1 | For Dining With Friends: Morito Hackney Road
Husband and wife team Sam and Sam Clark have recently opened a Hackney site offering their moreish tapas-style food based on their travels throughout North Africa and Spain. Their original Exmouth Market restaurant, Moro, has been known and loved for nearly 20 years, alongside it's little sister Morito, which opened in 2010. Now expanding, their new airy restaurant features a vast marble bar at its centre, reminiscent of tavernas you'd find on holiday. Expect warm flavours with a hint of spice and dishes that – we will warn you – can't always be consumed gracefully. Try the Citir (crispy flatbread with spring vegetables and Turkish goat's cheese) and the cheese fritters coated in crunchy sesame seeds and drizzled with utterly delectable Cretan thyme honey. Of the larger dishes, the grilled octopus with fava puree gets people seriously excited. Team with one of their excellent sherries.
195 Hackney Road, London, E2 8JL; moritohackneyroad.co.uk
2 | For Summertime G&Ts: World Gin Day & Negroni Week
As if you needed an excuse, this Saturday is World Gin Day. At the least, this should mean a cursory G&T in the garden but if you're feeling sociable, Fever-Tree tonic is hosting a pop-up from Thursday to Saturday on the Southbank, which will include masterclasses featuring their new pink tonic with a hint of Angostura. This all times rather nicely with Negroni Week, which runs until Sunday. Head to Anthony Demetre's latest opening, Osteria to sip on a trio of different Negronis that take you through the history of the drink, whilst taking in a prime view of the Barbican lakeside and munching on tasty Italian snacks.
Fever-Tree World Gin Day Pop-Up, 12pm – 9pm, 9 – 11 June; Riverside Grass (close to the National Theatre), Southbank, London, SE1 9PP
Negroni flights available 5 – 7pm throughout the summer at Osteria, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS; osterialondon.co.uk
3 | For Daytime Grazing: Fork to Fork Festival
A one-day pop-up festival will be taking place in Kensal Rise for the second year in a row, founded by Wahaca's Thomasina Miers and Caravan's Laura Harper-Hinton in aid of a charity project for the Open Air Classroom. They have gathered together a mega troupe of restaurants, which will each be serving dishes from their menus alongside a Prosecco bike, wine from Bibendum Wines, and beers from the Beavertown and Camden Town breweries. Restaurants in attendance will include The River Café (serving the fresh tomato soup 'pappa al pomodoro'), The Modern Pantry (mince and tatties), Lyle's (whiting and garlic mayo), Kitty Fisher's (beef bavette with anchovy and parsley), Hoppers (lamb kothu roti), plus shrimp burgers from Granger & Co and Marmite Royals from Club Gascon. And that's just naming a few.
Saturday 11 June, 12 – 6pm; tickets available here
ARK Franklin Primary Academy, Harvist Road, London, NW6 6HJ
4 | For Classy Ice Creams: Maison Pierre Marcolini
If you can catch one of those spells of sunshine we keep being promised, then reward yourself with the poshest of choc ices from chocolatier extraordinaire Pierre Marcolini. With a cult following round the world, Monsieur Marcolini has a knack for creating not just delicious chocolates but stylish ones to boot (note: they always make great presents for their panache alone). And now he has taken his favourite childhood summertime treat and made it really rather tasty. If you stop by his Marylebone store, you can mix-and-match at the ice cream counter between six flavours of ice cream and five melted coatings to dip them into. The ice creams are vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, mango, caramel and pecan, and the very modish Matcha tea. Toppings range from dark to milk to white chocolate, with variations including nuts, fruit, Matcha and so on. With 30 possible variations, this is a glutton's paradise.
Extra tip: Pierre's salted caramel truffles are now available in the UK for the first time. They've got a bite on the outside and molten liquid within, and will cheer up any bad day.
Bespoke Esquimau choc ices: £3.90 each
37 Marylebone High Street, London, W1U 4QE; uk.marcolini.com
5 | For Homely Southern Cuisine: The Deep South by Brad McDonald
The food of Southern America has shot into prominence over the past couple of years, the trend spawning fiendishly mouthwatering restaurants such as Mississippi-born Brad McDonald's The Lockhart (in Marylebone) and Shotgun (Soho). The chef has just released a cookbook named The Deep South that features the cuisine's most iconic dishes done "through a British lens". This means all sorts of cured meats, pickles, candied and smoked treats, pulled pork, lots of shellfish, even more cheese and a whole load of BBQ. Plus things you may never have heard of like chitlins, grits, tamales and goobers. It's a book that will have your stomach rumbling within seconds and is well worth a space on your shelf. But if you're feeling lazy, head to Shotgun where they'll do it for you: go for devilled quail eggs, then move onto generous servings of Iberico baby back ribs, or any one of the potato bun sandwiches.
Deep South by Brad McDonald, published by Quadrille, £25
Shotgun BBQ, 26 Kingly Street, London, W1B 5QD; shotgunbbq.com
