Brünch Pop-Up

It was recently my dear little brothers birthday. I say little, he’s now 26 and about 8 inches taller than me! He recently spent a couple of years living in Berlin but is now back in London. He misses the city dearly. So, when I came across Brünch whilst perusing twitter I thought it would be the perfect way to celebrate his birthday!

Brünch is run by the wonderful Noemi, a Berliner foodie living in London. Created from a simple passion for bread, brunch, booze and Berlin, Brünch is a roaming brunch pop-up that brings the ultimate Berlin experience to London. The pop-up is about bringing people together over long Sunday brunches Berlin style and to discover some new London venues along the way. Previous venues include Doodle Bar in Battersea and Brixton East.

Noemi creates a Berlin style breakfast including locally sourced cheeses, meats and smoked fish, fresh fruit, home-made Granola with quark, German bread and Brötchen, homemade jams, typical German deserts & cakes and hard-to-come-by Berlin drinks such as Club Mate, fritz kola, Berliner Weisse and Bionade.

The brunch was being held at Stage 3 in Hackney. We turned up nice and hungry. The room was beautifully set up and the food looked delicious!

It was great to finally meeting Noemi, she is just so passionate about what she does and my brother loved speaking to her about all things Berlin. Everything is locally sourced and homemade – Noemi is a great cook! Two favourites were her homemade smoked mackerel pate which was divine on E5 Bakehouse sourdough and her homemade amaranth granola and vanilla quark, I could have eaten bowls of this stuff. So creamy! Need to get the recipe. Below is the full menu.

– Selection of cheeses: cumin gouda, somerset brie, smoked cheddar
– Selection of German cold cuts – pepper salami, schwarzwälder schinken
– Smoked mackerel pate
– Berlin style ‘Eggs in a Glass’
– Amaranth granola with vanilla quark
– Selection of homemade jams
– Rote grütze with vanilla custard and german marble cake

There was also a great selection of cocktails. I had to order a Club Mate straight away – this is definitely an acquired taste, and I don’t even know how to explain the flavour, it’s almost like a fizzy, fruity green tea will a shed load of caffeine in! I learnt on the day that it was nominated for ‘Best Vegan Drink’ in 2014 VegfestUK awards – the drink has a low sugar content and is made from Mate, an old South American jungle plant.

But we were here for Birthday celebrations and we know I love a cocktail so we had a couple of rounds of these too. The Breakfast Bellini (Aperol, marmalade, passionfruit and bubbles) was so refreshing and a perfect brunch accompaniment. After eating my weight in cheese, bread and the best granola I needed a little pick-me-up and went for one of my favourites, an Espresso Martini. This was made perfectly.

It was so great to meet Noemi and after a great chit-chat and hours of grazing we merrily headed out to enjoy the rest of our Sunday.

Noemi is holding her next pop-up, Brünch Summer Feast, on 4 June at Boyce da Roca featuring a seasonal menu, while mixologists from German Vermouth and Amaro brands Belsazar and Mondino prepare the cocktails. I definitely recommend you check it out!