From afternoon teas to after-hours gatherings via Scotch, singing and street food. Here’s our pick of ten of the best foodie pop-ups and residencies to try in June.
Hot scotch
Run by two friends from Edinburgh, Dram & Smoke has launched in a working steelyard on the backstreets of Vauxhall, bringing gutsy Scottish grub to London. It runs every Friday and Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon until 29 June serving a six-course tasting menu (many of the dishes are cooked in a bespoke whisky barrel food smoker) alongside single malt whiskies and aged Scottish beers from Innis & Gunn. The heartily patriotic menu includes haggis bonbons with chilli jam, smoked venison haunch, and deep-fried Mars bar with Irn Bru ice cream.
Tickets £40 including all food, a welcome whisky cocktail and beer matched with your menu. More drinks will be available to buy. Events run from 7.30pm on Friday and Saturdays and 2pm on Sundays.
Alternative afternoons
Kitchen Theory have been a regular face on London’s pop-up and supperclub scene for some time now. Their latest venture sees them take on the traditional afternoon tea and give it a signature twist as they launch Pays des Merveilles, which translates as ‘Wonderland’, in Maida Vale. It’s fitting of a collaboration between French chef Nicolas Guerin whose background includes work at afternoon tea havens such as The Connaught, and Kitchen Theory founder Jozef Youssef who has written about molecular gastronomy and cooked at The Fat Duck. Some samples from the menu include watermelon gazpacho with feta cheese and basil cloud, a strawberry tartare with balsamic pearls, and a rose and blueberry swiss roll.
The events run on Saturdays and Sundays from 13 June through to the end of July at Maida Hill Place, with sittings at 12.30pm or 2.30pm each day. Tickets cost £35, or £42 with Champagne.
Battered with bourbon
Details are scarce, but we love the idea of Bourbon Kitchen, a three-day weekend pop-up running in Hackney from 26-28 June. In their own words, it’s a celebration of ‘all things breaded and battered washed down with bourbon and beer’. It will be held at Kino on Morning Lane. There are hints of bourbon-based BBQ sauce and a mint julep ice-cream on the menu, but you should follow them on twitter for the latest updates and tickets.
They tried to make me go to Kebab Rehab…
Starting this month, Marble Arch Indian restaurant Roti Chai will run a number of kebab-themed events on Sunday afternoons. The inaugural Kebab Rehab event takes place on 15 June and focuses on both Indian and Turkish versions of this humble dish, along with some fusion of the two. Roti Chai chef Rohit Chugh, wine consultant, blogger and ‘kebab aficionado’ Zeren Wilson, and Turkish chef Hulya Erdal are collaborating on the menu, which includes a Turkish scotch egg, an Indian venison kebab and a cocktail made with Turkish delight.
Tickets cost £30 and are available here. The event starts at 1pm.
Just desserts
Those with sweet tooths might remember that we’ve covered the excellent dessert-only supperclub After Hours before. Now they’re back with a special event on Friday 6 June, when top pastry chef Penny Jirayuwatana will be cooking a one-off four-course dessert tasting menu at their venue in Shoreditch’s Ozone Coffee. She’s worked at renowned restaurants and hotels around the world, including at London’s Mandarin Oriental, and her food blends classic French techniques with bright Thai flavours. Some combinations from the menu include poached apricot, jasmine, ginger and pistachio, and banana, smoked caramel, pineapple and coconut sorbet.
Tickets cost £25 and are available here. Sittings are at 7.30pm, 8.30pm or 9.30pm.
A doll’s dinner
Hoxton Square’s Dead Dolls House has become a regular haunt for immersive pop-ups, and this month one of London’s original supperclubs is making itself at home there for a couple of nights. On Friday 20 and Saturday 21 June, Bootleg Banquet will offer a three-course menu of carefully-sourced British grub in characteristically atmospheric surrounds. Dishes include guinea fowl stuffed with mascarpone, and a meringue and black pepper cream roulade. The dinners are also a bit of a steal at just £20.
Tickets are available here. The price includes all food, while there will be also be a full bar.
Nights of the long table
Set in the impressive surrounds of the glass-roofed William Morris Gallery Tea Room in Walthamstow, the highly communal and sociable Long Table series of dinners offer a two-course meal alongside a featured London beer each month. On Thursday 12 June, wild sea trout with asparagus and slow-roasted heritage tomatoes and a chervil dressing is on the menu, alongside a strawberry tart with chocolate crumble. This will be matched with a lemon and thyme Saison beer from Bermondsey’s Partizan brewery. Events are also scheduled for 17 July and 21 August.
Tickets cost £24 and are available here. Dinners start at 7.30pm.
Street food: every little helps
Most wouldn’t consider a Tesco supermarket to be among the capital’s gastronomic destinations, but the car-park of the 24 hour Kensington superstore near Earl’s Court will be the site of the first street food festival from City Pantry. The company that links lunchers with street food traders by delivering their food to offices, has gathered a line-up of 16 stalls, as well as live cook-offs and a World Cup-inspired Brazilian caipirinha bar. The festival will run every Thursday to Saturday from 12-29 June. Traders involved include crab-based snacks from Crabbie Shack, gumbo from Colonel Toms, and noodles and banh mi from Hanoi Kitchen, pictured right.
Traders will serve from midday to 11pm. Free entry.
Sing for your supper
Pizza and song come together this Saturday night at Argentine pizza supperclub near Old Street, running on 7 and 14 June. But you can rest your vocal chords, as it's multi-tasking chef Oli who’ll be doing the singing, as well as playing guitar. For £25 (including fees), you get homemade antipasti starters, generous quantities of pizza for mains, a dessert of dulce de leche pancakes and half a bottle of wine. Plus the music, of course.
Tickets are available here. Dinner starts at 8pm on both 7 and 14 June.
Not just the tonic
After roaming around summer events last year, premium tonic brand Fever-Tree is settling down in a dedicated Gin & Tonic Bar in Hoxton Square this month. Running from 12 June to 26 July, the bar will serve over 160 different gins from all over the world and offer ‘G&Tree flights’ where drinkers can opt for tasting portions of four different gins each accompanied by the tonic. These come in at a very reasonable £12, of which two quid goes to a malaria charity. There are also plans for supperclubs and masterclasses down the line, tickets for which can be bought here.
