Strengthening the platform and securing KERB's future by both barnacling and going back to our roots.

In the final episode of our 10th birthday podcast series, we show how we have emerged from the pandemic more determined than ever to keep building a KERB that is robust enough to be around for another 10 years, whatever comes our way. We have partnered with larger entities and grown bigger than we’d ever imagined in the process - requiring a whole new level of professionalism. 

But through all the growing up and doing away of our ‘small business mentality’, we have doubled down on the elements of KERB that make us, us - committing to our roots of nurturing food entrepreneurs and creating opportunities for talented people to thrive in the ever shifting hospitality industry.

Here we move out of the wild abandon of start up energy and learn on the hoof about what works and what doesn’t. As ‘street food’ continues to establish itself, larger opportunities present themselves - with hundreds of thousands of KERB dishes sold in ever more unexpected places - but not without some bumps and bruises along the way!

Patience, resilience and “controlling our own stoicism” is the name of the game as we pursue more control of our offer, more security for KERB's traders, and continue to dance the line between our landlords needs and our own as we seek a space of our own.

Ft. Thom, Pizza Pilgrims / Zan, Bleecker / Alec, Baba G’s / Mark Fleisch Mob (now Tommy’s Pizzeria) / Betsy, You Doughnut (Betsy Buckner) / Jez, The Bowler / Simon Mitchell / Petra Barran / Rob Machin / Millie Buckle / Lianna Martin / Gemma Bell / Theo Houston / James Brookes / Tom Browne, Decatur

It was bao buns, carnitas burritos, green chilli cheeseburgers, pork-fat fried schnitzel sandwiches, Holy Fuck slathred rib rolls and warm caramel drenched doughnuts – all helping to turn lunchtimes and then night times on their heads.

But how long can it all last?

Featuring Thom, Pizza Pilgrims / Zan, Bleecker / Alec, Baba G’s / Mark Fleisch Mob (now Tommy’s Pizzeria) / Betsy, You Doughnut (Betsy Buckner) / Jez, The Bowler / The Rib Man / Dom Cools / Simon Mitchell / Petra Barran / Rob Machin / Millie Buckle / Ollie Hunter / Lianna Martin / KS Ate Here / Gemma Bell / Prabha Rathinasabathy

When selling jollof on the streets is your life but the opportunities to sell jollof on the streets continue to be reduced, what do you do? How do you adapt? And what are the opportunities emerging out of all this difficulty? Jollof Mama's Tieyan Eweka fills me in...

Reopening at Seven Dials Market, launching his first standalone site in Soho, packing away the meal kits (only to be plotting the secret next level of the meal kit), all while contending with hospitality curfews and a gutted central London, Tom Bickers' head is getting a bit done in, though his game face remains on point as he bikes around London, ensuring Truffle's survival...

Twenty minutes in the life of Seven Dials Market from the inside and what the hell are we going to do if we are once again forced to close - but this time with no support? From a deck chair in Hyde Park, Simon Mitchell and I mull over our options, so many of them sitting on uncertain ground... 

Fresh from his first weekend off in months, Only Jerkin's Luke Dawes is breaking back onto the streets and the festival circuit, albeit of a whole different texture and with a lot less dancing allowed...

Inside the world of the food writer and recipe developer, Melissa Thompson who refused to stay silent about racism in her life and industry anymore. here we are catching up on virtue signalling, representation and the triumph of the setting coconut custard...

Just on the verge of opening her first stand alone site in Soho, lockdown curtailed her plans and sent Meriel on a different path towards feeding the NHS. Now that she has finally been able to get back to Club Mexicana I go and visit her to catch up on where she is with it all.

Here I am with JD at his house in Dalston, catching up with him as he prepares to head off on a vision quest to work out what we do about all this f**kry.