Pinboard: Kentish Town’s Dirty Burger opens down south

Brixton has its spruced-up chicken shop, Wishbone, and Borough’s new boozer The Miller has swanky chef duo Street Kitchen serving up posh hotdogs.

Now the paired-down – or “dirty” – food trend gets its next foothold in south London, as Dirty Burger crosses the river to open its second branch next week – under the arches in Vauxhall.

The Soho House-owned mini chain started satisfying north London’s meaty cravings from its inaugural restaurant – a corrugated iron shack in Kentish Town, round the back of Pizza East – this time last year.

Our sister site Kentishtowner covered the burger joint’s canny approach to opening day PR – basically, offering free patties to anyone who showed up – so we wonder what will Dirty Burger pull out of the grill for its Vauxhall launch? And, furthermore, what will south Londoners make of the expansion (which has gone the other way in the case of Honest Burger, which has a Camden Town branch)? Will it be it good or bad news for other local eateries, and for Vauxhall’s burgeoning food scene generally?

Southside foodie Jay Rayner may have fobbed off the dirty food fad as a cliché – but if the always-heaving northside version is anything to go by, we should expect cool young things jostling for space while gobbling burgers with meaty cheesy juice dribbling down their arms.

Dirty Burger, Vauxhall, Arch 54, 6 South Lambeth Road, SW8. Tel: 020 7074 1444 @dirtyburger

 Words: Sarah Fox (who’ll be at the launch next week – so watch this space for more news)