Britain’s Best Delis – No 2 Pound Street, Wendover

James Grant fizzes with enthusiasm when prompted to talk about his favourite topic – food.

The timbre of his voice changes as he plunges into the back catalogue of memories that tumble from his mind, from childhood and beyond. Besides the love he has for his family, food is James’ absolute passion, and his days (whether running No 2 Pound Street deli in Wendover, which he runs with wife Nicola, or planning activities for The Real Cheese Project with his co-founders) are filled with fodder that bring him joy.

It was inevitable, James says, for him to fold into this world. When he was younger his dad decided to buy a restaurant in Worthing on a whim “as a hobby”. “He thought it would be a good idea, not realising how much work there would be! And my mum, bless her soul, made the most incredible cakes, and worked tirelessly at home preparing meals they took into the restaurant.”
He remembers vividly going in to help, and immediately being captured by the thrill of service. “I was a bit of a dreamer at school,” he admits. “I was told I could have been really great at the academic stuff, but I decided what was outside the window looked better. I wanted to get out there and get involved.”

With his nose pointed firmly in the direction of hospitality, James went straight into the deep end, taking jobs at top establishments, including The Lanesborough in London, where he says he dabbled in cheffing, but found himself most at home in service, chatting with people and looking after them. “I think the most fabulous thing was the idea of being able to make any occasion a special occasion,” he says. “If it’s a business lunch, how can you make it the best business lunch someone’s ever had? That’s what I enjoy.”

James went on to run Wiltons restaurant on London’s Jermyn Street, serving everybody who was anybody, from Royals to film stars.

“In 2010, whilst I was still in London running the restaurant, I decided it would be a great idea to open a shop if something came up in my little town of Wendover in Buckinghamshire. I put an application in to a premises and they said it had already gone. I told them what I was going to do, and a couple of days later they came back to me and said, actually, they preferred my idea. We’ve been running the shop for nearly 15 years now!”

Setting up shop

Market research is important when you’re thinking about setting up a new business, and James didn’t just go to town while conjuring the idea for what would become No 2 Pound Street – he went to Paris!

With his best friend tagging along for the ride, he made it his mission to explore what makes a great food/cheese/wine shop, winding up in little hole-in-the-wall type affairs where buying wine almost inevitably ends up becoming a social event.

One visit in particular stands out. “We went into a lovely shop, picked up a bottle from the shelf and asked if we could drink it there. The lady told us yes, and put it into a chilling machine which got it super cold in three to four minutes. She asked if we wanted cheese to go with it. Obviously we said yes. And some ham? Yes. Then she excused herself and went across the road to the boulangerie to buy some crusty, hot bread. To have this simple, beautiful Comte and Alsatian wine was just amazing, and I sat there thinking, ‘yep, this is what we should be doing’.”

The original ‘blueprint’ for No 2 Pound Street was imagined then: wine, cheese tastings, cured meat and good coffee.

“Our mission was to come back to the shop and have some spectacular wines from small growers, and to have some spectacular cheeses. From my office in London I called several of the best cheesemakers in the UK, and Trealy Farm Charcuterie, who I’d met at Wiltons and already knew were brilliant.”

The shop opened with a big, welcoming table for tastings and casual boards over a glass of wine or coffee. “It felt relaxed, modern and classic, all at the same time,” says James. “Lots of people would come in and sit down for a platter. And it was really lovely because they loved the food and then wanted to buy the cheese as a result. It was a great thing.”

It was a pleasure, James adds, to get even closer to ingredients and producers, forging stronger relationships with those entrenched in the heart of the British artisan scene. As well as choosing the very best, James made it his mission to spread his infectious adoration for all things foodie to his team. “I felt they needed to be able to fully understand the journey that the producers have been on, why things tasted like they did, and how ingredients were grown or where they came from. I’d been on my own journey of growth and knowledge, and it just made it even more exciting.”

That burst of extra knowledge, and getting to better understand and work with cheesemakers led James down a delicious path, putting craft British cheeses up on the pedestal he felt they deserved. “It’s incredible,” he says, “to see how so many of the cheesemakers we work with have grown in the last decade. I was one of the first shops outside of Paxtons and Neal’s Yard, as an independent, to be championing these cheeses, and I was incredibly proud to be doing that and to be a part of the evolution of cheesemongers. There are some incredibly inspirational people out there.”

The evolution of the shop has been led by cheese. It was transformed from a cheese and wine store, to a deli, building on its range of ‘good things to eat and drink with cheese and charcuterie’.

Covid, naturally, had a lasting impact on the shape of No 2 Pound Street. “We lost all the seating from inside of the shop, and we put new refrigeration and cupboards in to store more goods.” 

And once social distancing was over, the decision was made not to bring the original communal table back, but rather to offer a bar set up at the window, and a few seats outside to keep a steady flow of customers coming in and out.

