✿ 78 years · 3 generations · Royal Arcade since 1981

A Wally's that finally tells its own story.

A free, fully-built proposal site for Wally's Delicatessen & Kaffeehaus — a 78-year, three-generation Salamon-family continental delicatessen in the Royal Arcade, Cardiff. Founded 1947 by Ignatz Salamon, in the Royal Arcade since 1981, run by Steven Salamon since 1995. Six findings, two scrubbable mocks, and a live HTML rebuild at /preview/.

Read the six findings Open live preview ↗

Address · 38-46 Royal Arcade, Cardiff, CF10 1AE Founded · 1947 Owner · Steven Salamon (3rd generation owner since 1995)

The 3-metre olive bar and charcuterie counter at Wally's Royal Arcade

38-46 Royal Arcade · since 1981

The 3-metre olive bar, the cheese counter, the charcuterie counter and the Kaffeehaus upstairs. Three generations of the Salamon family.

Current vs proposed

A side-by-side, scrubbable comparison of the current homepage against the proposed Astro rebuild.

Captured May 17, 2026. Current build is Magento 2 with the "Porto" theme (footer copyright 2021). Drag the brass handle to scrub between the live wallysdeli.co.uk on the left and the proposed Astro rebuild on the right. The full rebuild is browsable at /preview/.

wallysdeli.co.uk

CURRENT PROPOSED

Drag the handle. Left is the live Magento wallysdeli.co.uk. Right is the proposed Astro rebuild with the heritage strip, the three-location row, the counter-focused hero, the dedicated Kaffeehaus card and the long-serving-staff cards.

Open live preview ↗

wallysdeli.co.uk · mobile

The proposed wallysdeli.co.uk rebuild (mobile)

CURRENT PROPOSED

Mobile · 393 × 852

Cardiff foot traffic is mobile-first. The Magento homepage is desktop-first.

Locals checking opening hours from the Royal Arcade pavement, tourists deciding whether to climb to the Kaffeehaus — both arrive on mobile. The current site renders the desktop 16-category grid stacked vertically; the proposed build leads with the counter photos, the three locations, and the Kaffeehaus card.

Six findings, each tied to a verified fact

What the current site is leaving on the table.

A walk-through of the live wallysdeli.co.uk on May 17, 2026, cross-checked against the verified history on the About page at wallysdeli.co.uk/about-us/.

01

The founder's story is hidden.

Observation: Ignatz Salamon arrived in Britain in 1939, a Polish refugee who had fled Nazi persecution via Austria. He opened the original store on Bridge Street, Cardiff, in 1947. None of this appears on the homepage — the hero is a single line, "WELCOME TO WALLYS DELICATESSEN", and one CTA ("VISIT KAFFEEHAUS"). The founder's name and journey live entirely on the About page.
Why it matters: A 78-year, three-generation family business with a refugee-shopkeeper origin story is the strongest possible differentiator against the supermarket food halls and the chain delis. Burying it on a sub-page means every first-time visitor sees a generic Magento template instead of the story that explains why Wally's is in the Royal Arcade at all.
Cause: Magento "Porto" theme (2021 copyright in the footer). The template ships a hero slot and a category grid; there is no editorial component for a founder's story above the fold.
Recommend: A heritage strip at the top of the homepage: "Founded 1947 by Ignatz Salamon — refugee, shop-keeper, Salamon family." Three generations in one sentence above the fold, full timeline two scrolls down. The story is the asset; it should be the first thing you see.

02

Three Cardiff locations, one homepage CTA.

Observation: Wally's runs three Cardiff venues: the Royal Arcade deli + Kaffeehaus (38-46 Royal Arcade), the Liquor Cellar at 10-14 Castle Arcade (opened October 2017), and the Spirits from Wales kiosk in St Davids Dewi Sant Shopping Centre (opened September 2018). The current homepage surfaces none of them above the fold — only "VISIT KAFFEEHAUS" appears as a CTA, and the addresses for Castle Arcade and St Davids never appear at all.
Why it matters: A customer looking for whisky on a Friday afternoon in central Cardiff cannot tell from the homepage that Wally's has a dedicated Liquor Cellar one arcade across. A Saturday browser in St Davids never learns there is a Wally's kiosk in the centre they are already in. Two of the three businesses are functionally invisible on their own homepage.
Cause: Magento category-grid layout has no location-strip component. The three premises were added in 2017 and 2018 — after the current theme was set up — and nobody refactored the homepage to surface them.
Recommend: A three-location strip directly under the hero: Royal Arcade (deli + Kaffeehaus), Castle Arcade (Liquor Cellar), St Davids (Spirits from Wales kiosk). Each card with its own opening hours, its own map link, and a direct CTA to the relevant section. All three Wally's businesses visible in the first scroll.

