National favourite: the two sandwiches on offer will be the famous Bifana, left, and an octopus roll
(Picture: Milo Brown)Hit Portuguese restaurant Bar Douro will launch a new spin-off pop-up later this week at its Flat Iron Square home.
Inspired by Bar Douro founder Max Graham’s love of Portuguese street food – a love borne from his childhood in Porto – new venture Roulote shares its name with the food trailers that park up on street corners in Lisbon. Graham’s version will offer two classic Portuguese sandwiches for takeaway, alongside non-alcoholic lager from Free Star. It will open on Saturday March 13, and then every Friday and Saturday from noon till 4pm.
Roulote’s star dish will Graham’s take on a Bifana, a classic sandwich from Vendas Novas, an area just east of Lisbon. Sometimes considered one of the country’s national dishes, the sandwich sees thin slices of pork poached in a white wine and fermented pepper sauce, then slathered with a mayonnaise made using savora mustard, a style of mustard that’s reminiscent of piccalilli.
The second of the two will be a octopus roll, stuffed with octopus, red pepper, caramelised onions, straw potato crisps and topped with piri-piri mayonnaise, which Graham says offers a taste of street food hot dogs known as cachorros.
To launch the project, Roulote will offer 50 per cent off both sandwiches and the beer this Saturday. The pop-up is expected to pop down on April 10, but Graham says he hopes to launch the project as a freestanding venture in its own van from this summer.
