We recently attended the cutest of supperclubs and although there are no dates available right now, we’re told Strazzanti have more in the pipeline so we’d recommend heading to their Instagram page and following for updates.
In the meantime, this is the kind of thing you can expect…
The pop-up we attended was at the beautiful Hackney City Farm restaurant, Frizzante. We’d been to the farm a million times before (honestly, the pigs are so damn cute) but never eaten here so we were excited to check out this kitchen takeover. Long tables had been spruced up with yellow flowers and each place had a name card and menu so we could salivate over what’s to come. Before we sat down though we headed towards the garden, where a punch station had been set up. There we started with a delightfully light ‘Our London’ vodka based cocktail with British elderflower and Sicilian lemon. Canapes did the rounds on rose gold trays, bearing gifts of spinach and mozzarella filled arancini as well as anchovies and butter on bite-sized bread.
Rather appropriately the menu was heavily plant-based and veg focused (well, it would have felt slightly wrong to eat Penelope the pig whilst actually at the farm). That wasn’t the reason though – cattle and seafood are scarcely found in Sicily and Strazzanti is an authentic supperclub. Taking advantage of the wonderful local suppliers in the area, Emilia (one of the sisters behind the pop-up, and second generation Sicilian herself) sourced bread from E5 Bakehouse and vegetables from Dagenham Farm growing community. Wine was provided by Passione Vino, an independent Italian wine shop and bar in Shoreditch who work with small artisan producers, bringing a little bit of Italy via east London.
Huge sharing platters, piled high were left in the middle of the table for us to serve ourselves. Pepperonata (a mix of roasted peppers) were served alongside mounds of courgette ribbons dressed with mint, chilli and garlic, swimming in luscious olive oil. Heritage tomatoes had been jiggled around with a coarse, nutty red pesto trapanese which uses a base of tomato and almonds instead of your standard basil and pine nuts. We all went back for seconds, then thirds, and almost certainly fourths. There was plenty to go around. We almost forgot our main course was still to come but come it did, a traybake of fresh handmade pasta with a juicy aubergine sauce and salted ricotta topping.
With Emilia’s past experience working with chefs and restaurants such as Anton Mosimann, The Dorchester Hotel London and within the 3 Michelin starred restaurant at Le Meurice in Paris, we were excited for dessert. Sensing a need to get up and stretch our feet (and more importantly – cool down) we were given a refreshing coffee granita and left to explore the garden. Light miniature cakes (think pistachio and lemon) were distributed throughout the crowd in a lovely and relaxed informal way, enabling us to get chatting and make friends with others that had been sitting on our table.
Our tickets were priced at £35, with wine extra and although this particular pop-up is over, we hope there will be a new one soon.
