Sketch, the remarkable Mayfair gastronomic destination created by Pierre Gagnaire and Mourad Mazouz, will launch a ‘pop-up’ café at the Royal Academy of Arts for two months to coincide with the groundbreaking exhibition, GSK Contemporary, Earth: Art of a changing world, which opens on 3 December 2009.
Located adjacent to the exhibition inside 6 Burlington Gardens, with additional space outdoors under the Portico on Burlington Gardens, Sketch at the Royal Academy will complement the exhibition’s theme of the artistic response to the climate change debate, reducing unnecessary food miles and adopting a sustainable philosophy throughout the design and operation of the café.
Conceived by master chef Pierre Gagnaire, the menu will evolve throughout the day and will incorporate the very best local English products, prepared with French flair. In the morning, the selection will include granola and yoghurt, sandwiches and Viennoiserie (croissants, pain au chocolat, mini muffins, financiers). Then, from midday, throughout the afternoon, there will be an array of tartlets and quiche, soup, cheese, healthy and exotic salads, pâté and rillettes, and tempting desserts (tartes, scones, mince pies, lunettes). An impressive range of pastries and cakes will be displayed on cake stands at the counter, and bags of homemade sweets (salted caramel, tablets of chocolate and hazelnut, macaroons, and organic crisps) will also be offered. The cakes and pastries can also be boxed for takeaway treats.
There will be a ‘grab and go’ area for takeaway, whether to enjoy inside, outdoors under the Portico, or off-site. In total, there will be seated space for up to 70 at any one time. All of the packaging is either recyclable or from recycled materials. The furniture will also be sustainably sourced, including 100% recycled heavy-duty cardboard tables and chairs, some of which will be painted by children from Sketch’s adopted charity, Kids Company.
Located at the Burlington Gardens entrance of the Royal Academy, the paved area of the Portico will feature an Oyster Bar, offering a range of freshly shucked native oysters, in addition to smoked salmon and sardines, as well as a Crêperie featuring both sweet and savoury freshly-made crêpes.
Offering an extra level of comfort under the Portico, Sketch will provide handmade patchwork rugs and hot water bottles.
The range of drinks will be diverse but will retain a healthy, local provenance or sustainable story wherever possible. Pommery has produced an exclusive, limited production of Champagne POP Earth, available in 75cl bottles. The Champagne is made from grapes from sustainable viticulture and is presented in a 100% recyclable lighter bottle with recycled label printed with water-soluble ink. Also on offer will be red and white wine, bottled beer (sourced from a London micro-brewery), and organic juices, homemade lemonade, ginger beer and Belù mineral water (where a percentage of its profits go to water charities).
Mark Lawson Bell, whose clients have included Bloomberg, Pringle and Swarovski, has been the Artistic Director of Sketch since its opening. His description of Sketch as a ‘mosaic of experience’ was the inspiration for his playful and thought-provoking design of the Sketch café at the Royal Academy.
Sketch at the Royal Academy will be open during gallery hours: Saturday – Thursday: 10am – 6pm Friday: 10am – 10pm
Tags: Bloomberg, Earth: Art of a changing world, GSK Contemporary, Mark Lawson Bell, Pommery, POP Earth, Pringle, ROYAL ACADEMY, SKETCH, Swarovski
