A frozen-noodle brand planned to give away four dishes for six hours, the latest brand stunt in a part of London that has become a test kitchen for them.
LONDON, England (Ditch Pitch) – There is a theory that you can tell what a neighbourhood is worth by what brands will give away in it for free. By that measure Shoreditch is doing very nicely. A supermarket noodle brand called Kitchen Joy chose Kingsland Road for its first ever pop-up, planned a free lunch for six hours and left the rest of us to wonder what a frozen noodle is doing with a street address.
The facts of the free lunch
According to Hot Dinners’ report on the Kitchen Joy pop-up, the brand makes frozen noodles for supermarkets and was setting up at 1 Kingsland Road, E2 8AA, from 12pm to 6pm on 22 October. The food was free and grab-and-go, and it was the first pop-up the brand had run. Four dishes were on offer: Crispy Chilli Oil Biang Biang Noodles, Khao Soi Chicken Noodles, Garlic and Soy Prawn Wonton Noodles, and Chicken Pho Noodles. Further details were promised through the brand’s Instagram account.
That is all the reporting I could find. The pop-up has now been and gone, and I have not seen anyone report on how long the queue was, how many portions went out, or whether the khao soi lived up to the billing. So this column is about the idea rather than the food, which is a strange thing to say about noodles.
For some context on the brand, trade title The Grocer has run a piece headlined Kitchen Joy debuts noodle shop frozen ready meal range. I could not open the page, so I am going on the headline alone: it suggests a frozen ready-meal line sold under a noodle-shop banner, which would explain why a street-level pop-up was a natural way to introduce it.
Shoreditch, the test kitchen
The pop-up is the latest in a long run. Hot Dinners’ Shoreditch news archive shows how common they have become this year, going by the headlines alone. In April it reported that Vincenzo’s in Shoreditch was teaming up with Heinz to become Ranchenzo’s. In May there was a Magnum and Roll Boys bakery that opened for 48 hours only, and a Star Wars-themed cafe. In September it noted that McDonald’s was popping up with a butcher’s counter in Shoreditch where visitors could make their own burgers.
I should be clear that I am working from the headlines for those, not from the full stories, and I make no claim about how any of them went. But the pattern is hard to miss. A food or drink brand with a product to promote seems to look at a map of London, put a finger on Shoreditch and say: here, please.
Why here, and who benefits
The reasons are easy to guess, though I should stress that these are my guesses and not findings. The area is full of people who photograph their lunch, which is useful if you want a product to appear on a lot of phones in a short time. It is full of young, curious customers, which suits a first-time product. And it has plenty of short-term space, which suits a stunt that lasts a weekend.
Whether the neighbourhood benefits is a fairer question. A free pop-up brings footfall, and footfall is good for the shops and cafes around it, in theory. It also adds to the sense that Shoreditch is a stage set for marketing rather than a place where people live. Both views have some truth, and I have not found local reporting that tests either one for this particular pop-up. If you live nearby and have an opinion, the people who would most like to hear it are the council and the brands.
How to read a freebie
The cynic’s rule is that if it is free, you are part of the advertising. The generous reading is that sampling is how new food has always been sold, and a free bowl of noodles is a friendlier introduction than a banner ad. I lean towards the second, with one caveat: a brand that gives away lunch for six hours and then disappears has not committed to the street in any lasting way. That is not a criticism, since a pop-up is meant to be brief, but it is worth remembering when the next one asks for your photograph in return for a bowl of something warm.
Where the jokes go
I write for The London Prat, where a frozen-noodle brand opening a street-level shop would be an easy target. For readers who want the comedy side of London life, there is British humor news to browse, and the London Prat’s comedy archive is a handy starting point. Bohiney Magazine is the place for the louder jokes about brand stunts, and if you want to understand the capital’s own habit of renaming things, a Cockney rhyming slang explainer is a fun way in.
The wider point is simple. Shoreditch is still where brands come to test what the public will queue for, and it is worth knowing that when the next free thing appears on a street corner. You can find more of my Shoreditch reporting at The London Prat, and I will keep an eye on the next stunt that lands on a Shoreditch street corner, because there will be another.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/