Shop of the month
Andreas, 6–8, Cale Street, SW3
FEBRUARY is an abundant month of true greengrocer favourites,’ says Andreas Georghiou, who opened his eponymous, cream-of-the-crop fruit-and-veg shop 30 years ago. ‘Agretti, artichokes, fennel, blood oranges, citrus fruits and Yorkshire rhubarb.’
Beneath the front windows onto neighbourly Chelsea Green, customers lean over crates of figs and lychees and pick up giant Comice pears so big you can only handle one at a time. Inside, a painterly display case of pomegranates and glossy clementines, their leaves still attached, stands opposite baskets of baby aubergines, green sprout tops, beets and celeriac.
Mr Georghiou runs Andreas alongside his wife and adult children and greets customers by name. ‘We’re an old-fashioned place,’ he says. In 2023, the business moved from its long-time site next door to the larger premises it occupies now and there are plans to open a café this spring. In addition to fresh produce, Andreas sells larder items, such as small-batch hot sauce made in Devon, chocolate from Suffolk and dried Pastificio dei Campi pasta produced in Gragnano, south of Naples. But Mr Georghiou is still a