Pop-up restaurants and the rise of secret gastronomical societies

Editorial

The concept of pop-up restaurants has been around in Europe for over a decade but in Australia, it has just begun to gain traction in the last couple of years. Pop-up restaurants, as the name suggests, are just that - a restaurant that literally pops up over night and stays for a few days or weeks then disappears as quickly as it appeared. Their infrastructure consists of anything from shipping containers to recyclable materials.

There was some doubt as to whether this concept could work in Australia given our climatic conditions and food compliance standards but in the last two years, there are more of these type of restaurants popping up everywhere, making them quite a permanent dining experience. And no, the Bunning’s sausage sizzle does not qualify as a pop-up restaurant.

These restaurants rarely have a sizeable, permanent venue and when they do, it is often in a residential kitchen. In other words, it is too small to warrant a mention in any good food guide but small enough to be exclusive. Some believe that they are the modern day speakeasy born in the US during the Prohibition years.

Some pop-ups serve as an opportunity to showcase food and wine from specific regions around the world. A few examples of these include:

1) In September this year, Erskine Street in Sydney hosted a pop-up restaurant event for three days featuring cuisines from Burma and Sudan. The two countries were chosen because Australia receives the most refugees from them but very little is known about their culture.

2) In February, I wrote about Australia’s first Malaysian Kitchen Food Market, a pop up restaurant at the State Theatre Laneway in Sydney to promote Malaysian delicacies.

3) Wellington on a Plate hosted a pop up restaurant in Kings Cross last year with a goal to highlight the best of Wellington’s food scene. Four of Wellington’s chefs in residence took over the kitchen that lasted for two weeks and the menu reflected the seasonal nature of New Zealand’s top restaurants.

Other pop-ups started up small. Zingara cucina, a pop-up in Melbourne that started as a ‘friends entertaining friends’ in an apartment in 2004 has since become a permanent fixture. The venue is so exclusive it is a secret. The website, however, is not – zingaracucina.com. They call themselves ‘the wandering supper club, a nomadic restaurant, a unique and alternative dining experience’ and they serve traditional casalinga cuisine.

And then there are those that pop-up as a result of professional frustration. Transient diner in Sydney, an underground pop-up set up by an apprentice chef who felt stifled working in five-star kitchens, successfully revolutionised underground dining. This virtual restaurant pops up monthly and patrons who subscribe will get no information until the day of the dinner. The anonymous chef believes that the young chefs he employs to source the ingredients and theme the event ‘are the ones executing the signature dishes of Australia’s best restaurants…’

Whatever the reason, these not-so-secret gastronomical societies are proving that restaurant-quality food does not need to be served from a conventional restaurant model.

Alvin Quah for Citysearch, October 2011