From iced coffee bars to picnics indoors, London’s newest restaurant pop-ups will ensure you celebrate the great British summer in true style
1 Caravan’s Nepalese Fundraiser, Exmouth Market
On 17 May, Caravan in Exmouth Market is hosting a one-off Nepalese supper club to raise money for the victims of the earthquakes in Nepal. Tickets to the event will include a three-course feast and welcome drink, with the menu taking inspiration from the country and including momos with tomato chutney, Nepalese potato salad, daikon pickle, beaten rice and roti, followed by a main course of Welsh mutton curry with cucumber pickle and sides of coconut lentils and green beans with a cashew and paneer salad, while for dessert it’s ‘Gulab jamun’ – the Nepalese take on a doughnut served with passion fruit sorbet and kaffir lime syrup. All proceeds from the evening will go to the Disasters Emergency Committee, a charity running an appeal following the earthquakes in Nepal. Caravan’s staff will be volunteering on the evening and the drinks and ingredients have been donated by suppliers including Camden Town and Beavertown breweries, Liberty Wines, Kamm & Sons, First Choice Produce, FMV, Les Cave de Pyrenees and Daphne’s Original Welsh Lamb. Tickets cost £40 per person, dinner starts from 6.30pm
Call 02078338115 or email restaurant@caravanonexmouth.co.uk (including NEPAL in the subject line) to make a booking.
Caravan Exmouth Market, 11-13 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QD, caravanonexmouth.co.uk
2 Bonnie Gull’s pop-up seafood counter, Fitzrovia
Bonnie Gull Seafood Shack is opening a pop-up outdoor kitchen on the site of its Foley Street restaurant next week. Every afternoon, from 4pm-8pm, it will be serving takeaway fish and chips, small snacking plates, oysters, draft beer and wines by the glass creating a distinctly summer-time feeling.
21A Foley Street, London W1W 6DS; bonniegull.com
3 Monograph Japanese Supper Club, Islington
Held at a secret location in Islington, Monograph Supper Club will be cooking up a Japanese storm every Friday evening throughout May and June. Around 45 hungry diners will be served the likes of Chawanmushi – a savoury egg custard that comes from a blend of dashi, mirin and light soy sauce, with prawns, kamaboko and shiitake mushrooms and refreshing somen noodles with smoked mackerel and wild rocket. Tickets cost £29 per person.
4 Bistrò By Shot’s summer iced coffee bar, Parson’s Green
Parson’s Green’s new restaurant Bistrò By Shot is opening an iced coffee bar from 1 June to end of September. Proving that coffee isn’t just for the morning, Bistrò By Shot will be serving a blend of coffee cocktails to pick you up on a summer’s day. Stop by for Espresso Martinis, Sakeratos and Affogatos.
Bistrò by Shot, 28 Parsons Green Lane, London, SW6 4HS; bistrobyshot.com
5 A Taste of Africa, Spitalfields
Over the May bank holiday (25 May), Spitalfields will see the return of Africa at Spitalfields E1 a day of African music, film, fashion, interiors, street food, art, crafts and literature from one of the world’s most vibrant continents. There will be over 100 stalls selling food and crafts from 54 African countries, plus African dancers entertaining the crowds. The event runs from 10am to 5pm.
Spitalfields Traders Market, 16 Horner Square, Spitalfields, London E1 6EW; spitalfields.co.uk
6 The Mac Factory Kitchen Pop Up, Market House, Brixton
Weekdays from 11-29 May will see mac and cheese connoisseurs (yes that is a real thing) The Mac Factory taking over Market House in Brixton for a lactose-heavy pop-up that takes its lead from the great US of A. American treats, mac and cheese, music and a fun atmosphere will fill the Brixton venue on Coldharbour Lane. The Mac Factory Kitchen’s menu takes mac and cheese to the next level, with gourmet combinations like slow confit belly of rare breed pork teamed with wholegrain mustard jus and sauteed wild mushrooms, truffle oil and cepe cream all topped with The Mac Factory’s signature parmesan and thyme crumble.
