and Claridges hotels. Later, he joined the staff of the QE2, only for it to be requisitioned for use in the Falklands War – so he worked in the kitchens to feed the British fighting forces. He opened Via Vecchia as a delicatessen in 1992. Four years later, he turned it into a bakery, selling beautiful breads ranging from rustic French classics to ciabatta, to wonderfully English cheese and Marmite loaves. At the time, there was nothing like it in the city. If you wanted to go home with a Via Vecchia treat, the trick was to get there early, as stock sold out swiftly. In 2013, the small shop won a big honour: the Bertolli Spread Olive D’Oro Award for creating authentically Italian food.
Info
Address 6 Shambles, York YO1 7LZ, +44 (0)1904 627701 | Public Transport 5-minute walk from Shambles car park. Closest bus stops: on Stonebow | Tip Shambles is a foodie’s dream. Try the pies from the York Sausage Shop at one end of the street and the pulled pork from Shambles Kitchen at the other.
More recently, the bakery changed hands. The new owner knows a thing or two about running a small-but-special business; Jim Hardie was at the helm of the Blue Bell pub (see p. 46), in Fossgate, for many years. The switch did not stop Via Vecchia’s rave reviews from rolling in: “This isn’t just the best bakery in York, it’s the best bakery I’ve ever been to,” is a typical paean of praise. And the range of breads on offer is bigger than ever, with as many as 35 different kinds on sale on any one day. The display of loaves, arranged in baskets with handwritten price tags, makes for one of York’s simplest and most tempting shop windows.
Bread lovers today have twice as many reasons to head down York’s famous cobbled street. While Via Vecchia continues to trade on big Shambles, it was joined on Little Shambles by the Bluebird Bakery in 2015. It has its own specialities – look out for Earl Grey teacakes and to-die-for salted-caramel shortbreads.
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