Following a successful summer, Dram & Smoke pops up for winter serving a 5 course tasting menu for 5 weeks from Wednesday to Saturday from 19th November until 20th December 2014. Taking place in Black Swan Yard in Bermondsey, the dining experience offers Scottish produce served up family-style at communal tables and a selection of tipples, accompanied by a solid soundtrack. The menu features haggis bon bons with smoked ketchup, smoked coley, and a main course of venison Wellington to be carved by dinner guests at their table. Porridge becomes a savoury dish with smoked bacon and blue cheese, and to finish up, there's dark chocolate and raspberry mousse served with salted whisky butterscotch and sharing shortbreads. Available to hire, Dram & Smoke offers an alternative feast to the usual Christmas party, all washed down with cocktails, single malts and hot toddies.
No need to book that expensive trip to the Alps, from 22nd October 2014, Le Chalet brings the apres-ski to us with a winter Alpine-style restaurant on the roof of Selfridges. The second of the store's 'On The Roof With...' residencies, the rooftop restaurant follows the success of sister restaurant, Q Grill, which popped up here in the summer and just like it, the menu consists of hearty dishes using quality seasonal produce locally sourced and simply cooked. Operated by Des McDonald, the man behind Islington's The Fish & Chip Shop and the Rosewood hotel's Holborn Dining Room, Le Chalet transports customers to a wintry retreat poised on top of one of London's best known department stores. Designed by Alexander Waterworth Interiors, the restaurant decor has been designed with a traditional ski chalet in mind so you'll be surrounded by wintry ferns, timber branches, and soft low lighting entwined with branches. Drinks options are an assortment of wines, beer, cocktails, soft drinks and there's a hot chocolate cocktail bar on the outdoor terrace.
Fancy yourself as a bit of a competitive socialiser? Swingers has been set up for you. A 3-month pop up 9 hole crazy golf course combined with 1920s clubhouse bar and terrace, Swingers gives you the chance to tee off and enjoy street food from some of London's best vendors, all under one warehouse roof in Shoreditch. Street food comes from respected names in the business including Patty and Bun and Pizza Pilgrims who take up residency from the launch on 25th September. Guest vendors including Hix Fishdog's, When Mac Met Cheese and Butchies park their carts outside in the courtyard on a weekly basis so there's something new to discover for regular guests.
For their next supper event the Disappearing Dining Club has teamed up with Guinness to celebrate the launch of West Indies Porter and Dublin Porter - the two new revival beers from the makers of 'the black stuff'. Taking place at the Town House in Spitalfields, The Brewers Project Suppers will invite guests to move from room to room, tasting the two new porters and learning about the history of their recipes and how they are brewed. West Indies Porter is based on a recipe from the Guinness brewers' diaries from 1801, brewed to maintain its freshness on long sea journeys to the Caribbean, and the Dublin Porter is inspired by popular working man's beers. Further to learning the history of the tipples, guests will also be treated to a menu of carefully crafted food inspired by the new porters, including potted meats and seafood on Guinness bread, venison, vegetable and Dublin Porter stew, Guinness rarebit and smoked haddock. Plus, tempting Black Velvet cocktails and Guinness and salted ice cream for dessert.
English sparkling winemakers Nyetimber hosts a Pop Up tasting room in St James's this festive season giving drinkers a chance to discover the award winning range of wines through masterclasses and parties with like-minded luxury British brands like Linley, Floris, Alice Temperley, Harper's Bazaar and Tatler. They've even created a limited edition scent inspired by the 2009 Rose, in partnership with Jermyn Street perfumer Floris. On 11th and 12th December guests can find out the parallels between wine and perfume making in a masterclass lead by Penny Ellis, bespoke fragrance manager at Floris, and Cherie Spriggs, winemaker at Nyetimber. Each lucky guest gets a bottle of the limited edition scent to take home.
Don't tell Rudolph! They're serving smoked reindeer with pickled blackberries, mascarpone and rocket at Deluxe, a temporary restaurant in Ely's Yard, near Spitalfields, open from Friday 14th November 2014 for a month. The menu, which includes tagliatelle with lobster and truffle oil and Panettone bread and butter pudding with white chocolate custard, has been designed so that guests can easily recreate it in their own homes when the restaurant shuts up shop - or when the pop-up pops off. New dishes appear on the menu every week, as voted by visitors across the restaurant's social media channels. Deluxe will also host regular Tuesday wine tastings showcasing a selection of the restaurant's quality wines.
No ski lift required to get to Lodge d'Argent, a traditional French chalet-inspired space on the skyscraper terrace of City restaurant Coq d'Argent. Vintage ski props and luxurious furry blankets transport you to the slopes without leaving the City while dishes like croque-fondu (comte, beaufort, emmental cheese and black truffle) and croque-raclette (cured and smoked ham, raclette, mornay sauce and ratte potatoes) are among the classic and contemporary French apres-ski snacks on the menu. The dessert menu pairs dishes like ice chestnut and Martinique rhum parfait with Hennessy Cognac. Choose from rainbow trout goujonettes with chips, dill and honey mayonnaise, venison burger or raclette gratin with potatoes and cured ham, and warm up with Alpine Sour and Ski Warmer cocktails created especially for the occasion by bar manager Pawel Rolka.
Inspired by the history of nearby Regent's Park - which used to be a royal hunting ground - The Winter Cabin pops up at The York and Albany for the autumn and winter months. Secreted away in the cosy courtyard of the Gordon Ramsay group's 18th-century coaching inn, The Winter Cabin offers weary travellers a welcoming hot apple cider. Decked out in tweeds, tartans and taxidermy, the wood pannelled cabin is the place to dine on game dishes while wrapped up in faux furs, entertained by live music. Billed as a "bijou mountain lodge for urban carnivores", dishes are of the hearty modern British slant - think wild boar burgers, black pudding scotch eggs, and venison meatballs with a bourbon BBQ glaze - cooked up head chef Kim Woodward. Meaty but cosy.
Catering for the 60,000 Swedes living in London and anyone gripped by a love of all things 'Scandi', Swedish Christmas is a dining experience that offers a journey for all the senses. In the former Guardian HQ you can sample Swedish culinary delights like gravad lax and pickled herring to start, forest mushroom omelette, Prinskorv sausages, and Swedish meatballs for mains, followed by soft saffron cake, and ginger snaps - just two of the puddings on offer. This all-you-can-eat Swedish Christmas Smorgasbord will set you back £45 which also gets you a welcome Glogg. Join in with traditional songs, enjoy the candle lit Scandinavian-style setting, and retire to the Loft Bar for post dinner drinks and dancing with cocktails specially prepared by Skandilicious co-founder, award winning mixologist Frederik Olsson.