A customer’s perceptions of the person behind the till can be very wide of the mark. Why, one’s mother had a shop for twelve years (yes, it runs in the blood), and her customers never differentiated between the morning lady (herself) and the afternoon lady (Doris, who was a good 6 inches taller). Sometimes familial relations betweem staff are assumed where none exist (“oh yes, I was talking to that man…Is he your son? Anyway he said…”). More often than not the customer simply doesn’t care who is behind the counter as long as there is someone there.
There are currently three of us manning the tills at Persepolis. And one behind the scenes – but we’ve already met him
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Tags: Jamshid, Mr. Shopkeeper, staff profiles
OK – so the book is here. Some of our sweetest, most loyal customers have already rushed out and bought it. Some of you may have purchased it from
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Tags: Christmas presents, signed copies, Veggiestan, visa
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- No kitchen is complete without…
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- And here he is: taqine Mark
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- The du mente, anyone?
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- In a range of colours.
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- Just bury it in a fire pit…
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- A whopping 45cm wide.
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- Jardin!
You know those tagines we promised you for last Christmas? Er, ahem, well they just arrived. Yup, we know what you’re thinking – but better just-over-a-year-late than never.
Why didn’t we look for another supplier, we hear you cry. Well, the thing is, our current supplier may be the world’s most unreliable Moroccan (he’s actually from Oxford, not the Maghreb) supplier ever, but he’s a jolly nice chap (that’s him, looking sheepish in the photo above), and, most importantly and unusually, he’s honest. Anyone who has ever shopped at Persepolis will know that our prices are always honest: it is, frankly, something upon which we stake our reputation. So we waited (and made you wait – our turn to look sheepish).
Anyway – they’re here now, which means that a) all your Christmas shopping is sorted, and b) you’ll have something in which to cook all those lovely dishes from
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Tags: bazaar, Christmas shopping, Marrakesh, Moroccan goods, Persepolis on-line shop, souk, tagines, tanjia, teapots, the world's most unreliable supplier
We’ve been playing with vegetables a lot recently. Hardly surprising, seeing as we just brought out a new vegetarian cookbook (
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Tags: shopkeepers' lunches, vegetables, vegetarian food, Veggiestan
Gosh-there’s-so-much-going-on-at-the-mo. New book out tomorrow and all that… Here’s some of the more important things that you should know about:
- October 6th: the official publication date for Veggiestan. Still hoping to get our stocks on time…
- October 20th: the official launch party for Veggiestan. 6.30 – 8.30pm, in the shop of course.
- November 4th: Mrs. Shopkeeper gets to go on her annual jaunt to Center Parcs. This is the highlight of her year – but it does mean that you’ll all have to look after/be nice to Mr. Shopkeeper over the weekend.
- November 18th: the 4th
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Tags: pop-up Persepolis, supper club, book launch, events, 10th birthday party, Pekcham Literary Festival 2011
Maggie’s Night Hike: We Did It!
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- Proof of the plodding
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- Yup – that’s a real long walk.
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- Team P in civvies
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- Drug dealing at the Lanesborough: blister-stop
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- Reaching the zone…
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- Nowt like a good stretch by a personal trainer…
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- Still smiling at 2.15am…
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- At Riba, 3/4 of the way round
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- Memorial balloons
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- All in. 5.30am
We grimaced a bit. We laughed a lot. We raced. We hobbled. We hopped. We drank a lot of tea. We longed for a G & T. We questioned our sanity. We wondered whether we’d make it to the finish. We made new friends and rejoiced in old ones. We talked drivel. We set the world to right. We marvelled at London. We were flabbergasted by London. We learnt about London. We learnt about ourselves.
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Tags: long walk, Maggie's Night Hike 2011, Open House Weekend, sore feet, sponsorship, Team Persepolis, woop woop
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- How to stuff stuff.
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- Easy when you know how.
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- Do try one…
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- Nice food coming here soon
Our kitchen is up and ready. Our dinky little chiller cabinet arrived on Friday, and contrary to the belief of onlookers therein, we managed to get it inside the shop. And now it’s got stuff in it for you to sample/praise/buy. The idea is for us to start behaving more like a real deli, offering a range of salads and meze items prepared in house.
Actually, we’re not just talking in-house: most of this stuff is being made right in front of you by Mr. or Mrs. Shopkeeper (when the mood takes them). So if you fancy a casual seminar on making dolmeh (see pix above), or just want to come along and heckle, shimmy on over here. We’d love to know what you think. Talk to us: what would you like us to make for you? D’ya reckon sandwiches would sell? Or ready-made Iranian meals?
We started, predictably, with houmous. Ours is of course the best you will ever have tasted. And some vine leaves. Tomorrow there will be fresh kibbeh, bean salad and must-o-moussir (Persian garlicky yoghurt). For the first few weeks there will be plenty of try-before-you-buy options (this is insider information, so keep it under your hat).
If it does well, then who knows? We might start doing Persian cookery lessons, coffee, home-made Persian pastries… But we’re going to let the space develop itself, and take it very gently. Because the most important thing is that we enjoy ourselves. Food that is made with pleasure tastes so much better, you see…
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Tags: chiller cabinet, cookery lessons, deli, dolmeh, houmous, stuffed vineleaves, tastings