Market House, 443 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW9 8LN; market-house.co.uk; themacfactory.co.uk
7 The Richmond and RAW Wine Dinner, Hackney
The Richmond and RAW (The Artisan Wine Fair 17 and 18 May) are collaborating on a wine dinner with winemaker Marc Barriot from Clos-de-l’Origine on Sunday 17 May. The event, which is being held the week before the National Wine Fair, will include a four-course meal with five paired wines chosen by Marc. Marc makes wine in Maury in the foothills of the Pyrenees, on the edge of the Agly Valley. Having made wine conventionally for years, he opted instead for natural winemaking in his new cellar and now farms very old, dry hillside vines using biodynamic methods. The event starts at 7.30pm and tickets cost £59pp.
316 Queensbridge Rd, E8 3NH; therichmondhackney.com
8 Indoor picnic pop up, The Jones Family Project, Shoreditch
Who says you need good weather to enjoy a picnic this summer? The Jones Family Project is bringing the outdoors in with a pop-up picnic in its restaurant. Picnic benches, AstroTurf lawn, blankets and gourmet hampers of food will be used to create the alfresco vibe. Picnic baskets cost £17.50 per person and include sausage rolls with red wine onion jam; beetroot hummus with spicy avocado salsa and tortilla chips; coronation smoked chicken tortilla wrap; lentil roast vegetable and feta salad, and triple chocolate brownie with fresh berries and dulce de leche for dessert. Hampers also include a bottle of Wild (elderflower spritz with Perry and a dash of gin).
78 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A 3JL; 020 7739 1740; jonesfamilyproject.co.uk
9 Regal Rogue Vermouth Feast, Jago, Shoreditch
Mediterranean and Ashkenazi restaurant Jago will host a Vermouth Feast with Regal Rogue on the 21 May as part of London Wine Week. Since opening in December 2014, Jago has developed a reputation for its artisanal vermouths so it only seemed natural to partner with the Regal Rogue, a drink that was bred from a desire to marry the quality of new world wines with the native herbs and spices from Australia’s outback. On the evening of the Vermouth Feast, guests will be greeted with a ‘Regal Rogue Daringly Dry Martini’ alongside a selection of Jago’s signature bar snacks, such as Gordal olives and fennel salami and cornichon. Following the aperitif, guests will take a seat for their feast of scallop with green tomatoes, cucumber and basil and duck hearts, prunes and fennel, served to share. Throughout, diners will sample a liberal selection of Native Australian vermouth from Regal Rogue, including two vermouths that have not yet been officially released to the world. The evening will be completed with desserts from Jago or a final ‘Regal Rogue Rogroni’ cocktail – whichever you can handle at that point!
Tickets for Jago’s Vermouth Feast with Regal Rogue are available for £52 and bookings can be made via email: bookings@jagorestaurant.com, the event starts at 7pm.
68-80 Hanbury Street, London, E1 5JL; jagorestaurant.com
10 Food 4 Art, Art15, Olympia
Food 4 Art, the pop-up restaurant at Art15, London’s global art fair, will bring together four chefs each embodying different culinary traditions. Visitors to the fair will be able to choose from menus created by the head chefs at Gymkhana, The Clove Club, and the Colony Grill Room, and in collaboration with caterers Absolute Taste, over the three day event, which runs from 20-23 May 2015. Restaurant critic Fay Maschler was asked to pick the chefs and says of the food and art pairing: “There is particular pleasure in pushing at open doors and in my experience ace chefs and restaurateurs are always keen to be allied to art and also engage with an international audience alive to all the senses”. Reservations at Food 4 Art are available to Art15 VIPs and ticket holders. To book a table, call Absolute Taste on 0208 870 5151 or email art15restaurant@absolutetaste.com. Tickets to the fair cost from £15.
Olympia, Hammersmith Road, London, W14 8UX; artfairslondon.com
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