London’s favourite purveyor of Taiwanese food, BAO London, is partnering with Dover Street Market (DSM) to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. The pop-up kiosk inside DSM’s London flagship runs until 11 February 2024 and features signature BAO baked goods, exclusive DSM x BAO products, and a one-of-a-kind installation.
Dover Street Market x BAO pop-up
BAO began in 2015, when three friends, Shing Tat Chung, Erchen Chang and Wai Ting Chung (all who were under 30 at the time) decided to open a restaurant in Soho, following the wild success of their bao bun food stall in Hackney.
The restaurant was an instant success, with people lining up to get a taste of their pillowy buns stuffed with delectable fillings (fried chicken, braised pork, battered daikon) and served in a picture-perfect, wood-panelled space. Flash forward to 2024 and the ‘BAOverse’ has expanded to include eight restaurants, an in-house interior design studio, and its own line of alcoholic drinks, tableware (plus a nakiri knife with Allday Goods), and sauces.
Each of BAO’s restaurants has a different focus (Shoreditch is a noodle shop, Bao Mary in Marylebone is a dumpling house) but they all maintain the original ethos of the brand – serving exceptional Taiwanese food in well-designed, casual spaces.
Every year, BAO does something special to celebrate Lunar New Year, and this year will see the cult restaurant group partnering with fellow cult outlets Carhartt WIP and DSM for the holiday. At a pop-up stall in DSM, BAO will sell Carhartt designed T-shirts featuring BAO’s signature Lonely Man illustration with a special curving dragon tattoo across his back. There will also be bags, shoes and hats designed in partnership with Simone Rocha, SHUSHU/TONG and Deathmask, alongside exclusive, BAO-designed merch that includes sweatshirts, umbrellas decorated with men bouncing bao buns, limited-edition dragon baseball caps, Year of the Dragon wall calendars and a custom-made engraved Dragon Zippo lighter.
Visitors to the pop-up can also purchase cupboard items from the restaurant’s online convenience store, such as its signature house sauces, Emergency Noodles, Weeping Sake, Oolong Gin and Umeshu Negroni.
BAO will also be hosting a number of exciting events online and in its eight restaurant locations. These kick off with a giveaway of Classic Bao bun on 5 February at 11am, with hundreds of traditional buns, stuffed with 12-hour braised pork, fermented greens and peanut powder, will be given out for free in celebration of the year ahead.
Its traditional Lucky Red Envelopes will also make a reappearance, giving customers the chance to win anything from a free bubble milk tea to a year of the BAO on the house. And finally, a big win for BAO aficionados will be the limited-edition run of its Made By You boxes, which were launched in lockdown as a way for customers to recreate their favourite BAO dishes from home.
Speaking about the various celebratory activities, co-founder and creative director Erchen Chang says, ‘Lunar New Year is always an exciting time at BAO, stemming from our childhood new years in Taiwan when we would peep inside red envelopes to see which relatives were being generous! This year, we’re looking forward to spreading prosperity for the Year of the Dragon by encouraging everyone to “eat gua BAO for good luck”, whether that’s in our Classic BAOgiveaway or by booking a feasting menu in one of our private dining rooms.’
The pop-up kiosk runs from 25 January to 11 February inside Dover Street’s London flagship
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