Cairo Food Week’s Reem Khamis and Akram Lotfy host intimate breakfast pop-ups, so they’re taking some time out for ‘The Early Birds Club’
For seasoned culinary professionals, the clock never stops ticking. With international events to cater, lavish dinners to host, and businesses to run, time is becoming a scarce commodity. So why did two major players in Cairo’s culinary scene decide to cut a few corners in their schedules to accommodate a breakfast pop-up? Well, it seems the answers are plentiful.
Founded in December 2023 by food consultant, kitchen manager, and founder of Egyptian sauce brand Tafeeda, Akram Lotfy, and chutney alchemist, food journalist, and chef Reem Khamis, The Early Birds Club is a series of intimate breakfast pop-ups held in Cairo. But these pop-up breakfasts represent more than just a sideline for their hosts, they become “a creative outlet that is not bound by setlists and requirements,” co-founder Reem Khamis tells SceneEats.
The Early Birds Club pop-ups serve a changing selection of menu items based on the seasonality of the ingredients, but the core of the menu operates by a very simple set of rules: fast, casual, healthy and delicious. A few permanent items on the menu include the ‘Egyptian Sando’, which features a variety of traditional Egyptian breakfast staples (think a combination of aubergine, creamy cheese and chips – with the occasional drizzle of kimchi for that extra bite), and the Brekkie Taco – Akram Lotfy’s proud creation, which consists of Egyptian sausage, fried eggs, salsa and whatever vegetables are available that day.
But when it comes to the rest of the menu, things aren’t set in stone…
“The beauty of this menu is that there is no obligation on us or the consumer,” Khamis tells us. “We post the menu on the day of the pop-up, so you know what you’re getting when you get it.”
The menu is seasonal, which allowed the duo to unleash their creativity, which they didn’t have time for in the stoic and pre-planned atmosphere of a professional environment.
Lotfy and Khamis found solace in the spontaneity and creativity of The Early Birds Club. “Most events that people in the industry put on are dinner-centric and there’s an unspoken obligation that you have to be there for the entire event,” Khamis explains. “That’s not something people want to have to commit to every time they go out. With breakfast, there’s an opportunity for a more casual, come-and-go-whenever experience,” Lotfy adds.
With four pop-ups under their belt so far, Khamis and Lotfy continue to experiment. In partnership with Brix, Cairo’s specialty mocktail purveyor, The Early Birds Club also offers a variety of seasonal beers to complement the daily menu.
“Time really does fly when we do a pop-up, the day could be over and we’d be wondering how that happened so quickly,” Lotfy shares. While their next pop-up has yet to be planned, Lotfy and Khamis are teasing “big things for the summer” as they continue to experiment with new recipes.
“We have many different roles and we wouldn’t want it any other way,” says Lotfy.
All things considered, we can’t help but wonder, do we have the same 24 hours in the day? Well, we’ll never know.
