The Yellow Deli - Honiton

At the eastern end of Honiton High Street is a building that is about two hundred years old and used to be a pub named “The Red Cow”. In 2016, after a period of neglect it was bought, repurposed, reincarnated and reopened as “The Yellow Deli”.

   Each time we have passed through Honiton, along the length of its marvellous High Street and passed The Yellow Deli we wondered what it was like. Our curiosity was overridden by cliched excuses. “There’s no parking”. “It looks closed”. “It’s on the wrong side of the road”. “Oh, let’s go to Toast as usual, we like it there and we have a loyalty card”.

   One morning while we were making an early return from Devon to the New Forest we ran out of excuses, parked the car and ventured in.

   Inside it looked like the interior of a Swiss chalet had been melded with the interior of a Hobbit’s home, modelled in wax and subjected to just enough heat to start dripping. Loads of varnished wood, leather upholstery, a wrought iron filigreed spiral staircase and very few straight lines.

   The man who greeted us made me wonder if Robin Williams had some how resurrected himself from California to the heart of rural Devon. The looks, the mannerisms and to top it all, the accent. All of this set my mind to wondering if before we decided what to have we would be the audience to a comedic riff on pancakes, maple syrup and slapping some meat to tenderise it.

   Instead, we were directed to a table where we perused the menu, made our choices and placed our order. We asked if we could have a look upstairs.

   Up the wrought iron spiral staircase and into the room on the first floor which was in the same style as the ground floor. There were paintings on the walls. Most of them depicted bucolic rural scenes from times long gone. There were a couple distinctly relevant to Honiton. They showed lace workers and a local butcher’s shop.

   The Robin Williams lookalike appeared. He told us that nearly all the materials used in the refurbishment came from some old farm buildings nearby that they had demolished. Even the copper piping for the plumbing had been salvaged from the old buildings and given new life.

   All very commendable and environmentally friendly. Needless to sat we were well impressed with this act of environmentally friendly entrepreneurship.

   I asked who designed the interior and did the building work. There was a dramatic pause which went on just a bit too long before the whispered answer came.

   “A lot of us did the work on this but the majority of the work was done by…”

   Another pause ensued during which I thought we would hear the name of a local builder.

   “…you know the story of Noah’s Ark? Well, it was the man who designed and built the ark who did most of the work for us here.”  

   My wife and I looked at each other and yes, after thirty five plus years of marriage I can confirm that we have developed telepathy. We both knew we were thinking the same words.

   “Did he just say something about the man who designed and built Noah’s Ark having a hand in this refurbishment?”

   “Yep.”

   As politely as we could we shuffled our way back downstairs and to our table where our food and drinks were waiting. It was hard to concentrate on the offerings as we were both in a state of shock and disbelief.

   Back home I did some research into The Yellow Deli. The one in Honiton is one of many around the world from Japan to Australia, Western Europe and America where te first Yellow Deli was established. Going beyond the reviews, most of which were full of praise, the internet searches revealed a dark side to chain of café’s that had been exposed in North America and Australia.

Abuse in various forms and enforced labour for free to highlight just two aspects of this "dark side".

   If you want to cross the threshold of a Yellow Deli then all I can do is suggest that you carry out some research beyond Trip Advisor or any other review platform. Look at the headlines that appear in your searches, read the associated articles and then make up your mind.