A Scottish Seaside Food Shack Is Offering 'Seagull Insurance'

The grilled cheese at the Cheesy Toast Shack in St Andrews, Scotland, is held in such high esteem that tourists often make sure it’s part of their travel itinerary. But world-class food comes at a price. In this case, it’s the potential for seagulls to steal your lunch and spark a violent encounter.

One potential solution: seagull insurance.

Speaking with The Scotsman, owner Kate Carter-Larg said the seaside eatery—which sports an order window facing the water—is often targeted by gulls who know customers will be idling outside with their food. Some even pose with the sandwich for social media photos, making them an ideal target for theft.

“People will come to take photos of our sandwiches and the minute they hold toastie up for a pic, all the seagulls dive bomb them,” Carter-Larg said. “People are left bleeding, they really are a problem.”

The Shack has been in the habit of replacing dozens of stolen sandwiches daily for free. To stem the losses, the family-run business has tried various tactics to keep the gulls at bay, from predator noises played through speakers to kites that might act as deterrents. Nothing seemed to work.

“The bird noises were not the vibe we ideally wanted down at the beach, and the bird kite we bought didn't do anything. People will sit under them and the gulls will still keep attacking.”

With the lone option of “shooting them” unappealing, Carter-Larg opted for sandwich insurance. For £1 ($1.29), the Shack will replace a sandwich (£6.75, or $8.68) if a gull steals it. The coverage only extends to food, not physical injury from a gull encounter. (Some customers, Carter-Larg said, claimed to have nearly injured ankles while being chased by the avian terrors.)

Why would anyone put up with this? The Cheesy Toast Shack seems too tempting to pass up. The business started as a food truck in 2015, then later graduated to a seaside kiosk renowned for their “toasties”—grilled cheese concoctions with various fillings, including mac and cheese, ham, and red leister and chorizo.

“... I headed up to the window and was met with the biggest and most monstrous mac and cheese toastie I’ve ever seen sitting in a cardboard box,” wrote Julia Bryce for The Courier in a 2021 review. “ ... [It was] a delight to devour.”

The insurance is an attempt to maintain good customer relations, but not all eateries find the solution practical. At Anne Marie’s Surfside in Gloucester, Massachusetts, a sign greets patrons that reads: “Anne Marie’s Surfside is not responsible for seagull food theft.”

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