Sausage roll @ Sayers
250 Park Rd, Dingle, Liverpool, L8 4UE
In the days before Greggs ruled supreme there were scores of Sayers the Bakers shops and cafes across Merseyside and beyond. Now in Liverpool and its suburbs there are barely over a dozen, with more closing by the year.
The original company, which was founded in 1912 in Old Swan, went into administration at the end of 2019 and was bought and amalgamated into the portfolio of the ubiquitous Poundbakery chain. Their cakes, breads and savouries are no longer baked in Liverpool. A sad fate for a beloved local bakery and a pattern repeated, more or less, across the whole country.
But while they were a big feature of my childhood and early teenage years, and I still get a pang of nostalgic longing each time I see one, there’s not really any reason to visit Sayers over Greggs. Hot drinks, meal deals, breakfasts — the latter has surpassed the former on every metric. Except one; sausage rolls.
Where the Greggs sausage roll is merely very good, the Sayers sausage roll is sublime. The pastry is soft and greasy, the interior is a flossy and almost neon pink. They’re good cold, better a little bit warm, and best when they’ve been taken straight from the oven. If you get the chance, eat one before they disappear for good.
