Leamington Street Food

Street Food has finally made it to Leamington Spa! This Friday, for the first time, there will be a dedicated Leamington Street Food market, known as Eat Street, on Regent Court. It’s a project that has been ticking along in the wings for a while now, as we have tried to get a permanent pitch in the town we call home. In end we were actually only involved in an advisory capacity, but to be honest the summer has been so hectic I’m pretty sure we couldn’t have managed a great deal more.

To the facts! This will be a small, rotating gathering of street food; rather like Digbeth Dining Club for lunch. Attached onto that are a few stalls selling some lovely local produce for lunchtime browsing and all the usual delights Leam has to offer. The market will run from 10 until 4, so plenty of time to shoot down for a quick bite, and will host some of the nicest and most delicious local street fooders. It will hopefully be every Friday, so if you can possibly make it down there please do, because we need the support of the food-loving masses to keep this going.

The line up! As you may have suspected we will be there with all the rip-roaring toasties you can shake your hat at. There will also be an appearance by Platinum Pancakes, where you could surprise and confuse the pancake flipper by confidently calling him Anthony. Then order the meringue, strawberry, Baileys and custard one to make up for the weirdness. Big Daddy’s Diner will be serving quality hot dogs and a tasty home made chilli, plus they’re lovely people. We have literally pushed their trailer around, if you know what I’m saying.

We’ve waited a long time for a local event where we can meet some keen street food lovers, and this might just be it. Our current proving ground for the newest toasties is still Digbeth, where this week we will again be road testing our newest creation, but we already know that Leamington is full of foodies – the Food Festival last weekend was proof of that. What we need is a way to entice those adventurous diners out of their offices and down onto the streets, so that we can then show them the way of the Wocky with a toastie or two.

This is the kind of market that could go either way. We have seen similar models work in Birmingham with great success, check out Brindleyplace market on the last Friday of the month and you will see office workers in their thousands pour out of unassuming large corporate tower blocks to grab a cheeky curry on the street. Even the New Street market, slow burner though it was, has picked up since more hot food has been added, making it a growing lunch time destination.

In a ideal world my army of well trained but badly unionised monkeys would already be out flyering around town to drum up support, but until we change our rules on working hours for simians that just isn’t going to happen. Instead I’m working on the cut-out-and-keep policy. Here is a flyer I have assembled. If you could just snip it out and pin it in a public place or treasure and share it with a friend then that would be great. Perhaps print it out before you try the snipping.

Meanwhile I hope you have a magnificent week. I’ve caught up on sleep and I’m thoroughly at one with the universe and ready give Leamington a sound toasting.