UP Box Launching in London

A FOOD outlet with a novel meal-in-a-box concept is opening in London at the end of April.

UP Box (Urban Picnic Box) will be a breakfast and lunch take-out site, with balanced meals served bento-style, and featuring quality seasonal ingredients and environmentally friendly packaging.

Nick and Ines Alfille, the pair behind outside catering company Up and Out, plan to roll out the UP Box concept, with an individual twist to each new site. Robert Tonge, an experienced chef who has worked all over the world, will head the central kitchen.

The boxes will cost £6 each, and despite being themed on the cuisines of 12 countries including France, Lebanon, Mexico, Morocco and Italy, the ingredients will be sourced in Britain where possible.

There will be a choice of only five freshly prepared completely degradable boxes each day, and the morally-responsible company will offer incentives for people to re-use it bags.

The weekly changing meals will include: Harissa and lemon marinated chicken with burghul, cashew and pistachio salad, served with pomegranate dressing; Spanish tortilla with slow cooked onions and potato served with Pata Negra Serrano ham and a salad of green and broad beans and peas with lemon and olive oil dressing or Turkish baked aubergine and tomato with courgette, feta and mint patties served with borlotti and green bean salad with oregano, lemon and freshly baked Gails bread.

Will White Design Consultants have created the Ludgate Circus shop, giving it a light, sleek interior using natural materials like smoked oak flooring, atmospheric lighting and a contrasting Yves Klein blue panelling counter.