Every two weeks Thame Hub will be featuring an article on various people in Thame who serve the Thame Community. This is your chance for the people of Thame to find out a little bit more about you or your business.
If you'd like to feature in these articles then drop us an email at [email protected].
For our sixth instalment of the series we are talking to Hannah and Joe, Founders of The Deli at No.5 to find out a little bit more about The Deli at No.5, and how they are settling in, in Thame.
Now you've settled in, how is everything going?
We are settling in well some of our customers know us by name now and we love that. We want to be apart of the community and work alongside the prosperous businesses around Thame and help where we can.
For our readers who haven't had a chance to visit you yet, can you explain a little bit more about what The Deli At Number 5 is?
We are a specialist food shop with alcohol some home ware and gifts. We source everything from around the UK. We are all about Celebrating Great British produce with a Great British Lifestyle. We are getting more and more locally produced products in now too which are fantastic. We love taking requests we will do our up most to find the product as long as it is British or we are quite happy to find a British equivalent if we can. We are happy to take cheese orders and find that particularly gorgeous British cheese you have found either on your travels around the UK or eaten all your life. We are all about supporting other small independent producers and businesses in the UK.
How did it all begin for The Deli At Number 5?
It began in Ibiza when we were in this restaurant but it had clothes, home ware and props, garden furniture it was really quirky. At the time we were both disillusioned with our careers and we wanted to do something meaningful for ourselves. There was a long process of looking at taking over a business or starting from scratch and we toyed with various options farm shops/pub/cafe and it developed from there. We started travelling around the UK to trade shows and farmers markets etc and the UK has such amazing produce and products we wanted to fly the flag and source everything from around the UK and make a little taste of Britain in one place.
How did you come up with your name?
The name didn't come until we had found the premises we were very lucky to have found the Buttermarket in Thame. As it is 5a Buttermarket so the name really was a play on that.
What made you choose Thame?
We had heard of the amazing food festival in Thame and what was around Thame and thought we could fit in here. There is a strong community feel in Thame and we love that and want to be a part of that. We had the Mayor officially open the shop which was just such a lovely experience and she gave a lovely speech in which we are ever so grateful.
What is Thame's favourite product so far?
Cheese seems to be a real draw We sell a lot of The Oxford Blue by the Oxford cheese company we are also going to be working with The Marlow Cheese Company as they have produced a beautiful cheese called Cygnet but I would say Beer we sell XT Brewery (local), Penlon (Wales), Vale Brewery (Local), Ridgeway Brewery (Local).
What's an average day for an employee at your shop?
We don't have any employees at the moment it is myself and my partner Joe working in the shop we want to make sure we have everything polished before adding anyone else to the mix. We are hoping to add someone soon. We are a family business which we perhaps haven't stressed to people enough.
For the people of Thame who haven't visited yet, why should they stop by?
We want to give a nice shopping experience for the people of Thame and be as helpful as possible. We are open to finding products and taking requests as i mentioned before. We want to give the people of Thame and local areas what they want. We are always very appreciative of feedback on produce and products so we can fine tune so we are achieving the best shopping experience possible for our customers.
What's your favourite thing about Thame?
The community feel and the food festival and the fact there are lots of prosperous pubs and it's so beautiful. We actually have now moved from Oxford to Thame.
What's in store for the future?
We are ever evolving so who know's we have only been open 3 months. We will however have an online shop on our website which is under construction at the moment.
We would like to say a huge thank you for people's support and thank you for being patient with us whilst we fine tuned things as we didn't know what to expect when we first opened so its been much appreciated.
Thanks to Hannah and Joe for letting us interview them, for more information on The Deli at No.5 you can visit their website at www.thedeliatno5.co.uk or sample some of their delicious food and drink yourself by heading into the town centre where you can find them at 5a Buttermarket.
Thanks also to Mark Hewitson for taking the photo for this featured article. For more information on Mark Hewitson photography, please visit his website at www.markhewitson.co.uk.
Read Mark's behind the scenes blog in the "Portrait of Thame" series here.
