Top 10 food and drink pop-ups

Far from a passing fad, pop-ups are now engrained in the fabric of London dining culture, tempting the adventurous foodie’s tastebuds with all manner of culinary curiosities.

From street food sliders and creme egg concoctions to fine dining with top notch chefs, there is no end of choice when its comes to London’s pop-up scene. True, some slap dash pop-up concepts can fall at the first hurdle, offering more style over substance and disappearing into London’s foodie chasm. However their fleeting nature means that when executed well are quickly ascend into the culinary halls of fame, a one-off experience never to be repeated.

Champagne Krug is just one wine producer to get in on the act, launching its Krug and Chips concept last year in partnership with Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers. For £35, guests were offered a glass of Krug Grande Cuvée alongside the pop-up’s chip-inspired menu, which included “fish in chips” – a potato ravioli with fish in tartar sauce – monkfish cheek curry with matchstick fries, and lobster claws wrapped in potato spaghetti with tartar sauce. This followed the Champagne producer’s Krug crab shack pop-up on London’s Southbank in 2014.

More recently a pop-up restaurant housed in the tip of London landmark the Gherkin was opened by Searcys head chef Renee Miller, with its menu devised by MasterChef presenter and Le Gavroche chef Monica Galetti. Its menu featured dishes including black curry scallops, beetroot-cured salmon with pickled beetroot and horseradish cream, and ox tongue, cabbage and kohlrabi.

So popular is the pop-up concept that two Michelin-starred London stalwart Le Gavroche in Mayfair has taken the decision to close its doors on Mondays in order to make way for private events and bespoke pop-up dinners. From January 2016 the restaurant will close on Mondays, but will be available for private hire. Roux and his daughter Emily will be launching the “Next Generation” pop-up series on 1 February, collaborating as father and daughter for the first time. The restaurant will also welcome back Roux scholars for pop-up events on Monday nights, in addition to tutored tastings run by head sommelier, David Galetti.

Click through to discover some of the capital’s most interesting, innovative and enticing pop-up restaurants and supper clubs…

Alcoholic Architecture

Known for their fantastical forays into the world of food and drink, alchemists Bompas & Parr launched the world’s first breathable cocktail bar in London’s Borough Market last year. Dubbed “Alcoholic Architecture”, the bar on Cathedral Street features a breathable cocktail cloud that guests can wander through and ‘drink’. The immersive experience sees spirits and mixers turned into a cloud of alcohol with the help of humidifiers creating an environment of 140% humidity. Visitors are asked to don protective suits and breath in the cocktail vapour, with the alcohol entering the bloodstream through the lungs and eyeballs rather than the liver. The duo worked with respiratory scientists to calculate a safe amount of time guests can spend inside the cloud – visits last 50 minutes and offer the alcohol equivalent to one mixed drink.

Regular cocktails designed to complement the flavours of the vapours will be served at the bar. The bar’s six month run will come to an end on 30 April, with tickets priced at £10 per visit.

Forest on the roof @ Selfridges

The ever-evolving rooftop of London department store Selfridges is currently home to a pop-up forest-themed restaurant and bar. Run by Des McDonald, formerly of Caprice Holdings, Forest Restaurant and Bar on the Roof will replaced Cornish fish restaurant Vintage Salt in October 2015, and follows last year’s après ski-themed Le Chalet pop-up.

Overseen by head chef Steve Wilson, Forest serves plates inspired by Britain’s woodlands with a focus on foraged ingredients. Dishes currently on offer include woodland mushroom linguine, baked cornish brie with truffle honey and grilled seabass with blood orange and monk’s beard.

Autumnal cocktails include the Smokey & Sour, featuring whisky, rosemary, lemon juice, maple syrup and Laphroaig bitters; and the Fancy Nogg, a decadent twist on eggnog made with brandy, frangelico, cream, honey, hazelnut and nutmeg.

Creme Egg Café

Breaking out of its Cadbury chocolate shell, this year year saw the opening of the first Cadbury Creme Egg café, billed as a “mega gooey mecca” for the humble chocolate egg. Set across three floors in Greek Street, Soho, its ground floor will serve Creme Egg toasties at £2 each. Its first floor will be more of a restaurant serving four Creme Egg dishes including Creme Egg Toastie, Creme Egg and Soldiers and Creme Egg Tray Bake, all costing £4. An adult ball pool meanwhile is sandwiched between the two on the second floor.

All pre-bookable seats have already been booked, but you can still take your chances and turn up on the day (prepare to queue) with the café holding a limited number of walk in seats for the sit down menu each hour. The café also has a Takeaway Toastie Counter on the ground floor. The Creme Egg café will run until 6 March, opening on Friday from 5-9pm, Sat and Sun from 2-6pm, with all proceeds donated to charity.

ABQ ‘Breaking Bad style’ cocktail masterclass

Hot on the heels of hit US TV show Breaking Bad comes ABQ, a cocktail bar at which guests mix up their drinks in a “lab” housed in an RV – as used in the show by drug dealers Jesse Pinkman and Walter White.

