Pickle Specialist and Cutting-Edge Chef to Open New Snack Bar in East London

Snackbar, a new neighbourhood cafe, will open on the site of an urban farm shop in Dalston, east London this summer. Founder Freddie Janssen, author of Pickled, has today launched a crowdfunding campaign for her brand Snackbar — as she looks to raise £20,000 in the next 30 days.

Janssen, who has been actively searching for a site for the roving Snackbar brand for over two years has teamed up with Bao Fitzrovia development chef (and ex-Nuala sous), Anaïs van Manen. She will take on the role of head chef. Sebastian Myers who co-founded Snackbar with Janssen is no longer involved in the project.

The new iteration of Snackbar is in partnership with Farm:shop (which calls itself the the “world’s first urban farming hub”, launched in 2010). The café will have multiple “mini-farm installations” indoors and outdoors and, aided by high-tech indoor allotments and an outdoor polytunnel, the café will grow its own vegetables, herbs, and fungi.

The three-floor site includes: 30-cover ground floor café; hi-tech indoor growing allotments; outdoor seating area; chicken shed; polytunnel; fermentation basement; and two floors designed for co-working.

Snackbar says it will serve “the sort of sink-your-teeth-into food that makes you feel good about yourself.” That means: mortadella banh mi with pickles from the fermentation basement; rice bowls topped with mushrooms grown in the “mini mushroom farms”; and the Snackbar Farm Salad will be made using leaves and flowers grown in the back garden. The menu is inspired “by food from all over the world, while focusing on high quality ingredients and creative executions.”

It will be a “humble” order-at-the-counter café, offering a selection of “globally inspired,” seasonal and creative sandwiches, salads, rice bowls, and snacks.

An unconventional range of rewards are on offer for those who wish to contribute to the Kickstarter campaign: A chicken named after you (£150); a “chef’s night out” with Anais and Freddie (£2,000), a pickling class (£200); a year’s supply of Allpress coffee (£500); guest dishes (£250); and a culinary research trip to Los Angeles (£8,000).

Snackbar is scheduled to open this summer at 20 Dalston Lane, E8 3AZ London, near Dalston Junction Overground station.