Rowan's Delicatessan

Really top quality fine foods emporium with a real emphasis on great local produce. Peter and Lucy Rowan's place goes from strength to strength with a broad range of cheeses, hams, pates, delicatessen and those hard-to-find ingredients. A nice bright cafe offering good tea, coffee and the best of their excellent stock of sweet and savoury stuff has been a feature for a while - that's about to be overtaken by a new and extended dining area. Basically, everything you would look for in a good deli and a few surprises too. Particularly good range of locally produced bread, honey and champion pies and pastries. Excellent choice of regularly rotating cheeses (as we write this, Rowan's is one of only two outlets nationally for Isle of Wight Blue, England's Champion Cheese 2007). Nice selection of wines and cigars and Hampshire beers and ciders. Now stocking over twenty loose teas and coffee beans (ground to order). Knowledgeable and friendly staff. Great place at Christmas for stocking fillers, sweetmeats and fancy stuff. And if all of this isn't enough, ask nicely and Peter Rowan will knock you up a lovely hand-built guitar. 4, Lavant Street, Petersfield 01730 262600.