The Weekly Special: New-school pop-up at cult wine bar, and a legendary Scot visits WA

When Glenn McCue and his Taiwanese wife Li Ping first met daughter Isabel via ultrasound, doctors said Isabel was the size of a jujube.

Which is how the name of McCue’s pop-up – Jujube Dining – was established, ditto its focus on Taiwanese flavours.

The other half of Jujube’s identity, meanwhile, is tied to Irish-born McCue’s experience cooking Mediterranean flavours at kitchens across Perth.

The result is, to paraphrase McCue, food that’s “Taiwanese leaning with a lot of Italian and Mediterranean influences or vice versa.”

Think whipped white beans topped with smashed cucumbers seasoned with a Sichuan and doubanjiang (fermented tofu) oil, finished with coriander and cheese from Gingin goats milk producer, The Local Goat.

“I really want to get the word out about Taiwanese food, even if none of my dishes are traditional,” says McCue.

You can catch McCue this week at Beaconsfield Wine Bar where he’ll be cooking Thursday till Sunday (August 14 to 17).

Birthday celebrations, Besk-style

Since opening in 2019, West Leederville tavern and bottle shop Besk has prided itself on offering guests top-shelf drinks.

So when it comes time to mark Besk’s sixth birthday, it’s understandable that producers would be front and centre.

This Saturday (August 16) between 11am and 1pm, team Besk is inviting some of its favourite beer, wine and spirit makers to Railway Parade for a free – free! – tasting.

In total, more than 100 products will be available for sampling with names such as Chouette, Ochota Barrels, Saison Aperitifs and Found Brewing in attendance.

A pop-up West African fine-diner returns for round two

When Brian Cole, the Sierra Leone-born head chef of Hearth at the Ritz-Carlton Perth, announced he was staging a West African pop-up at Highgate’s Twenty Seats, eaters quickly snapped up tickets to his two July dinners.

Buoyed by this enthusiastic response as well as a growing local interest in African flavours, Cole will once again be popping up at Twenty Seats with every Monday in September set aside for Cole to reimagine dishes and flavours from his homeland.

Keep an eye out on Twenty Seats’ booking page for tickets to drop.

Il Locale introduces $22 pricing on all its pizzas

Complicated pizza loyalty programs, inflated margins and “premium pizza taxes”: just three of the things that Il Locale founder Mat Bourget says no to, as well as three reasons why Bourget has adopted $22 flat-rate pricing on every pizza at every one of his six Il Locale outposts, every day of the week.

“There’s no guessing, no bait-and-switch and no awkward moment deciding if you can afford the ‘good’ one,” says Bourget who is preparing to start Il Locale’s national roll-out.

“You walk in, order whatever you want, and walk out with change from a fifty. That’s value people remember.”

The $22 pricing is only available when ordering direct for pick-up or delivery and applies to every Il Locale sourdough pizza, from a classic margherita to something with more exxy ingredients.

Foxtrot Unicorn invites you to a night with Ardbeg

Ardbeg, one of the most well-known producers from the Islay region in Scotland, is coming to underground basement watering hole Foxtrot Unicorn – WA’s sole Ardbeg Embassy venue – for one night only.

The good times take place on Thursday August 21 and features some of the rarest and most idiosyncratic Ardbeg bottlings that are usually only offered to Ardbeg Embassy members.

These hard-to-find whiskies will be served alongside a menu of share plates prepared by young gun Blaze Young and guests will also enjoy discounted prices on bottles purchased on the night. Tickets are $260 per person and available online.