Over the road from Hooch, almost opposite, is a place that’s much older: Dunn’s Bakery, a business that started in Highgate in 1820s. We had cupcakes with sunflowers on them when we got married and they came from Dunn’s. We used to live close by so we’d be there all the time, most often for bread or sausage rolls. I’ve been trying to work out what it is that makes them special. Their puff pastry mince pies are the best mince pies I ever had but they’re the exception to the rule. Their cakes are nice and there are loads of different varieties: they do a good turn in rice crispy cakes and scones and macaroons, but none are particularly unique. The same with the bread: lots of variety and it’s tasty, but it’s not arty. The sausage rolls and sandwiches? Good, yes, but not gourmet: it’s pretty much the kind of stuff you’d expect in a bakery. Cross over to one of the other two bakeries on the same road and the difference is immediate: much less variety, more bland, more plastic, more mass-produced uniformity, fewer staff, nowhere near as friendly, in fact downright hostile in comparison. But just saying these places are horrible in contrast doesn’t answer the question about what it is that makes Dunn’s so special.
I went in there today and it occurred to me that it might a self-perpetuating thing: it’s Dunn’s popularity that makes it standout. Because they’re popular, they get lots of customers. Because they’re popular, they have lots of staff. You get served quickly. They’re an established part of the local community. People go there, not because they want bread – after all there are six or seven places to get bread within a couple of minutes walk – but because it’s Dunn’s. It’s seasonal, too. Go in for bread in February and you can pick up a heart shaped biscuit, go at Easter and you’ll come out with a cupcake with a bunny on. But you can’t get those things year round, and that makes it fun. Apart from the mince pies, I wouldn’t travel a great distance to Dunn’s to get baked goods. That’s missing the point. Dunn’s is good because it’s part of the community. I want to live near Dunn’s, or a Dunn’s. I’ll miss it, not for the doughnuts but because I probably won’t ever find a local baker that’s quite as, well, local. I’ll miss the Dunn’s Effect. In fact, I think I would choose a house on the basis of it being in a community that had it’s own version of Dunn’s.