03

Kaffeehaus deserves its own room.

Observation: Wally's Kaffeehaus opened in 2011 on the first floor of the Royal Arcade. It serves continental breakfasts, open sandwiches, cakes, patisseries and Italian gelato. On the current site it has one banner CTA on the homepage and no dedicated page — no menu, no breakfast photos, no opening hours, no patisserie gallery, no gelato flavours.
Why it matters: Cardiff has Pettigrew Bakeries, Brod, Penylan Pantry, and a dozen other independents fighting for the weekend brunch trade. Without a dedicated Kaffeehaus page with a real menu and real photos, Wally's loses the comparison on TripAdvisor, Google and Instagram referrals every weekend.
Cause: Magento is a product-catalogue platform, not a restaurant CMS. The Kaffeehaus is a café, not a SKU list, and the current template has no comfortable home for it.
Recommend: A dedicated /kaffeehaus page: Italian-gelato hero, continental breakfast menu, patisserie gallery, opening hours, and the upstairs Royal Arcade location explained for first-time visitors. Wired into the main nav. The Kaffeehaus becomes a destination, not a footnote.

04

Stock-photo product tiles vs. a 3-metre olive bar and a cheese counter.

Observation: The current homepage is dominated by a 16-category product grid — generic stock-photo-style category tiles (Cheese, Charcuterie, Olives, Wines, etc.) lifted from the Magento theme. The actual differentiator — the 3-metre Mediterranean olive bar, the cheese counter with 150+ cheeses, the German/Italian/Polish/Spanish charcuterie counter, the artisan breads delivered daily — never appears above the fold.
Why it matters: Anyone who has walked into the Royal Arcade shop knows the counters are the experience. A generic category grid says "online shop with sixteen sections"; the actual counters say "three generations of buyers selecting product face-to-face." The website is selling the supermarket version of the business.
Cause: Magento Porto theme defaults to a category grid; nobody swapped it for photography of the actual counters.
Recommend: Swap the 16-category grid for a counter-focused hero strip: Olive Bar / Cheese Counter / Charcuterie / Artisan Breads, each with a real photo of the actual counter (we already have them — see public/img/). Categories move below the fold for browsing; the counters become the homepage.

05

Staff with 45 years on the floor, never named.

Observation: David Richards joined Wally's in 1981, aged 16, on the Youth Training Scheme. Tricia Pike joined the same year. Both are still on the floor at Royal Arcade — 45 years of continuous service. Neither name appears anywhere on the website.
Why it matters: The continuity that the Salamon family has built is the trust signal. Every customer who walks in is served by someone who has been there longer than most Cardiff restaurants have existed. Not naming them costs Wally's the single biggest credibility marker that no chain deli can replicate.
Cause: Magento has no team-grid module. The About page is paragraph prose only and the long-serving staff are mentioned in passing — never in a card with a name and a tenure.
Recommend: A small "People who actually serve you" card on the homepage: David Richards (since 1981), Tricia Pike (since 1981). Initials in circles where photos are not available, tenure in years front and centre. Two cards, one truth.

06

No LocalBusiness schema, no rating exposed.

Observation: A crawl of wallysdeli.co.uk surfaces no schema.org markup — no Organization, no LocalBusiness, no FoodEstablishment, no FAQPage, no Person for the Salamon family. "Scores on the Doors" sits in the footer as a link with no rating actually shown. The Magento Porto theme (2021 copyright) ships generic markup only.
Why it matters: AI assistants and Google's local pack increasingly answer "best deli Cardiff", "continental food Cardiff", "whisky shop Cardiff" from structured data first. A 78-year independent with no schema and a generic 2021 theme loses to chain venues with thinner credentials and well-formed markup. The FSA rating is a free trust signal sitting unused.
Cause: Magento 2 Porto theme defaults are generic LocalBusiness at best; no FoodEstablishment subtype, no FSARating exposure, no Person for the founder.
Recommend: Organization + FoodEstablishment schema with foundingDate 1947, founder Person (Ignatz Salamon), three LocalBusiness branches (Royal Arcade, Castle Arcade, St Davids), FAQPage for the four most-asked questions, and a visible FSA 4-star rating badge in the header strip. Free trust signal, properly displayed.

Salamon family timeline

1939 → 2018. One family, three generations, three Cardiff venues.

Sourced verbatim from wallysdeli.co.uk/about-us/. This is the story the homepage should be telling.

1947

Ignatz Salamon (Polish-born refugee, fled Nazi persecution via Austria in 1939) opens the original store on Bridge Street, Cardiff.

1963

Ignatz dies. Sons Wally (Walter, 1936–2008) and Otto Salamon take over and rename it "Continental Delicatessen".

