The small bakery is kept very busy with, for instance, 400 traditional challa plaited loaves sold on Thursdays alone. These retail at £1.50 each. Examples of other products on display in the bakery counter are - Taboon pitas, cheese borekas, Jerusalem bagels, poppy and sesame seed bagels, garlic and dill Italian bread, onion rolls and many different types of pizza. If you have never tasted an authentic bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon filling you have never lived! Or what about a tuna with sweet corn and mayo filling in a bagel, pitta bread or onion roll?
The confectionery selection, some of which require just thawing, is mouth watering. Customers can choose from, chocolate soufflé, Napoleon bites and chocolate rogalach, as well as many other diet-busting treats.
The new business was opened last September after extensive refurbishment. The patisserie and coffee shop has floor to ceiling plate glass windows on two sides. One window gives a panoramic view of the local community gardens that run down the side of the supermarket - hence the name of the business.
'This immediate area', explained Park View's manager Suzanne David, 'has many Jewish residents and does not have a supermarket that caters for kosher shoppers. The nearest large shopping centre is half a mile away in Golders Green so we are constantly busy.' Young mothers with their small children are very evident between 9 and 11 in the morning, otherwise the shop's customers represent a cross section of the local community, both Jews and gentiles.
The bakery was originally planned to be a scratch operation, but the machinery supplier, Mono Equipment, recommended bake-off as maximum customer seating was required because Park View also offer a range of lunches, such as pasta, salads and many types of home-made soups served with a choice of bread from the bakery. The Swansea based company supplied a 17 tray Williams 'Crystal' retarder-prover, a compact, combined under-counter final prover with tray storage of their own design and two, four tray bake-off ovens equipped with 'Classic', nine bake program controllers. Yossi Tsachi, Park View's baker is enthusiastic about his new bakery. 'The two BX ovens give me a good, even bake and the nine product programs in each controller offer a wide enough selection of bake programs to cover all our products, which are all supplied as raw dough, nothing is part baked. Going with bake-off has given us far more flexibility with our menus.'
Bob Carter, Mono's sales executive for the area, is also very pleased with the success of the new venture. 'The property was in a very poor state before Mr Amar took it over. His careful planning and Park View's positioning has given the neighbourhood an attractive amenity that is also proving to be a very successful business.'
Reproduced, with permission, from the May 2004 edition of 'Bake & Take' magazine.
A report on a specialist in-store bakery in North London
Park View is no ordinary supermarket as it serves a select residential area of Hampstead Garden Suburb in North London. Formerly a greengrocery, the property was acquired by Ronan Amar and converted into a kosher retail outlet that also boasts an in-house patisserie and coffee shop.
Park View clientele are predominantly Jewish families and young people who expect the food on offer to be strictly kosher. To ensure the quality and authenticity of the many lines that are on offer Mr Amar has sourced all his bake-off products from 'Bonjour' a very well known wholesale bakery in Israel. Park View's orders are delivered to London by the container load.
Above. Park View's baker Yossi Tsachi unloads a tray of chocolate filled Ragalach pastries
Left. Yossi Tsachi with a tray of Jerusalem bagels, one of Park View's kosher specialities