This evening’s Apprentice shows the show’s researchers have their ears to the ground with regard to the latest trend in street food retailing.
Pop-up shops selling gourmet fast food is all the rage in the trendier parts of London these days.
Luckily the Kings Cross development area is just one such place, with its Eat Street, just up the road from the updated eponymous station, and literally across the road from the recently opened University of the Arts.
I have been lured over to this new venture on numerous occasions, despite the relatively high prices compared to traditional fast food outlets. But the food has always been worth it, with a notable spicy burger which had a real bite to it.
As was pointed out during this weeks Apprentice episode, branding is a key element of any enterprise, and some of the stalls in Eat Street certainly have memorable names. My favourites are Daddy Donkey, Well Kneaded Ltd, Yum Bun, Hardcore Prawn, and Eat my Pies.
However, I think that Tongue ‘n Cheek needs to find a way make its delicious sounding underrated meat cuts and Italian inspired street food treats, such as Ox cheek with caramelized onions and polenta, a bit more accessible given the queue size I observed the other day.
These names certainly compare favourably to the Apprentice team’s choices of Gourmet Scot Pot and Utterly delicious Meatballs.
Update: August 2012: I’m now a regular at Eat Street as their days and stalls expand all the time. I’ve just had probably the best burger I’ve ever tasted from Tongue ‘n Cheek. It was their Heartbreacker Original burger, made from Ox heart and dry aged beef burger, spicy chimichurri sauce, water cress, cheddar and sour cream. And it tasted amazing.
While out and about at lunchtime today I couldn’t help noticing that Tongue ‘n Cheek were at Eat Street. After my harsh comments above, I felt morally obliged to stop by and say hello. Kirie Cristiano kindly let me have a taste of his wares, and they were delicious.
They also seemed to be doing pretty good trade today despite the heavy rain showers so perhaps others are also over-coming their prejudices.
I will certainly be returning for their Ox Tongue con salsa verde.
My gourmet lunch was perfectly complemented by a cup of ‘the best coffee in St Pancras’ – Monmouth Street coffee at Sourced.