1981

Bridge Street premises compulsorily purchased for redevelopment. Wally opens "Wally's Delicatessen" in the Royal Arcade. David Richards (aged 16) and Tricia Pike both join.

1993

Steven Salamon (Wally's son, qualified Chartered Accountant) joins the business.

1995

Steven becomes owner — third generation of the Salamon family.

2008

Wally Salamon dies, aged 72.

2009

Royal Arcade shop expands into the next-door premises.

2011

"Wally's Kaffeehaus" opens on the first floor of the Royal Arcade — continental breakfasts, open sandwiches, cakes, patisseries, Italian gelato.

2017

"Wally's Liquor Cellar" opens at 10-14 Castle Arcade (October).

2018

"Wally's Spirits from Wales" kiosk opens in St Davids Dewi Sant Shopping Centre (September).

What we propose

Phased rollout. Each phase ships on its own; you keep what you like.

No big-bang rewrite, no Magento rip-out on day one. Phase 1 is the homepage and the heritage strip; Phase 2 is the Kaffeehaus and the locations; Phase 3 is the schema, the FSA badge and the online-shop polish. Each phase delivered in roughly a week.

Phase 1

✿ Heritage strip + founder's story above the fold
✿ Counter-focused hero (olive bar, cheese, charcuterie, breads) replaces stock-photo category grid
✿ Three-location strip surfacing Royal Arcade, Castle Arcade, St Davids

Phase 2

✿ Dedicated /kaffeehaus page (menu, breakfast, patisserie gallery, gelato, opening hours)
✿ Liquor Cellar and Spirits from Wales kiosk sub-pages
✿ "People who actually serve you" card (David Richards, Tricia Pike — since 1981)

Phase 3

✿ Organization + FoodEstablishment + Person + FAQPage schema across the site
✿ Visible FSA 4-star badge in the header strip
✿ Magento product catalogue polish — online shop kept, category grid moves below the fold

Why us

A nine-year developer who already runs regulated businesses, building free rebuilds for Cardiff independents.

British, born and raised. Nine years building production sites — currently runs other regulated businesses (financial services) day-to-day in Switzerland. I rebuild prospect homepages as free, fully-deployed demonstration sites: you can compare the /preview/ at this URL side-by-side with wallysdeli.co.uk right now. If the homepage isn't an obvious improvement, no follow-up call. If it is — 20-minute call this week and I quote against what you actually want.

9 yrsbuilding regulated production sites

Freebuild of /preview/ — already deployed

Cardifffocused independents, remote-first

Astroon Vercel — sub-100ms across the UK

FAQ

Four questions a 78-year family deli actually asks.

If any answer needs a follow-up call, reply with two or three 20-minute slots in the next ten days.

Does this replace the existing Magento online shop? +

Not in Phase 1. The marketing site (homepage, heritage, locations, Kaffeehaus, contact) moves to Astro on Vercel; the Magento checkout stays where it is and the homepage links into it. In Phase 3 we can migrate the catalogue too if the spend is there, or leave Magento for the shop and Astro for the storytelling. The decision is yours, not the platform's.

Who runs the build? +

Me, directly. Nine years of building production sites — currently running other regulated businesses (financial services) day-to-day in Switzerland. The /preview/ site you see now was built in a weekend; the production build adds the Kaffeehaus and Liquor Cellar pages, the schema, the per-location opening hours and the email migration. Three to four weeks end-to-end.

What happens to the wallysdeli.co.uk URL and the email? +

DNS cutover at launch — wallysdeli.co.uk points at the new Astro build. Enquiries@wallysdeli.co.uk keeps working (no mailbox migration unless you want one). The Magento checkout stays on its existing subdomain or path so no order history is lost. Nothing breaks for the customer.

Why no price on the proposal? +

Because the right number depends on what you want — homepage only, or homepage + Kaffeehaus + Liquor Cellar + schema + email. Phase 1 alone is ~£1,500. Full three-phase build with schema, FSA badge, /kaffeehaus, /liquor-cellar and email migration is ~£3,500. 20-minute call this week and I'll quote against what you actually want, not what I assume.

Next step · one email, 20-minute call this week

If the proposal lands, two or three 20-minute slots in the next ten days.

I take on three Cardiff independent builds this quarter. First confirmed wins the slot. If it doesn't land, one line of feedback so I don't pitch the same idea again. The proposal site stays live until 27 May, then comes down.

Reply to the proposal Open live preview ↗

Prepared by

Corey Musa

British, born and raised. Nine years building production sites. Currently runs other regulated businesses (financial services) day-to-day in Switzerland. I rebuild Cardiff prospect homepages as free demonstration sites.

Email: coreymusa1@gmail.com
Coverage: Cardiff independents · remote-first