Not one but two: riverside pop-up restaurant returns

TWO pop-up restaurants will be serving customers on the River Thames near Henley this summer.

The Lockdown Lodge, which traded upstream from Hambleden Lock for 24 days last August, will return to the same piece of land owned by the Copas Partnership from July 24 to August 15.

It will again be run by Minna Hughes, a 20-year-old student from Henley who came up with the idea after having to cancel her gap year plans because of the coronavirus pandemic.

It will again be in four converted shipping containers beside the Thames Path and will consist of two storeys with a licensed walk-up bar on the ground floor serving drinks and takeaway food to eat at picnic tables.

Chef Jimmy Garcia will return to offer a fine-dining menu in a seating area beneath a canopy on the upper floor. Advance booking is required and tickets are expected to go on sale today (Friday).

The bar will serve food all week and alcohol from Tuesday to Sunday. Fine dining will be offered in the evenings from Wednesday to Saturday with a more casual Sunday sitting.

Meanwhile Mr Garcia, who has operated similar ventures across the UK, will also run his own pop-up restaurant at Upper Thames Rowing Club in Remenham from June 17 to July 13. It will be based in a similar structure which, like the Lockdown Lodge, will be built by Event Kitchens.

The catering supply firm, of Binfield Heath, is run by Miss Hughes’s father Chris, although the restaurants are separate businesses.

Mr Garcia’s will be called Taste of Henley and will offer picnic tables for casual diners plus four larger tables with sofa seating and white parasols.

The upstairs dining area will offer a five-course barbecue tasting menu between Wednesday and Saturday evenings as well as lunch on Saturday afternoons.

Suppliers will include Gabriel Machin butchers, of Market Place, and the Bosley Patch at Swiss Farm off Marlow Road, both Henley, as well as Honeys of Henley.

Miss Hughes, who is studying primary education at Oxford Brookes University, said she was grateful to Copas for inviting her back.

She said: “We’d been hoping to return for a while and we’re so pleased to finally announce it. It will mostly be the same set-up as last year but with a few improvements and surprises.

“There didn’t seem to be a need for drastic changes because people were so happy with everything the first time. We loved working with Jimmy and can’t wait to see the final draft of his menu.

“You never know how it has gone until it’s over but everything seems to be on track with all the key elements in place. The reaction online has been enthusiastic and I’m humbled that people are so excited to see us return.

“Across a wider area, quite a few people are running pop-ups on the Thames this summer and while we hope it doesn’t have a negative impact on us, I take it as a compliment if others are now doing the same thing.”

Justin Sutherland, chairman of Upper Thames Rowing Club, said he began talks with Mr Garcia after visiting the Lockdown Lodge and being impressed with what he saw.

He said the club welcomed the commercial opportunity, although it hadn’t lost much money during the pandemic because it was careful with its finances.

He said: “We’ve all missed each other’s company so this will present a great opportunity for our members to catch up and hopefully this dreary weather will have improved by the time it opens.

“The Lockdown Lodge did a fantastic job last year and I’m hoping that we will both benefit by attracting more trade to the towpath. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out but I’m very excited. Many of our members visited Miss Hughes’s restaurant and I went down a few times myself.

“It was very impressive — some people were sceptical about whether people would want to travel that far out but clearly they did.

“We see ourselves as an integral part of the community so having more visitors can only be a good thing. We’ve had to think carefully about coronavirus procedures and we’ve got an excellent team looking after that.”

Mr Hughes said: “Hopefully, this summer is going to be busy for everyone. I’m not sure how well the bigger events are going to go this year and I think the pop-up market is going to grow.

“It’ll be good to see how busy it gets as Minna tested the water last year and now others clearly think it’s a great idea.

“The Lockdown Lodge was only going to be a one-off but it was so successful that Copas asked if she would do it again.

“We were finding our way the first time but this time we have a much clearer idea and Minna is busy juggling her studies with various aspects of getting it ready.

“I’m very proud of what Minna has achieved. I know I would say that as her dad, but she worked so hard and stayed calm in the face of various unexpected problems so her success is very much deserved.”