Opening last year and due to run for three months, however due to exceptional demand is still running three days a week in an effort to make its way through a waiting which its organisers say now numbers 45,000. Named ABQ after the show’s setting of Albuquerque in New Mexico, the event is organised by Locappy, which incidentally was responsible for another of 2015’s most out there pop-ups – an owl café which invited guests to sip cocktails while petting live owls.

Tickets to “cook” cocktails, with the help of expert mixologists,  cost £30, which includes two drinks and a “chemistry experience” lasting two hours.

Dinerama

A staple of east London’s street food scene, Dinerama is a food market filled with purpose-built restaurants to sit down and eat, a step above the more commonplace ‘grab and go’ types. Based at 19 Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch, traders include Breddos, Smokestak, Fundi, BBQ Lab and Duck ‘n’ Roll. Dinerama runs every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from 5pm and is free to enter before 7pm, £3 after.

Bloodshot Supper Club

One of the newest additions to London’s pop-up dining scene, the Bloodshot Supper Club was founded by Robin Gill and Nuno Mendes (of Chiltern Firehouse acclaim), following the launch of The Dairy in Clapham. Both chefs decided that for hardworking, late-finishing restaurant staff, there just weren’t enough dining options post 12am.

Aimed at “industry folk”, the Bloodshot Supper Club is held on the last Saturday of the month at The Dairy, where guests will be treated to a multiple course dinner cooked by its team and a guest chef, starting at 1am. Just 45 spots are available each month, with tickets priced at £70 a head, however just eight of those seats will be offered to the general public, which will go on sale on the 1st of each month.

db’s Chloe Beral tested it out in the small hours last month at an dinner hosted by chef Chris Trundle. Among the dishes served were polenta with mandarin, minestra nera and anchovy, Stitchelton with truffle and rhubarb with rapeseed oil and custard.

Tickets and information will eventually be available via The Dairy’s website, or follow @Robinwg4 for more information.

Berry Bros. & Rudd’s ‘secret’ cellar pop-up dinners

Last year Berry Bros. & Rudd unveiled its latest wine pairing initiative using a “secret” cellar underneath its shop in London o host exclusive pop-up dining experiences, in partnership with the city’s top restaurants. Dubbed the “Sussex Cellar”, the historic wine merchant has teamed up with a number of top restaurants, including Indian mecca Gymkhana, as part of its “Cellar Series”, which will see the merchant host exclusive dinners prepared by top chefs over the next year.

Just 40 people will be able to attend each event which will see each guest restaurant prepare a six course dinner that will be paired with wines from Berry Bros. & Rudd. Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Gymkhana kicked off the first dinner on 20 July, followed by Chelsea-based Medlar in September.

The next event will take place on 13 May under the banner Seasonal Sensations: Asparagus & Peas Dinner. The evening will comprise a six-course wine pairing menu by BBR head chef Stewart Turner, hosted by Barbara Drew, wine education specialist. When the “cellar series” dinners are not in session, the space will be available to hire for private events.

Pooch parties at M

In March last year steakhouse “M” in the City of London pioneered the “BYOD” (bring your own dog) concept, inviting diners to bring their own dog to brunch for its first “Pedigree Pooch Brunch Party”. This year, the restaurant’s pampered pooch parties will take place at its new venue on Victoria Street, at which owners can enjoy a two-course meal alongside their pooch who will be spoiled with a doggy bag dinner and treats.

Founded by Gaucho’s ex MD Martin Williams, “M” opened last December in a 15,000 square foot space. The restaurant specialises in steak from six nations: Japan, Australia, the US, Argentina, South Africa and France.

Disappearing Dining Club

A supper club that springs up in semi-permanent locations, the Disappearing Dining Club has hosted dinner parties in lighthouses, launderettes, abandoned music venues, antiques shops, salvage yards and film sets to name a few in recent years.

The concept was launched by Stuart Langley who had spent 15 years of running bars, restaurants and members clubs in London and overseas. He was joined by head chef Fredrik Bolin in 2011, and the opening of Back in 5 Minutes in 2012 soon followed.

Ginger Line

Gingerline’s ‘Secret Island’ dining experience

Set up in August 2010, Ginger Line is perhaps London’s most theatrical, not to mention clandestine, supper clubs. Cloaked in mystery, the location of its events are never revealed to ticket holders until the last moment, but tend to be spotted along the ‘ginger line’, otherwise known as the London Overground.

Its experiences are largely theatrical, immersive affairs, which fuse together art, performance, food, drink and design, and have in the past been based around a Siberian circus in New Cross Gate, to a submarine mess hall in Shoreditch.

Its classic experience is its Gingerline’s Classic Tomfoolery, while its Chambers of Flavour concept is described as a “multi-dimensional dining Machine which catapults brave diners through a tongue-tangling taste adventure”. New for 2016 is its Institute of Flavourology, where “flavourologically certified menus combine with private events to create a unique catering cacophony.”

Check our their website for up to date info on upcoming events.