Pop Up
Afro-fusion street food biz Cally Munchy, run by Ebenezer Sogunro, which has been popping up at markets and at festivals across London as well as running a catering operation is taking up residence at The Africa Centre in Southwark. The regular Cally Munchy offering includes dishes like suya steak, spiced chicken, kelewele (Ghanaian seasoned plantain), and jollof ‘n’ peas and the brand’s signature Shi-Tuan chilli sauce, and these will be appearing on the Cally Munchy Lounge menu.
MY NEIGHBOURS THE DUMPLINGS AT SEED LIBRARY
Shoreditch cocktail spot Seed Library (run by Mr Lyan and one of the best bars in London), has teamed up with My Neighbours The Dumplings for a new bar snack menu, following a collab with Ruben’s Reubens earlier this year. The East London dumpling house is serving up some of its signature dim sum, including crispy prawn wontons with sweet chilli sauce, pork & makrut lime leaf potstickers, prawn har gau, crispy turnip cake with soy cured egg yolk and silken tofu with vegan XO. Seed Library’s drinks menu, currently featuring a salsa margarita and black vinegar gimlet cocktails plus low-intervention wine, craft beer and artisanal sake, will be available alongside those snacks.
MORLEY'S AND HEINZ TEAM UP AT THE STANDARD
South London’s fave chicken shop Morley’s has teamed up with Heinz for a right saucy pop-up at The Standard this summer. The two brands have created the limited edition Morley’s x Heinz Fried Chicken Sauce and this pop-up is the only place to get it, alongside a range of fried chicken specials cooked up at Double Standard just for the occasion. The menu includes a 2-piece Morley’s chicken with ketchup salt, glazed hot wings, popcorn chicken, chicken fillet burger, chicken drumstick with caviar, chicken & waffles with hot honey glaze and a 20 chicken wing tower, with a range of Heinz sauces for dipping. You can finish with caramelised apple donuts, a Mirinda ice cream sundae and a chocolate sundae with ketchup sherbet. And forget grabbing a can, it’s all about pairing your chicken with frozen mango margs, boozy coke floats and vodka-spiked grape sodas. Once you’ve finished your bougie chicken shop date, have a spin on the custom arcade machine to try and score some limited-edition merch.
BLACK IN CARNABY CONCEPT STORE
My Runway Group, the community-led organisation that provides a platform for Black talent and business owners, is popping up at Somerset House with the Black In Carnaby Concept Store. The pop-up will showcase fashion, homeware, art, beauty products, literature and more from over 200 Black-owned businesses as well as hosting a series of talks, workshops and events designed to support and empower creatives in the Black community.
Two Notting Hill faves, The Pelican and Straker’s, have joined forces to take over the former Pizza East site on Portobello Road for the summer. Running Weds – Sun until September, at 310 Portobello you can get some of Thomas Straker’s famous wood-fired flatbreads, with toppings including lobster, fennel & chilli butter, Vesuvio tomato & oregano and girolles, garlic & parsley, alongside dishes like fritto misto, burrata & tomatoes, aubergine parm, and chicken schnitzel, all to be washed down with Aperol Spritzes, frozen margs and Palomas.
Ana Gonçalves and Zijun Meng, the pair behind TĀTĀ Eatery, are in residence at The Sea, The Sea in Haggerston, taking over the chef’s table for four weeks. The duo will be showcasing their East meets West style of cooking, blending Mediterranean and Asian flavours using produce from The Sea, The Sea. TĀTĀ will be doing dinners on Mon – Weds evenings, with guest chefs coming in to cook on Mondays – Calum Franklin will be there on 17th July, Jan Ostle from Wilson’s in Bristol is cooking on 24th July, and Niall Davidson will be in the house on 31st July.
