After a decade, Britain’s first pop-up restaurant returns to Haggerston

The Reindeer 2016. Pic: Sarabande Foundation

The Reindeer 2016. Pic: Sarabande Foundation

Britain’s first “pop-up, guerrilla restaurant” is to reopen in Haggerston in a special event for two nights only this weekend – a decade after its first and only stint.

The Reindeer 2016 is an immersive Christmas experience, which will showcase work from local designers and artists associated with Sarabande, a charitable foundation set up in memory of the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen. Guests will walk through a Narnia-like wardrobe of fur coats, before emerging into a snowy forest.

Dinner – including wine and cocktails – costs £130 per head. The menu includes roast pink beef, puffed salmon skins and fermented apple sorbet.

The Reindeer 2006 was Britain’s first guerrilla restaurant, and was an enormous success. In just three weeks, Bistrotheque, the creative designers of Reindeer, served 23,000 guests in The Old Truman Brewery.

Ten years later, on Friday and Saturday, only 400 people will have the experience.

Bistrotheque Co-Founder Pablo Flack says: “The Reindeer was such a colossal undertaking, much greater than we ever imagined.”

“Swearing we’d never do it again, only very special circumstances would call The Reindeer back to town.  Well, Sarabande are that reason, but this time it’s only for two nights.”

Designers and artists supported by Sarabande include BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund 2016 winner Craig Green, L’Oreal Award winning John Skelton and knitwear innovator Serena Gill. Patrons of Sarabande include Naomi Campbell, Nick Knight OBE and Sam Taylor-Johnson OBE.

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