Foodie Pop-Ups To Try This Month: September 2014

Ben O' Norum
By Ben O' Norum Last edited 114 months ago
Foodie Pop-Ups To Try This Month: September 2014

Glorious 12: whisky and game.

From whisky and game to Pammy Piss, Mexican and Michelin stars, this month’s round-up of foodie pop-ups and supperclubs is as eclectic as ever.

We’ve picked only the most interesting sounding events and ordered them so that those ending soonest are at the top. If you give any of them a go, let us know what you think. And if we’re missing something that you think sounds great, then also tell us in the comments below.

Where's Robin?

Fat feast

6 September
The brilliantly named duo Fatman & Friends consists of Matt Hiltemann, a chef at Exmouth Market’s Medcalf, and Mathew Smallbane, front-of-house at Soho’s Quo Vadis. They’ll be popping-up at The Pillbox Kitchen near Bethnal Green on Saturday 6 September serving a tasting menu and matching wines. Included is buttermilk chicken with lemon and tarragon purée; brill served on crispy fish skin with beetroot tartare sauce, avocado and sorrel; and pork loin with pine, caramelised apple, puffed pork skin and English mustard. Tickets cost £40 per person inclusive of service charge.
The Pillbox Kitchen is at 115 Coventry Road, E2 6GG. Tickets are available here.

Whisky and wild game

11-13 September
The Glorious Twelfth of August marks the start of the game season, but a month later there’s much more variety of wild meat available. This three-day pop-up hosted by The Wild Game Co and The Scotch Malt Whisky Society is celebrating by bringing together hare, partridge, wild boar, woodcock and more with specially matched rare single-cask whiskies for tapas-style feasts. Each evening 12 different small plates will be paired with 12 whiskies; dishes will include grouse on toasted brioche with roasted and puréed fig, and roe deer striploin with frites, béarnaise sauce and rowan jelly. There will also be talks and demos on foraging, butchery and game cookery. Tickets for the dinners are £29 each, which we think is very reasonable, but you can also just pop-in and order a few dishes and drams from the bar area.
The Glorious 12 pop-up is at Studio 2, 31 New Inn Yard, EC2A 3EY. Tickets for the dinners are available here.

Nice to meat you

Farm to fork

13-14 September
You can’t get much more hands-on than Farmer Tom, who rears, butchers and cooks his own animals on the Welsh Borders. For two nights only, he and his team are coming to the big city, where he’ll be cooking a menu based around his rare-breed meats at Clapton’s Palm 2. The menu features pork rillette with pickled courgettes and booze-braised Dexter beef, as well as a meat-free damson cheesecake with tickets costing £30 a pop. If you’ve eaten at Lyle’s, Pitt Cue Co, The Quality Chop House or one of the several other top-end restaurants Farmer Tom supplies meat to, you’ll be able to vouch for its quality.
Palm 2 is at 152-156 Lower Clapton Road, E5 0QJ.

Beer-matching Mexican

15-17 September
Mexican chefs Bryan Hernandez and Joseph Yacino have run successful supperclubs in Florida and Cannes: now it’s London’s turn. They’ll be popping up near Old Street for three nights with their Gusto e Sapore concept, serving tapas-style small-plates of authentic Mexican grub washed down with specially-matched beers from Indie Ales. Dishes will include cold avocado soup, fish tacos, Mexican sliders and braised short ribs, while four different beer styles will also be served. Tickets cost £40 and include all food and drinks.
Gusto e Sapore is at 29 Corsham Street, N1 6DR. Tickets are available here.

High-end eating

Sky-high dining

12-21 September
As we reported when it was first announced in July, Londoners will this month have the  opportunity to dine 100 feet above Canary Wharf. A series of Michelin-starred chefs, including Atul Kochhar of Mayfair Indian restaurant Benares and Pascal Aussignac from Smithfield French Club Gascon, will cook for thrill-seeking diners who will tuck-in around a table suspended 30 metres in the sky. Prices are almost as lofty, with breakfasts costing £50, lunches £200, dinners £250, and Champagne-only flights £75.
Spaces are still available. Read our preview article for further details and information on how to book.

Urban design dinners

12-28 September
Two-week temporary shop and restaurant Unit D is launching in Whitechapel to coincide with both the London Design Festival and Urban Food Fortnight. While the shop will be open daily selling a range of homeware products made by local artists, the restaurant will run most nights showcasing different chefs who will cook for just 14 diners each evening. Highlights include a ramen supper on 13 September, a smokery night on 18 September and an evening of Creole food on 21 September. In tune with Urban Food Fortnight's outlook, the meals will be made using as much local and seasonal produce as possible, including London-sourced honey, charcuterie, fish and cheese.
Unit D is at 86d Greenfield Road, E1 1EJ. Find details and book via the website.

