One Urmston pasty fanatic proved how much he loved Greggs Festive Bakes when he went on a 380 mile round trip to taste the first one of the season.
Anthony Morris, 23, rose to the occasion and went on the pasty pilgrimage when Cardiff was awarded the honour of serving this holiday season’s baked goodies a month before the rest of the UK.
When over 500 of the delicious Christmas pastries, were given out to hungry shoppers in less than an hour, the young admissions officer was front of the queue.
He said: “It was absolutely worth a trip to Cardiff to get my hands on the first Festive Bake. The return of the Greggs Festive Bake really signifies the start of the Christmas season. I must get through at least three or four a week in the run up to Christmas!”
Second to try the flaky pastry delight at the St. Mary Street branch was Naomi Stephenson, who had made a 520 mile round trip from North Yorkshire.
She made the mammoth journey after hearing about it from a friend who works at her local Greggs shop in Thirsk.
CHRISTMAS COME EARLY: Cardiff’s Greggs got the first Festive Bakes in the UK
The customers from most far afield were Jessica Payas and her daughter Zyanne, who were visiting Cardiff University from Gibraltar some 1,678 miles away.
They returned to the shop after spotting the #FestiveBakeFirst posters in the shop windows.
The Festive Bake is a lattice pastry filled with tender pieces of chicken breast, sage and onion stuffing and sweet cure bacon in a creamy sage sauce with cranberry pieces and red onion relish.
Other hungry punters will be able to fill their chops on November 4.
Malcolm Copland, Commercial Director of Greggs, said: “There’s no denying that the Festive Bake has become legendary amongst Greggs fans, and it’s clearly especially popular in Cardiff.
“Every year we get thousands of queries about when the Festive Bake will be back on our shelves, so we really wanted to mark its arrival and treat one lucky city.”
