A pop up café unlike any other will be taking up residency in Cambridge on 3rd May, promising an experience that’s not just arty: it’s Art.

Hunt & Darton is a fully functioning café that aims to combine art and everyday life to create a social and artistic hub where the usually mundane activity of going to a cafe becomes a performance: from the waiters to the writing on the blackboard – and via the spoons – everything is part of the show.

Hunt & Darton Café was first launched in Cambridge two years ago on Regent Street, where the originality of the premise proved immensely popular, with patrons coming back again and again for coffee, lunch and artistic appreciation.

The café subsequently travelled up to the Fringe, gaining the rarely bestowed honour of being ‘truly alternative’, standing out against a sea of comedy and Shakespeare to win the 2012 Three Week Editor Award.

Hunt & Darton are a live art collaboration between between Jenny Hunt and Holly Darton, who met at Central Saint Martins and have been working together for seven years, employing a broadly sculptural approach, often creating installations that they can perform in.

Their inspiration is a desire to celebrate and explore the anxieties that surround life choices, particularly for women in today’s Britain. The result is deadpan, and often absurd: where else would you find a café that has themed DIY days where customers are encouraged to serve one another?

They told Varsity: “We are excited to be returning to Cambridge, the birthplace of Hunt & Darton Cafe and meeting up with local loyal customers who supported us back in 2012.” This time around, new and old customers can expect new jigsaws and will reap the benefits of the unusual flavours that will come out of their newly purchased ice cream maker.

The input of other live art performers is central to the project, particularly when it comes to the waiters, who create their own performances as they serve. Guest waiters will include the all female, five piece performance company Figs in Wigs, duo Clerke and Joy, whose previous work include a cabaret act starring Georgina and Cassidy from the Hemel Hempstead under-16s Synchronised Swimming Squad, and performance artists Brian Lobel and Scottee. What ‘waiter’ comes to mean during the project will be testament to the degree of interaction and spontaneity the project encourages.

Hunt & Darton is being run in collaboration with Cambridge Junction and will be supported by Cambridge Eat, a two-week culinary festival celebrating local independent producers.

The food on offer will encompass the variety that Cambridgeshire has to offer, while staying true to the café’s origins of Battenberg cake and its now legendary roast dinner sandwich. Other highlights for the festival are set to include
a Mad Hatter’s tea party and a secret supper club.

Hunt & Darton will be open 3rd May until 31 May, Wed-Sun 10am – 5pm at 36 Bridge Street.