Ristorante Cracco

Italian invasion

Throughout September
This autumn and winter, Harrods will be hosting several of Italy’s top restaurants for month-long pop-ups. It launches with chef Carlo Cracco’s two-Michelin-starred Ristorante Cracco. Based in Milan, this restaurant is famed for its modern cuisine and clever takes on Italian classics, such as pasta made of cuttlefish or puréed salad encrusted in caramelised sugar. Cracco is credited with inspiring a generation of young chefs to do things differently and break the rules while still embracing tradition; it’s fair to say that in the industry he’s a bit of a legend. The meals don’t come cheap, costing £130 (lunch) or £180 (dinner) for four courses with matched drinks, but to be fair that’s about what you’d pay in the Italian original. See our earlier article for details of the other restaurants which will be arriving from October to January.
Harrods is at 87-135 Brompton Road, SW1X 7XL. Call 020 7893 8700 to book.

Bleach bar

Now until October 11
You might be familiar with Bleach on Kingsland Road as being one of East London’s trendiest hair salons. Now the owners have diversified with a 10 week pop-up bar down the road. The look comes from set designer David White and is supposed to echo Blade Runner’s dystopian imagery, while an array of celebrities (we don’t know who) are to take it in turns working shifts behind the bar (or at least look like they are). Cocktails are of the brightly coloured ilk and provided by TART, who also lay on bar snacks. Drinks include a pineapple, ginger, mint and chilli concoction called Pammy Piss, and a Slushino made with Tequila, blackberry, Cointreau and lime. It sounds like there are going to be some pretty impressive parties in the space later on in the evenings, but it’s fair to say that for the hair salon behind it, it’s one hell of a vanity project.
The Bleach Bar is open Thursday to Saturday 6pm-2am at 428 Kingsland Road, E8 4AA.

Castello: say cheese

Shoreditch cheese

9 September-24 October
Cheese brand Castello will open a pop-up shop, bar and tasting space in Shoreditch this week. It will include a ‘perfect pairings bar’, serving combinations of cheeses, drinks and other nibbles, while a deli counter will allow the varying cheeses and other items to be bought to take away. For us, the most exciting part of this elaborate marketing initiative is the chance to try some of the brand’s high-end cheeses which aren’t usually available in the UK. These include Danish cheeses Unika (which is served in Noma as well as other top restaurants), and Castello Höhlenkäse Classic, which is matured in underground limestone caves.
Castello’s Cheese Shop is open Thursday to Saturday 12pm-9pm at 132 Commercial Street, E1 6NG.

Indian brunches in Brixton

14 September-2 November
South Indian social enterprise Papi’s Pickles are bringing a series of breakfasts and brunches to Brixton Cornercopia. It will be serving special festival menus featuring the likes of gluten free coconut dosas, vegetarian thalis and dairy-free coconut milk appams (pancakes), making it an ideal stop-off for those with dietary requirements that can make many Indians a no-go. Traditional puddings and the seasonal Indian pickles which lend the company its name will also be on offer. Prices vary depending on time and menu, but will always cost under a tenner. Local-roast coffee, lassis and alcoholic drinks will also be available. Profits from the meals will go towards helping unemployed women in South India and Sri Lanka.
Brixton Cornercopia is at 65 Brixton Village, SW9 8PS. Tickets are available here.

Nordic nosh

Naturally Nordic

12 September-December
The pop-up food masters behind Kitchen Theory have been making quite the name for themselves over the past few months, with a series of innovative sell-out events and collaborations with top chefs. Next on their agenda is Náttúra, a long-running Nordic-inspired pop-up offering a six-course menu based on ‘the beauty of nature’. Alright, that does sound a tad pretentious, but the menu is altogether more alluring. It spans pickled fish with seaweed and grilled mackerel with sea vegetables, alongside more complex creations such as leek soup with goats’ cheese, leek ash and parsley oil. The Northern Lights dessert of green apple, chocolate mousse, blackberry cremeux, chocolate crunch and chestnut ‘silver sand’ also sounds like one to see for yourself. Dinners cost £56 a head.
Náttúra will be held at Maida Hill Place, 4 Fernhead Road, W9 3ET. Tickets can be booked here.

Last Updated 02 September 2014