FOOD & DRINK AWARDS
Passion, provenance and people are some of the many ingredients that make Doncaster’s DN1 Delicatessen and Dining Room the winner of our Best Delicatessen/Tea Room/Café Awards
‘We believe food, feeding people and nourishing them is the most intimate of activities, a way to demonstrate love to your friends, family, or our customers whether they come in to buy one aubergine or an expensive bottle of olive oil. Nourishing people and bringing them joy through our food is what keeps us going.’
There is obvious emotion in Sarah Wilson’s voice when she speaks about DN1 Delicatessen and Dining Room, the business she took on just over a year ago with husband, Martyn Pippard, also known as Doncaster Market’s The Gentleman Fishmonger.
DN1 had started almost 50 years ago by the Maltese Scicluna family. It was originally set up on Doncaster Market before moving to the High Fisher Gate address just over a decade ago.
Over the years it has established itself as the place to go for unusual or hard-to-find ingredients helping Doncaster’s multicultural communities source those items used for beloved traditional dishes or foodies find those gourmet goodies.
But when it looked like the deli was going to close, Sarah and Martyn, couldn’t let this local treasure disappear.
‘DN1 is a part of the fabric of Doncaster,’ says Sarah. ‘What the Scicluna family did back when they opened was something new and remarkable, it was and remains such an institution in the city. I’d gone there to buy some things and the then owner, Josephine, said she was closing the business.
‘I went back to the market stall in absolute tears, I couldn’t quite believe that it might be gone. The deli has held such a special place in the local community for such a long time, we couldn’t see it fail. Within a few hours Martyn and I had decided we were going to buy it. It was an emotional purchase, not a business one and we’re so pleased we did it.’
For Sarah and Martyn, buying DN1 was like inheriting a much-treasured family heirloom – they wanted to do things right. Since taking over from Josephine – who still works with them in the deli – the pair have started to upgrade and bring in more modern equipment to guide the business into its next stage. They stock those rare and unusual ingredients – think 140 cheeses, 400 types of herbs and spices, nine different types of aubergine and often ingredients you’re unlikely to find outside of London. You start to get the picture.
