Robertson’s organic cafe in the Devonshire town of Tavistock was packed at lunchtime yesterday, with customers enjoying Thai lentil soup and savoury tarts. Across the river, a rather more meagre gathering were ordering Big Macs, fries and sweet milkshakes with greater urgency than normal.
Burger and pizza joints continue to spring up in towns and cities across Britain but in one corner of west Devon the fast food giant McDonald’s is beating a strategic retreat in face of competition from an unexpected source - champions of fresh, locally produced food. Many residents of the market town of Tavistock were bitterly opposed to the opening of McDonald’s. But while they could not stop it, market forces have done the job for them, with the burger giant conceding yesterday that the site on the main road to Plymouth was “no longer suitable”.
Dick Spackman, secretary of the Tavistock Business Association, led the celebrations. “I was against it coming here in the first place,” he said. “It was never the right type of outlet for Tavistock. Over the past few years, we have built a reputation for the quality of our food.”
John Taylor, Tavistock Forward and EatWise chairman, said: “I think it