Following the Poon’s supper club at Carousel for Chinese New Year, Amy Poon is popping up at No. 23, its incubator space next door, with Poon’s Wontoneria. At lunchtimes, the Wontoneria will be serving up a range of Poon’s signature handmade wontons in chilli vinegar dressing, including pork & bamboo shoot; chicken thigh, woodear mushroom, water chestnut & ginger; and jackfruit, tofu, cabbage, carrot, woodear mushroom & water chestnut, with a wonton noodle bowl on as a daily lunch special. You’ll also be able to pick up some of those cult Poon’s sauces, like the WO Sauce, Chilli Vinegar Dressing and Extraordinary Chilli Oil. The Wontoneria will be running a dinner service, featuring the wontons (of course) plus dishes like wind-dried meats rice bowl; hand-shredded chicken with spring onion & ginger relish and house chilli sauce; steamed pumpkin with fǔzhú, Chinese mushrooms and black bean sauce; Lisle Street zha jiang noodles with sautéed tofu and “fried sauce”, made to the same recipe from the original Poon’s; and baked Chinese pears with dates, star anise and toasted walnuts. You’ll be able to pair those with Pooña Coladas, yuzu chilli crystal margs and sparkling Darjeeling whisky highballs.
SELFRIDGES X LOANHOOD SWAP SHOP
Selfridges has teamed up with online clothes exchange community LOANHOOD to launch a Swap Shop at their Oxford Street flagship. From 10th July, Selfridges shoppers can drop by with their pre-loved clothes and trade them in for tokens which they can then use to ‘shop’ a curated selection of secondhand pieces. A team of experts will be at the totally circular concept to value the items brought in by customers, and you’ll be able to exchange up to five pieces worth a value of £50 – £300. This will mark the first time Selfridges has ever run an initiative like this and it may be the last; the pop-up is on for just three weeks, so don’t miss out.
REAL HOUSEWIVES OF CLAPTON X LA CAVE
It’s the city’s favourite meme account and essential reading for anyone spending time in East London, and now @real_housewives_of_clapton is becoming really real with a limited-time collab at La Cave in Holborn. The subterranean bar that specialises in low-intervention wine has teamed up with RHOC to put together a menu inspired by the Instagram account’s tongue-in-cheek, satirical posts about London in the 2020s. Expect to see the likes of the Housewives’ Dinner (skewered Perelló olives, pickle chilli, Ortiz anchovies), Crisp Sandwich (focaccia, truffle mayo, Torres truffle crisps, prosciutto, rocket, fresh mozzarella), and Beans On Toast (sourdough toast, Mutti tomato, white beans, garlic & herbs) on the menu. Of course, there’ll be plenty of orange and biodynamic wines to pair it all with – chin chin!
The Summer Screen is back at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens this July, screening free movies every Tuesday at 7pm throughout the month. The programme includes Frozen, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and Grease, so there’s something for all the fam to enjoy. There are deckchairs and blankets available but you’re encouraged to bring your own, and you can also BYO snacks and drinks too – though there will be food and drink traders on-site if you want to buy anything extra. It’s totally free to attend but if you want to be sure of a spot, you can sign up to reserve one, and you’ll also be entered into weekly giveaways too.
LUSH X ASTEROID CITY GIFT SHOP
To celebrate the release of Wes Anderson’s new Americana adventure, Asteroid City, Lush have brought a pop-up to town inspired by the highly anticipated movie. The pop-up cafe and gift shop mimics the legendary filmmaker’s signature style, with plenty of pastel colours and nostalgic features. Inside, you’ll get to shop the new exclusive Lush x Asteroid City (which includes a themed bath bomb, soap, shower gel and shower jelly) collection before it hits the stores, take plenty of pics and grab a FREE slushie. Wes fans definitely don’t wanna miss this one.
A pop-up urban farm created in partnership with Square Mile Farms, one of our Local Heroes, has opened at 109 Fleet Street providing over 1000 salad bags of fresh greens for free. The farm, the first Square Mile Farm open to the public, uses hydroponic technology to grow the produce, using 90% less water than traditional farming, making the greens super sustainable as well as local. The farm will be open until the end of June but you can head down on 14th and 21st June to harvest parsley, kale, sage and basil.
