CAFÉ CULTURE
Famed for their formica tables, vinyl seats and traditional menus, the classic British ‘caff’ has fallen out of fashion in recent years – so much so that many are serving up their final full English and pulling down the shutters for good
The Dalby Café in Margate is an iconic British café steeped in history. Having opened just after the Second World War, it’s one of the oldest restaurants in Kent and its full English breakfasts – replete with sausages, eggs, baked beans, hash browns, bacon and black pudding – are legendary. Meals are served on the original patterned Formica tables and customers sit on flip-down vinyl seating formed from the old Margate trams.
But despite its undeniable charm, this café, like many other so-called greasy spoons in the UK, is struggling to survive thanks largely to changing fashions and the cost-of-living crisis.
Owner Mark Ezekiel has been running The Dalby since 2000. ‘Over the past year business has dropped significantly, around 30-35%,’ he says. ‘That means £300- £400 less a day.
We’ve slimmed down the menu, but the biggest killer is VAT.’ The Dalby’s accounts reveal losses rising from £30,000 in 2021 to £74,000 in 2022, with staff cut from 20 to 15. Although the ebullient Ezekiel is determined to tough it out, he admits it’s becoming increasingly challenging. ‘It is getting harder and harder, the Government is not making it easy, and food and energy prices have gone up. Staff wages have also gone up. It is a perfect storm,’ he adds.
It’s thought there could now be fewer than 100 true greasy spoons in the UK, although numbers are hard to pin down. In the 1950s it was estimated there were as many as 2,000 of them, but according to Adrian Maddox, author of the book Classic Cafés, who has warned the end is nigh for this British cultural icon, by 2005 that number had fallen to around 500. In 2018, a survey conducted by restaurant industry analyst Peter Backman counted around 216, with as few as 84 true greasy spoon ‘caffs’ surviving. When The Dalby opened in 1946 it was to cater for the guests of Margate’s burgeoning boarding house industry. Business was once booming, but Ezekiel says roaring inflation is forcing him to put up his prices, which in turn is contributing to the fall in the number of diners visiting his establishment.
‘Take the cost of a case of Heinz Baked Beans,’ he says. ‘Last year it was £16 and now it is £28. People moan about the prices going up, but it is crazy – and then you have the utilities.’
In 2018 perennial rock bad boy Pete Doherty hit the national headlines after he downed The Dalby’s mega-breakfast in less than 20 minutes. Then it cost £17.50; now it will set you back £28. ‘Our margins have gone from 15% in the 2000s to 3-5% now an