“The other big changes are that now we’ve got a tasting room and a refining room for cheese. We increased the refrigeration by around 600 to 700% so we can offer wholesale as well, and we’re increasing the number of events we do too.”

Cheese rules the roost

Cheese has James’ heart – which is why it’s such an intrinsic part of the business. One of his most memorable ‘aha’ moments was eating Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese 20 years ago on his stag night at St John in London. “The dessert was Lancashire cheese and baked Eccles cakes, and I remember that very single moment. The taste of the cheese. The incredible Eccles cakes from Preston. That combination of intense buttery notes and beautiful sweetness and crunch and treacle. It was perfect, and that pushed my love of cheese even further.”

James says he “adores” cheese, calling it a “crazy food”. “It’s so diverse and there are so many different styles going back tens of thousands of years. It’s become more of a commodity because of industrial production, and that’s why I got so inspired to talk about and sell ‘real’ cheese. That is the type of cheese families would have used to feed themselves and nourish themselves in the past. Wholesome cheese.”

When referring to artisan cheese, James says he means, “Cheese, loosely, that’s handmade using milk from a single herd, from farmers who are really conscious and look after their livestock and give them the very best lives so they can produce incredibly good milk.”

Those cows, he adds, should ideally be grass fed. “It’s really important nowadays to think about, and care about where our milk comes from, and how the land is being managed. Here, we want to look after the people that look after the animals.”

Deli owners and cheesemongers like himself, are arbiters of these products, and important to helping those cheesemakers and farmers who are doing things ‘the right way’.

In addition to making sure the counter at the deli brims with the best cheeses he can lay his hands on, chosen from makers he knows personally, James launched The Real Cheese Project alongside friends to push the envelope further on the artisan British cheese.

The project has for the past two years hosted a virtual tasting event, where members of the public can try various cheeses, hear from the makers, and vote for their favourite. Last autumn Keen’s Extra Mature took the crown. Alongside this annual celebration, The Real Cheese Project has a monthly cheese box, sending out a big wedge of whatever’s tasting good at the moment, with an accompaniment and a ‘zine filled with information and stories. “It’s about education, as much as tasting the cheese,” James insists. “It’s lots of fun and we’ve got lots of cool things lined up for this year.”

The bones of a good deli

In James’ opinion, the backbone of any great deli is staff. They are, he says firmly, one of the most important elements to getting your offering right. “We make sure our staff are welcoming, that they have a good amount of knowledge, that everybody’s on the same page, and we all understand our business is about more than buying food – it’s an experience.”

Being able to give the personal touch is what sets shops like his apart from the big multiples. “When I’m doing markets, and I did them quite religiously for two or three years, I remember the same people coming back saying, ‘hello James, nice to see you’. It was really lovely to see their eyes light up, and that you’d made their day. That’s really important, while at the same time giving them damn good food. It’s such a positive thing.”

Keeping on top of what customers do and don’t like, of course, is key, and for James it’s cheese, again, that’s proving to be a major player, with interest constantly rising in artisan varieties, leading new shoppers to his door. Soft and washed rind varieties seem to be piquing interest right now, he adds, as well as melting cheeses like Raclette or British-made Ogleshield – which goes into the deli’s very popular toasties.

“Toasties are really cool and on point at the moment. We’ve been doing them for two years. When I first wanted to sell them it was met with so much resistance from the team, but I told them it’s the ultimate comfort food. Honestly, people come back for them. They’re the old fashioned, closed kind. Just delicious.”

Cider is taking off as well, he’s noticed. “There’s a big trend at the moment for really good handmade artisan ciders. More people are thinking about British booze to pair with their cheese and it works perfectly.”

A taste of the deli

No 2 Pound Street covets many, many delightful things to nibble on, but James has a few favourites. Rosalind’s Larder, from Yorkshire, is one of them. “Her Fig Jam is off the scale brilliant. The most incredible stuff. She’s really cool.”

He can’t resist listing a cheese either. “I’d say Old Winchester is one of the absolute favourites for all of my customers. People who don’t know it might ask for Parmesan, and I’ll say, ‘try this’. They almost always come back again for it. That cheese has become a really important part of the business for us.”

Westcombe Charcuterie has James’ heart too. “It’s brilliant. His saucisson is the best I’ve ever eaten. I was at a food festival and Raymond Blanc came over and tried some at my stand. He told me it was the best he’d ever had. Then he went on to tell me off because I’d cut it too thick! He explained how you have to cut it incredibly thinly so when you eat it, the fat melts on your tongue. Ever since then we’ve changed how we sample it. The reaction it gets is incredible. People can’t believe it’s British!

“It’s nice to be able to put a spotlight on amazing products like this. I love it!”