Street Feast's Dinerama to reopen on Friday for what may be its 'last days'

Street Feast’s Dinerama in Shoreditch to set to reopen on Friday for a summer run until the end of September in what may be the venue’s “last days”.

Jonathan Downey, chief executive of London Union, which runs Street Feast food markets Dinerama, Giant Robot, Model Market and Hawker House, told The Caterer that the future of Dinerama would depend on whether a deal could be reached with the landlord.

Dinerama will operate for approximately 20 nights on Fridays and Saturdays and may also “do the odd Thursday” night, too, depending on demand. The entrance charge – £3 after 7pm – will be waived, despite Downey saying it had previously been a good revenue earner.

Downey is anticipating it will achieve 30%-50% of the venue's normal revenue, with capacity reduced to 600 visitors instead of the usual 1,000.

Aiming to make the most of the dry weather forecast for this weekend, the venue, which is mostly outdoors, will operate with seven instead of the usual 10 traders who, said Downey, are “definitely super up for it”.

“They’re the best part of it, plus our management team too who are all ready to go. It’s been quite hectic – we’re only two days a week and we’re not expecting it to be super busy.

“We’ve had a bit more time than everyone else – hats off to anyone who reopened on 4 July with less than 10 days’ notice.”

Also opening this weekend is Soho cocktail bar Milk & Honey, also run by Downey, which will operate on Thursday to Saturday for 10 weeks, after which time Downey was doubtful of reaching a new rental agreement with the landlord. He said he had decided to “make the most of it and say farewell”.

His other London food market venues will remain closed for the foreseeable future, though he was hopeful that Giant Robot in Canary Wharf may reopen from September if there is more footfall from workers returning to nearby offices.

For Model Market in Lewisham, he said that it was such a small space that it “just wasn’t worth” reopening this year.

Press pause: Jonathan Downey and the National Time Out campaign >>