HACKNEY is getting an early Christmas 2011 present: a Michelin-starred graduate of El Bulli.
Nuno Mendes received the Michelin accolade for his first solo venture Viajante in the Town Hall Hotel in Bethnal Green and will start sizzling in E8 late this month.
The location of his latest venture being Dalston, it will be edgy: it will be a pop-up in a car park next to the supposed World War Two bunker, pictured, that in May presented a stunning show in its spooky interior. Arty stuff will happen again.
Seating up to 200 people, sheltered from the weather by a Capri marquee, the Long Table will serve a variety of dishes, costing £3 to £6. A well-stocked bar will include wines to go with fine food.
As for access, Loving Dalston was told: “There is no reason for disabled access to be a problem. The entrance to the site is down a ramp, but with assistance, this should be fine.”
Launch date is Friday 25 November 2011, in Abbot Street, Hackney E8 3DP. Then it will open every Friday from 6pm to midnight – until 16 December 2011. The organisers, the creators of the Dalston Roof Park and of the Loft Project, promise a “hand-picked selection of London’s finest street food” at what they describe as “East London’s first-ever night-time food market” (a claim thrown into doubt by a TimeOut report).
Food stalls from Jamie Oliver’s and Rick Stein’s TV programmes, Arcola Street’s Turkish Mangal and seafood-and-game specialist Bonnie Gull will also take part.
No need to book, say the organisers; “just follow the sound of bands playing and the smell of great food”.
Portuguese Nuno Mendes says he did a “brief” (you can bet there’s a story behind that word) internship at El Bulli in Roses, Spain. Critics rated the now-closed Catalonian restaurant the world’s finest.
David Altheer 101111
* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.
I was about to say “What about Red Market in Shoreditch as the East End’s first night-time food market?” but I just had a look and I see it has shut down. But still – it did exist so should probably get the accolade. [Ah, yes, and my inbred scepticism about superlatives is why I wrote that it was “the organisers” who “describe the event as ‘East London’s first-ever night-time food market’”. I have altered my report accordingly. – Ed.]