Mike’s Table X Headway EATS
About the event
Our friendship with Headway East London dates back to the beginning of Mike’s Table, making this collaboration particularly special. Headway East London supports people living with brain injury in East and North East London. In recent years, they’ve hosted their own Supper Club series, Headway EATS, led by members of their community.
We welcomed 46 guests in Headway East London’s beautiful canal-side home – a wonderful mix of Mike’s Table guests, both old faces and new, Headway members, and friends and family. Keith and Marcus from Headway teamed up with the Mike’s Table Front-of-House team to create the perfect setting for guests, and ensure that everyone felt welcome and comfortable. From the moment guests arrived, they were greeted in true Mike’s Table style, before being led to the canal-side garden for a welcome drink and snacks. This setting gave everyone a chance to make connections before settling down for dinner.
The evening was a collaboration in every sense! Our Kitchen and Front-of-House teams joined forces to bring both communities together. As many of you know, City Harvest donates surplus food ingredients that would otherwise go to waste, and our chefs usually design a spontaneous menu on the night. Meanwhile, Headway East’s kitchen team plans their Supper Clubs in advance for guests to ensure everything runs smoothly on the night. For this event, they were keen to switch things up and try out our approach, and they delivered flawlessly! All afternoon, the team worked hard in the kitchen to prepare a delicious feast.
Keith, a Headway East London member, had planned to play records for guests, but sadly he couldn’t join us on the night. In his place, his support worker Zuber played some of Keith’s favourite records.
Candles were lit and guests were led to beautifully set tables. Conversation flowed as main courses were served. Later in the evening, we were treated to a musical performance by Kai on the fiddle and James on guitar. Of course, no Mike’s Table is complete without a free raffle. This time, we had some generous donations from Rio Cinema, Young Vic Theatre, and Headway, including tickets to A Face in the Crowd, a goody bag of Headway merchandise featuring artwork by members, and cinema tickets. For dessert, the Kitchen team worked their magic once again, serving up a delicious bread and butter pudding with ice cream. After a long day of hard work, both the Kitchen and Front-of-House teams joined guests at the table to share a well-deserved meal together, finishing off an unforgettable evening.
Georgie, a local curator, videographer, and friend of Mike’s Table, generously created a video from her photographs to showcase the highlights of the event….
Thank you to our dedicated team of volunteers! Also, a big thank you to everyone who joined us at our Mike’s Table X Headway EATS Supper Club! We look forward to welcoming you again soon.
The Menu
Thank you to our friends at City Harvest, who donated a wonderful range of unique, high-quality ingredients for our chefs to craft a delicious meal. The food is always within its use-by date and would otherwise be thrown away. Here’s the menu from the night…
The Team
Kitchen: Dave, Freddy, Jackie, Craig, Thomas, Andi, Simon and Alan
Front of House: Keith E, Marcus, Louise, Fran, Evelyn, Elisa, Rosie and Meggie
Videography: Georgie Worth
Music: Zuber, Kai and James
Our Partners
As ever, we couldn’t do it without you:
Accumulate Carers Network Compassionate Neighbours
Prisoners Aboard Room to Heal Nova New Opportunities
Many thanks to our Food & Drink Donors:
City Harvest Uncharted Wines
Many thanks to our Raffle Donors:
Rio Cinema Young Vic Theatre Headway East London
Kind words from our guests
“A big THANK YOU to Louise and all the volunteers for a great evening on Friday. Great food, awesome company, great atmosphere: all in all a wonderful time. Really, really enjoyed it.”
“Amazing food - THAT guacamole is still on my mind! Engaging, warm and kind company. Delighful DJ and live music. We appreciate all of the hard work that went into making the evening so fantastic. And winning in the raffle was the sparkler in the icing on the fabulous 'cake' or bread and butter pudding!”