The cult pop-up shop by eco-friendly fashion campaign Love Not Landfill is back this summer and stacked with fashion picks curated by some of the most style-savvy influencers and charity shops. Each influencer has teamed up with a charity to select up to 500 pieces from donations to add to their collection: Char Ellesse has teamed up with Shelter, Demi Colleen with FARA, Lina Mar with Cancer Research UK and Nantida Intajak with Hurr Collective. At the limited-time store, you’ll be able to shop fashion-forward charity shop gems and ‘retired’ designer pieces, saving them from landfill and donating vital funds to partner charities as you refresh your wardrobe.
SHELTER BOUTIQUE AT BRIXTON VILLAGE
For eight weeks, homelessness charity Shelter will be popping up at Brixton Village with a shop selling a curated selection of pre-loved clothes, from high-end finds and vintage one-offs. The Shelter Boutique will be open from Thursday to Saturday each week and guests will be able to shop a range of books and music alongside sustainable fashion and accessories. Of course, all proceeds will go towards tackling housing injustices across the UK and supporting Shelter’s vital work in providing expert advice, face-to-face support and legal guidance to people facing housing issues or homelessness.
To mark a quarter of a century of Carrie Bradshaw and co., a brand new immersive experience is landing in town that’ll give Londoners the chance to become a part of famous scenes from Sex and the City. ‘And Just Like That…It’s Been 25 Years, A Sex and the City Experience’ will feature recreations of Carrie’s notorious apartment, so you’ll get to take pics on her Brownstone stoop, inside her wardrobe and typing with her laptop – and, of course, you’ll be sipping on Cosmos at the same time. Tickets are on sale now for £5, but the experience is only running for six days so if you want to live out your Sex and the City fantasy, grab yours now.
THE SELFRIDGES 'STOCK MARKET'
The Corner Shop at Selfridges has announced its latest pop-up, this time a valuing, repair and exchange service modelled after the London Stock Exchange. The Stock Market has transformed the ground level of the department store into a ‘trading floor’, complete with data-filled screens reminiscent of those found at the LSE. Guests will be able to bring along items from their wardrobe to be valued by Selfridges’ ‘stockbrokers’ (which you can sell for store credit) who’ll advise on how to increase that value by upcycling, whether through hand-beading moth holes or customising with frills and applique. You’ll also be able to repair and restore items with a helping hand from SOJO, The Handbag Clinic, Vintage Threads, and SneakersER.
BAOHAUS AT NEIGHBOURHOOD
Eddie Huang, the American author (he’s best known for Fresh Off The Boat, which was turned into a successful sitcom), TV personality and chef, launched Taiwanese steamed bun shop Baohaus in NYC in 2009, followed by a second location in LA, and now he’s bringing it across the pond for a London pop-up. At the end of May, Baohaus will take up residency at Neighbourhood in Islington (with home delivery also available) for 13 weeks, serving up a menu featuring many of the signature dishes that made a splash in at the NYC location, like the Chairman Bao (braised pork belly with Haus relish, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar & cilantro), the Manager’s Meal (red cooked pork belly, minced pork stew and Birdhaus fried chicken served with Haus relish & cilantro) and the Uncle Jesse Bao (organic fried tofu served with Haus sauce, Haus seasoning salt, crushed peanuts, Taiwanese red sugar & cilantro).
KERB PRESENTS: THE TABLE
KERB is back at the National Theatre this year with an open-air market of street food vendors, but this time they’re changing things up a little. From May, KERB will unveil London’s longest banqueting table, an immense 70-metre long installation that seats 200 diners. Guests will get to tuck into food from eight of KERB’s best independent street food traders, including Santa Bifana, Eat Lah, Papelon, Sen Noods and Big Kid Ice Cream. There’ll also be open-air bars serving up the likes of craft beers from South London’s Gipsy Hill Brewing Co., soft drinks from Bow’s Square Root Soda, mixed drinks made with East London Liquor Co. spirits, sharing cocktail pitchers of KERB faves and boozy fruity slushies for when the temps hot up.