A famous 24-hour bagel bakery in Brick Lane is coming back with a vengeance after lockdown by launching its own delivery service across London.
An app has been set up and online orders taken by Beigel Bake to celebrate businesses reopening.
The shop at the Bethnal Green end of "The Lane" has been the haunt of night-time cabbies for almost half a century for its traditional beigels - a different spelling for bagel.
Its traditional East End Jewish-style bagels are baked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with staff turning out 7,000 a day and customers often queuing in the street, even at night.
The business was set up by Sammy Cohen, a Jewish refugee from Yemen. One cabbie who knew Sammy well was Joe Marribel, a grandfather originally from Stepney who was his customer almost every night for 30 years.
"Everyone knew Sammy,” Joe recalled before lockdown. “I knew his family. He could have sold out or opened a chain of beigel shops across London, but was true to his roots and remained in Brick Lane.”
Sammy died in 2016 — a year before a family double tragedy when his wife and daughter were stabbed to death in a domestic incident at home which shocked the Brick Lane community.
Beigel deliveries can be made from Brick Lane using online ordering bricklanebeigel.co.uk or the app Sammy’s Legacy.
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