Has been open since 1977. I thought it was longer, but it looms large in my mind, as only a food + parental memory can. It’s really my only link between the old east end, my fathers part of London, and the new east end which (I imagine) he would have found pleasingly unrecognizable. He hated the old version, he was born into it and had no romance about being bought up broke, amidst all the grey of the 40′s and 50′s. On returning home from visiting our aunties in Ilford, we would always stop at the Beigel Bake, and dad and I would go in and get the orders for the car, to eat on the way back west and the bigger order for the next couple days, freezer, and friends. Dad would load up the boot of whatever old banger we had that year, making sure to leave all the bags slightly open so the warm little carb bricks “dont get soggy”…As we were driving home the smell would escape through the car and we’d all be eating them..Dad would have a salt beef and mustard going as he drove. Happiness.

Now my kids love it too. What’s not to love. My kids say they also have the best jam donuts ever in the world, ever ever ever.