A Brixton Burger Favourite Is Starting Beef in Exmouth Market

A Brixton burger favourite will bring its menu of dry-aged patties and creative smoked meat sides to one of London’s busiest restaurant strips this month. Black Bear Burger, which also operates a kiosk in Boxpark Shoreditch, will take over the former Dirty Burger space next door to Pizza Pilgrims on Exmouth Market from 26 May.

Hoping the site’s former identity as a burger restaurant that didn’t make it can be exorcised, it will introduce an open kitchen and cocktail bar from which to sling its burgers, which are pitched somewhere between smashed patty minimalism and the early-aughts school of extroverted toppings: the beef is thin, but there’s onion jam; the toppings are mostly just meat and cheese, but the cheese is sometimes blue.

Its “starters” — including brisket spring rolls — and a range of smoked meats have also bolstered a burgeoning reputation, which has seen it expand into not just Clerkenwell but the upcoming Canary Wharf Market Halls. It’s also not just Clerkenwell: Exmouth Market remains one of London’s most prestigious restaurant addresses, home to the likes of Morito, Moro, and Berber and Q.

Bubble waffles will never die

Bubblewrap is expanding, with a new site coming to Spitalfields Market.

A popular lockdown hold-out lowers its stakes

Hawksmoor is putting the brakes on its at-home steak boxes, which helped to see the group through COVID-19 lockdowns.

And in review:

Jimi Famurewa loves Acme Fire Cult, but finds its winning formula a little repetitious; Marina O’Loughlin agrees the city is hot 4 Hot 4 U; and Grace Dent dredges up the “concept” bit for Dai Chi in Soho.