Delicatessens are magical places. Stepping into one without being taken aback by multitudes of fresh, colourful and diverse food offerings is nigh on impossible.
One married couple that know all about creating these unique experiences for others is Patrick and Juliet Serrell.
They first opened their petite deli The Kilted Frog in Inverurie 14 years ago and say that embracing change has been the secret behind their business’s success.
Quality cheeses from the UK and Europe are the deli’s star attraction. Other offerings like takeaway coffees and sandwiches are also a big hit with customers on the go.
But beyond the food, it’s the passion and joy that Patrick and Juliet exude that makes The Kilted Frog an integral part of the community for so many of its Inverurie customers.
We talked to Patrick and Juliet to find out more about The Kilted Frog…
Tell us a little about yourselves
J: I grew up in the north-east and studied at Gray’s School of Art. After that, I worked in hotels and met Patrick at the Marriott Hotel in Dyce as he’d come over to learn some English whilst also working in hotels at the time.
That was back in 1998. I’ve travelled across the UK working with hotels and events, we’ve had two children together, Colette and Antoine, and then ended up back here.
P: When I was a kid back home in France, my grandmother had a bookshop. Something I felt I always thrived upon was being the person behind the counter and trying to understand the processes of how things worked in the shop behind the scenes always fascinated me.
My sister and I used to enjoy playing shop, but now, it’s ended up becoming a real shop!
What inspired you to open your own deli in Inverurie?
P: As much as we’ve worked in the same line of jobs in hotels, we actually didn’t cross paths all that much until we moved to the north of England. That was when we both realised that we could work together and potentially run our own business together.
So, when we later planned to move from there, we were lucky enough to make a bit of money from selling the house we had at the time. That’s when Juliet and I decided we could gamble with it by opening our own business here in Inverurie and see how it fared, rather than sitting on it and never knowing what might happen.
The deli first opened in 2008. What have been some of your main highlights from across the last 14 years?
P: When we first opened, for the first six months it was just me here by myself running the deli as our children were still quite young back then. We built through word-of-mouth.
Three years down the line, we saw the unit next door become available and we decided to open up a coffee shop, which was what people here were looking for at the time. It was very niche and popular for many years, so that’s a big highlight.
Why did you decide to scale back your coffee shop and go back to being solely a deli earlier this year?
J: One reason was the unit’s lease was coming to an end. But really, it was Patrick and I was thinking about where we were in our lives and what we wanted to be doing going forward.
We’ve been able to expand our range of cheeses, make different foods and all sorts of stuff that we didn’t have time for before running the coffee shop, but we do now. Things change and move on, but it’s also us going back to our roots in a sense as well.
Tell us about the cheeses you have at The Kilted Frog
P: Our cheese, chutney and biscuit offerings are what most people come here for. We find that cheeses with chilli in them tend to be quite popular. People like a bit of spice here in Inverurie!
J: We like to arrange our cheese selection between harder to softer cheeses as well as things like blue or speciality ones. We often change it depending on what our cheese monger can get a hold of and always like to have new flavours out for our customers to try.
We also have cheese of the week here every week as well as specially prepared wedding cheese stacks, which we hope Society editor Ellie enjoyed at her own wedding this summer!
What are some of your other most popular products?
J: Our sandwiches are popular options for customers to take away. The Croque monsieur is a classic which always goes down well. We like to work with local bakers to source some fresh bakes, which are popular in the mornings alongside our coffees.
We do have some charcuterie here as well, but this tends to be more difficult to source than our other products. On the whole, we like to store different products that you wouldn’t be able to find in typical supermarkets.
What’s the secret ingredient to The Kilted Frog’s success?
P: Embracing change has been so important. In terms of the last 14 years, one thing I’ve learned is that if people point out new businesses opening nearby, it can be natural for you to sometimes see competition as a threat to your own business. But in reality, the more that’s available for people, the better it is for everyone.
Beyond this, it’s really just all about our customers. There may be some you see on a daily basis, monthly basis or even yearly basis – it doesn’t matter, it’s brilliant!
J: Something that’s been special for us is seeing the kids who’d come here at lunchtime when we first opened still come back to us, but now with their own kids along with them to visit. That’s such a nice experience – even if it makes you feel a bit old!
Future plans?
J: Increasing our online presence is definitely something that we want to build on, to help showcase the things we do outside of the business like the wedding cheese stacks.
But overall, we’re at the start of our next step as a business focussing on the deli right now, which we’re loving. Beyond that, it’s just building on that and seeing what else we can do – we’ll always keep brainstorming ideas!
Visit The Kilted Frog on Instagram for more on the business.
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