City Grocery Hosts Third-Annual 'Big Bad Pop-Ups' Series To Benefit University Of Mississippi Medical Center Children's Hospital Fund

Beginning Monday, January 19, the third-annual "Big Bad Pop-Ups" dinner series hosted by City Grocery returns to benefit the University of Mississippi Medical Center, which is currently fundraising to expand its children hospital.

Prominent Southern chefs including Memphis' Kelly English and Atlanta's Vishwesh Bhatt and Asha Gomez will prepare 10- to 12-piece menus tailored to a certain theme.

This year's dinner themes are: the "Sleepy Dragon Project," "Mumbai, Mississippi," "Second Line 662," and "The 132-Foot Journey." Plates will be small and low-priced so that pop-up guests can taste a little of everything.

Each dinner in the pop-up series will be hosted over two nights, Monday and Tuesday, during the last two weeks of February and the first two weeks of February. All events will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Specially designed cocktails and punches, as well as some small bites, will be served at the City Grocery bar for guests as they wait.

"The Med Center is a tremendous resource for the state and providing for the health and well-being of our children could not be more critical," says City Grocery's chef John Currence. "We could not be more proud to contribute something to this project."

The dinner schedule is as follows:

  • Monday-Tuesday, January 19-20 

The "Sleepy Dragon Project": City Grocery Restaurant Group previews an American-Chinese menu they have been toying with.

  • Monday-Tuesday, January 26-27  

"Mumbai, Mississippi": Chefs Vishwesh Bhatt and Asha Gomez, of Atlanta, make Southern-influenced Indian street food.

  • Monday-Tuesday, February 2-3 

"Second Line 662":Chef Kelly English previews dishes from his Oxford location of Second Line, set to open late Spring 2015.

  • Monday-Tuesday, February 9-10 

 "The 132-Foot Journey": City Grocery welcomes neighbor and friend Corbin Evans of the Oxford Canteen for a taste of North Mississippi "Alley Food."