Five Restaurant Pop-Ups and Collaborations to Look Out for in March

Fat Tony’s fresh pasta will pop up at Bar Termini Centrale

From Monday 5 March, mixologist and bar owner Tony Conigliaro’s Italian cocktail and coffee bar, Bar Termini Centrale, will host a two month pop-up residency from James French’s Fat Tony’s brand — ahead of the chef opening a new restaurant in south London this summer. French has recently completed an apprenticeship at the Michelin-starred l’Erba del Re in Modena.

The pop-up will be open from Tuesday to Saturday, midday to 9pm until the end of April, with a menu featuring pappardelle with longhorn shin ragu, tagliarine with clams, samphire, chilli and garlic; and stracchino, ricotta and parmesan torteloni with sage butter. The fresh pasta will be made by hand on site each day. Starters such as burrata with sea salt and olive oil and Panzanella will also be offered, with the likes of Grilled peaches with amaretto and creme fresh served for dessert. On Mondays French will serve pici cacio e pepe and spaghetti aglio olio e peperoncino between 6pm and 9pm.

Conigliaro said, “A shared passion for old-school Italiana and a complementary aesthetic made this partnership a natural fit for us at Termini. James has an excellent understanding and respect for his craft, not to mention a bloody delicious menu, and we’re looking forward to introducing Londoners to Fat Tony’s next month.”

Bookings can be made here.

Hara London take over from Il Cudega in London Fields

Hara, the yoga and brunch pop-up that has been making the rounds of east London for the past twelve months — most recently with a weekends-only residency at the Institute of Light — has found a new home for March, taking over the space left vacant by the departed Il Cudega on London Fields’ Westgate Street, where they will step up their trading to a regular five-day Wednesday-Sunday operation.

Hara London/Official photo

Kiara Devika Galardi and Tess Gustafsson — co-founders of Hara — share between them over thirty years’ experience in the industry: Kiara learned the ropes in the cafes of Melbourne before moving to London where she managed the bar in Workshop Coffee’s former flagship Clerkenwell site, and spent time working front of house at The Clove Club; Tess came to London after training as a chef in her native Sweden, and has since spent time in the kitchens of Fifteen, Zetter Townhouse, and as pastry chef at St John.

Hara will kick off at their new Westgate Street location next week, with daily breakfast and lunch menus, and an all-day weekend brunch service.

Past highlights have included a savoury black rice with miso, pumpkin, and kale, a vibrant beetroot porridge, and a chickpea chilli with cauliflower, pumpkin, cavolo nero, and spelt flatbread.

Who’s Cooking Dinner?

London’s premier charity dinner — Who’s Cooking Dinner? — returns on March 5 this year with another all-star lineup of twenty chefs, this time with a combined fifteen Michelin stars between them.

Now in its twentieth year, the 2018 edition will be hosted at Holborn’s Rosewood London for the first time. Event founder Peter Gordon (of The Providores) will be joined by the likes of Brett Graham (The Ledbury), Simon Rogan (Roganic), Hélène Darroze (Hélène Darroze at The Connaught), Giorgio Locatelli (Locanda Locatelli), Angela Hartnett (Murano), and event debutante Hamish Brown (Roka) — among others — each of whom will cook their own set menu for a randomly allocated table of ten guests. Each chef will be accompanied by their respective restaurant’s sommelier, who will curate a list of paired wines for the occasion.

Dinner is followed by a charity auction at which guests are encouraged to bid for the experience of having their favourite chef cook for them in their own home. At £7,000 for a table of ten, Who’s Cooking Dinner? is hardly a cheap night out, but it has rightfully earned its reputation as a blue-ribbon event, and since 1999 has been a centrepiece of Leuka’s fundraising efforts, having raised over £6million to date. Leuka’s Chairman Chris Corbin (of Corbin and King, whose portfolio includes the likes of Brasserie Zédel, The Wolseley and The Delaunay), referring to the star-studded lineup of chefs, said, “it’s humbling to see such hard work and generosity in support of a life-changing charity and the amount of funds raised continues to achieve new heights each year.”

Zoe Adjonyoh launches a new burger at Haché

Haché [official photo]

Haché, London’s “original better burger brand”, is launching the first of their 2018 female chef collaborations from 6 March — 15 April, with celebrated food writer and chef Zoe Adjonyoh of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen. Adjonyoh’s Suya Burger, which will debut across all Haché restaurants on Ghanaian Independence Day, will be influenced by the west African flavours of Adjonyoh’s home-style Ghanaian cuisine.

The burger will feature Haché’s classic patty, marinated in Suya — a peanut and cayenne pepper spice mix — dressed with Zoe’s “spicy slaw” and hot pepper shito mayo, lettuce, tomato, and avocado. Importantly, £1 from each burger sale will be donated to KickStart Ghana, a charity that works to enhance sporting and educational opportunities for young people in Ghana.

The launch of Zoe’s Suya Burger at Haché also coincides with her return to east London; Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen will be taking over the kitchen at London Fields’ Institute of Light for an “indefinite” period from 7 March.

Newcomer Wines New Old World wine fair

Newcomer Wines, the Dalston wine bar and specialist importers of central European wines, are hosting their first ever independent wine fair next Monday, at Marylebone’s Royal Institute of British Architects. Showcasing over 150 wines by 35 winemakers from six countries, the wine fair is “a celebration of some of the oldest wine growing regions in Europe — regions that have often been overlooked, but are now being rediscovered and revived by winemakers that are committed to local traditions and sustainable winemaking practices.”

Newcomer initially made their name in London’s growing natural wine scene with a tiny shop in Shoreditch’s Boxpark, where they sold a curated selection of (then exclusively) Austrian wines with “cool label(s) and crazy stories”. They’ve since opened a popular wine shop and bar on Dalston Lane, and expanded their horizons to include other underrepresented winemaking countries including Switzerland, Czech Republic and Hungary, as well as a number of growers from Germany, and the Italian/Austrian borderlands.

The New Old World fair will be open on Monday from 10am-6pm, and is a rare opportunity to taste such a wide array of wines from these regions, including cuvées from the likes of Claus Preisinger, Christian Tschida, Markus Ruch, Rennersistas and Domaine de Mythopia.

Tickets, £25, are available from the Newcomer Wines website, or in store.