What is it about Gail’s that raises the hackles of Londoners? It depends on who you ask. Some deride the bakery chain as Greggs for posh people; a yummy mummy Mecca where the jam is organic and the oat lattes are reassuringly expensive. For others, Gail’s is a bellwether of gentrification and a venture capital backed Goliath which independent cafés fear. More recently, it has been boycotted by pro-Palestine protesters over its supposed links to Israel.
For one of its co-founders, Tom Molnar, the furore is confusing. “We’re just a bakery, you know?” he shrugged in an interview last year. So how did just a bakery become a political football, whose £5 sourdough divides the chattering classes?
