London’s most fashion-forward department store is now serving ragu with everything and ‘school cake’

Good news for those of us craving a serious carb fix now the weather has turned: E. Pellicci, the landmark east London ‘Britalian’ cafe founded in 1900, is taking up residence in Selfridges.

Until Christmas, the family-run Bethnal Green institution beloved for its enormous cooked breakfasts, Italian comfort food and ‘chips with everything’ policy will be popping up at The Brass Rail: Selfridges oldest restaurant, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year.

Alongside the salt-beef sandwiches for which The Brass Rail is famous, dishes on offer will include E. Pellicci pasta with homemade pesto, a chicken schnitzel and mozzarella ciabatta and a pesto Reuben sandwich, as well as ‘school cake’ and custard. Plus you can order a spoonful of Pellicci’s signature ragu with anything on the menu.

The collaboration is the latest in a series of outside-the-box partnerships for Selfridges. It has previously joined forces with the likes of Sotheby’s, which released an Old Masters-printed streetwear collection in 2020, and Penhaligon, which recently created a train station inside the store.

The brainchild of Harry Gordon Selfridge, a flamboyant American entrepreneur, Selfridges opened its doors for the first time in 1909. An advertisement in the March 13 issue of Country Life that year proclaimed it ‘the newest and most interesting Shopping centre in Europe; a truly cosmopolitan institution’. Food, however, was off the menu at that point: the advertisement caveated that Selfridges would ‘supply nearly every requirement of daily life for Men, Women, and Children (provisions, wines, etc., excepted)’.

E. Pellicci was founded in 1900 by the Pellicci family, who had emigrated to London from Tuscany. Its Art Deco frontage and interiors have long made it a favourite with the art and fashion worlds — it was a YBA haunt in the 1990s — and Harry Styles shot parts of his Late Night Talking music video there in 2022. Today it’s run by siblings Nevio and Anna Pellicci, the third generation of the family to take charge. ‘Bringing their food to Oxford Street this Christmas feels like the perfect way to toast two London institutions,’ says Lucy Menendez, director of food and restaurants at Selfridges.

For more information see here.