Former Axminster restaurateur launches pop-up dining event to support local producers

Former Axminster chef and restaurateur Gideon Hitchin will be running a pop-up dining event near Honiton next month.

The past 12 months have been especially challenging for restaurants and pubs in the Lyme Bay and East Devon area, and Gideon has responded by creating a pop-up restaurant at a wildflower farm in Stockland, near Honiton, for the whole of June.

Gideon sold his popular Axminster restaurant The Giant Club in September of last year, in the middle of lockdown, and now feels the time is right to reconnect with customers old and new for a celebration of COVID restrictions being eased as summer begins.

His latest project 'Breathe at Goren' is a series of pop-up dining events every Thursday to Saturday evening in June at Goren Farm, near Stockland.

The menu will be six courses of 'hyper-local' food which all comes from the surrounding area, as well as drinks from local companies like Dalwood Vineyard, which is on a neighbouring farm. 

The events start with guests meeting for a cocktail and a canapé before taking a leisurely stroll round the nature trail.

Then everyone will be seated in a comfortable converted barn with a view across the meadows of the farm and the Corry Valley. Vegetarians and vegans are to be catered for with their own six-course menu on offer, as well as a meaty one.

Goren Farm, which is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, hosts its own events throughout the year and has a bell tent campsite for June, providing accommodation for diners or just people wanting to spend a few nights under the stars.

'Breathe at Goren' will take place between June 3 and 27. Tickets and all information for the events can be found at giantclub.co.uk