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Hand-Chalked Daily Board
Every morning the board is written by hand before the counter opens. What is on it reflects what arrived that day, not what was planned a week ago. When a line sells out, it comes off the board.
Thorn Panel Line is a letterpress-spirited delicatessen in Kyoto, where every board is chalked by hand, every cut is deliberate, and the provisions run from aged Japanese cheeses to ember-smoked charcuterie sourced within two prefectures.
Edmund Ashworth opened Thorn Panel Line in the spring of 2011 in a narrow shophouse on Fuyacho-dori in Kyoto's Nakagyo ward. He had spent the previous eight years working in delic…
The board is written fresh every morning. Come in, sit down, and see what is on it today.
Contact usEvery morning the board is written by hand before the counter opens. What is on it reflects what arrived that day, not what was planned a week ago. When a line sells out, it comes off the board.
Our charcuterie is cold-smoked over bincho-tan charcoal and cherry wood in a small smokehouse behind the shop. The process takes three days minimum. Nothing is rushed to meet a deadline.
We buy within Kyoto and Shiga prefectures wherever possible. Dairy from Omi Farm in Shiga, pork from Tanaka Bokujo in Kameoka, vegetables from a small plot in Fushimi we have worked with since 2014.
The miso-cured ham is the item people ask about most. It is also the one we are most careful about. This is a plain account of how it is made, from the pork leg arriving at the shop to the moment it comes off the smokehouse rack.
Read more →Cheese for an outdoor event is a different problem from cheese for a counter plate. Temperature, travel time,…
Cold-smoking is a slow process. The smokehouse behind Thorn Panel Line runs between 18 and 22 degrees Celsius…
Answer three questions and we will point you to the right part of the counter. No contact details required.
"Edmund Ashworth grew up in Sheffield and trained in delicatessen work across London and Lyon through the early 2000s, spending three years at a charcuterie counter in Bermondsey before moving to a small letterpress print shop in Bristol where he set type by hand for two years. He arrived in Kyoto in 2009 on what was meant to be a six-month stay and opened Thorn Panel Line in 2011. He is particular about register, about the thickness of a cut, and about the temperature of the smokehouse drum. On quiet Tuesday mornings he still bakes the rye crackers himself. He reads old broadsheets for pleasure."
The counter seats eight and runs on a first-come basis. We do not take reservations for counter seats. The window tables, all four of them, can be reserved by phone or email for groups of two or more. If you are coming as a group of five or more, please do call ahead so we can arrange the space properly.
The minimum order for a provisions box is one box. There is no minimum quantity for events. We have put together a single box for a solo picnic and forty boxes for a corporate garden party. Both are fine. We do ask for five days' notice on any event order, and we are honest when a date is not workable.
We wrap everything in kraft paper and linen twine from our own stock. If you have a specific wrapping preference, a ribbon, a cloth, a box you want us to use, bring it in or send it ahead and we will work with it. We have done hampers in furoshiki cloth and in wooden crates. It is not a problem.
The smokehouse runs continuously from Wednesday through Monday. On the first Tuesday of each month we close the shop entirely to clean the drum, restock the wood, and check the temperature calibration. It is not glamorous work but it matters. On other Tuesdays we are open from 10:00 as usual, and the rye crackers come out of the oven that morning.