D.C. restaurateurs got creative during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ghost kitchens gave chefs a chance to cook in another eatery’s kitchen and sell their to-go meals with no real restaurant of their own behind it.
Pop-up restaurants, though not a new concept — they’ve been around since the supper clubs of the 1960s — got a pandemic boost with chefs opening temporary restaurants inside another establishment. Even with harsh pandemic challenges for D.C. restaurants largely in the rearview mirror (though plenty of new challenges have emerged), pop-up restaurants remain popular.
“Pop-ups are still an opportunity to use some creative energy to do what you do and do it in a different location for a short period of time, or do something a little different than what you do at a new location where you can test a new concept or test a new menu item,” said D.C. restaurateur Mark Bucher, owner of Medium Rare.
Sometimes, those chefs are doing something completely different. A recent example is chef Dario Arana-Rojas, owner of Saoco Cuban Eats, at The Heights food hall in Chevy Chase. He recently set up shop inside chef Kevin Tien’s Hot Lola’s in Rosslyn, pivoting from Cuban sandwiches to brioche breakfast sandwiches and burritos with his pop-up EggSnob.
Pop-ups have gone from a lifeline for restauranteurs to a status symbol in D.C. And chefs are increasingly anxious to work together.
“Now, they are becoming more collaborations. It is like rap music right now,” Bucher said. “The big thing is collaborations when you get multiple rappers doing one song. Multiple restaurants and chefs are teaming up to do popups with collaborative menu items.”
This summer, chef Johnny Spero, of bar Spero and Michelin-starred Reverie, partnered with Van Leeuwen Ice Cream for an ice cream flavor (birch bark with raspberry jam) at Van Leeuwen’s new Union Market location.
In spring 2023, Centrolina chef and restaurateur Amy Brandwein launched a chef’s table with multi-course meals in collaboration with several other well-known D.C. chefs. Katsuya Fukushima, a two-time winner of Food Network’s Iron Chef and chef at D.C.’s Tonari, has partnered with Japanese and Italian restaurant pastaRAMEN in Montclair, New Jersey, on a collaboration concept.
Veteran Northern Virginia restaurateur Nick Freshman, whose Mothersauce Partners opened food hall Upside on Moore above the Rosslyn Metro earlier this year, says pop-ups offer a hedge, a low-risk way to stress test a concept. He sees them sticking around.
He also said pop-ups are a way to bring out-of-town restauranteurs to the D.C. area, where the cost of entry can be prohibitive, especially with international concepts.
“Our pitch to the landlord was that in addition to a permanent cast of dynamic brands, we planned to regularly offer pop-ups. I prefer to call them ‘residences,’ because we plan to keep them going for three to six months, which is longer than typical pop-ups,” Freshman said. “(International brands) are eager to land in the U.S., but signing a long term lease is a huge risk when the concept is not yet proven, and we can provide an easy beachhead to see if the U.S. market will connect.”
Residences will start joining tenants at Upside on Moore in 2025.
Another longtime restaurant operator who has no current plans for pop-up collaborations, is watching from the sidelines and likes what he sees.
“I love seeing it evolve towards more and more collaborations,” said Dan Simons, whose Founding Farmers has grown to nine locations. “I love that about our industry. We are never truly competitors. We are all in it together.”
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