Y
ork Mews may not be familiar to many Londoners, let alone even die-hard locals, but it’s a fetchingly cobbled passage tucked away just opposite Kentish Town Station. If you venture all the way up to the end, you’ll find the able Jason Winther in his specially converted van, serving up BBQ sarnies with bite.
Jason used to be a chef at the much praised but under-used Italian Pane Vino, on the site now occupied by Beef & Brew. Since that closed down, he’s been touring his curiously named Dank Van around festivals and streetfood markets, but was not a fan of all the associated risks, challenges and fees.
“I live right here on the Mews,” he says, “so I thought, why not just open up on the doorstep?” Last year he started doing just that every weekday lunchtime, with no more than a high street chalk board to let people know. His speciality is the food of his youth: a simple menu of three sandwich choices, each filled with smoky BBQ meats, topped with authentic mayo-free Carolina slaw. This year there’s inevitably a vegan version made using jackfruit. And it’s delicious.
But what’s with the name? His Dank Van is in fact quite the opposite, with its special paint finish, gold logo and custom fitted kitchen hatch, complete with impressive chunky white corral work surfaces. “Where I’m from, ‘dank’ is street slang that went from meaning ‘the strongest type of cannabis’ to becoming a catchall way to describe anything that was really good, or strong.”
Rather like this setting – at a put-you-up table under fluttering bunting at the end of a cobbled mews – nothing is quite as expected. And it’s all the better for it.
