This month’s trend
Cambridge is pop-up central right now! Just as I was predicting in last month’s column, the trend for pop-ups and street food residencies is being well and truly embraced this month.
Following on from Steak & Honour’s winter residency at cool cocktail bar Novi, Guerrilla Kitchen will be serving their super-addictive menu of bao (delectable Asian steamed buns with a variety of street food-inspired fillings) plus surprise specials every Friday night, 6-9pm, starting 5 February. Hot Numbers is growing its list of guest street food traders, too, with a rotating line-up of vans parking up outside the Gwydir Street coffee bar every Thursday evening to coincide with the popular jazz nights. Expect to find Holy Schnitzels, The Wandering Yak and Guerrilla Kitchen hanging out kerbside, in addition to Steak and Honour’s regular Friday night spot.
And pop-up fever is spreading to the villages too… Mobile wood-fired pizza purveyors Fired Up enjoyed a successful month-long pop-up pizzeria at the beautiful No. 77 restaurant in Caxton in January, featuring an entire restaurant takeover plus live music and food events. I’m hoping to see more of the same very soon. Watch this space.
Elsewhere, The Blue Ball Inn in Grantchester has enjoyed a recent revamp and is lining up some tasty pop-ups to complement its good old-fashioned pub grub and high-quality beer list. Provenance Kitchen’s stunning vintage silver Airstream trailer has been spotted (it’s pretty hard to miss!) pitched outside the pub to provide hungry punters with seasonal, locally sourced, restaurant-quality food with other street food visitors to the pub to be announced. Nearby in Barton, Burwash Manor’s Love Food festival is back on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 February and, this year, cranks things up a notch with a line-up of street food traders throughout the weekend to keep you warm and fed while you browse the 30-strong stalls in the Larder’s food fair marquee. Rumour has it Swiss street food newbies Rösti Strasse will be there, as well as everyone’s favourite burger wagon, Steak & Honour.
Looking ahead to spring, word on the street is that some very exciting kitchen takeovers are on the horizon as part of the Eat Cambridge festival in May (from 7 to 22 May, www.eat-cambridge.co.uk). Think pop-up street food feasts – nay, extravaganzas! – at some quirky Cambridgeshire venues, alongside some equally intriguing drink matches.
This month’s top pick: There’s a new food trader on the scene at Cambridge Market. The River Kitchen is a market stall with a difference, serving handmade pizzas and vegan salads at the market square every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, from a very cute, entirely pop-up and fold-down pizzeria and kitchen.
Got a question for the Moving Foodie? Tweet us at @cambsedition or @TheMovingFoodie using the tag: #askthefoodie
For more top tips on eating and drinking in Cambridge, visit Heidi’s blog www.movingfoodie.com
