Why "pop-up" restaurants are everywhere now

384,301
0
Published 2024-08-05
The post-covid pop-up boom, explained.

This video is presented by Verizon Business. Verizon Business has no editorial influence on our videos, but their support makes videos like these possible.

From 2021 to 2022, one specific type of restaurant grew 105% in the US: pop-ups, or temporary restaurants. From 2022 to 2023 there were 155% more pop-ups. If you’re a foodie in a US city, it’s made the diversity of food you can get today higher than ever before. Why are so many chefs deciding to "pop up' all of a sudden?

To find out, we talked to the owners of two New York City pop-ups to get their stories. For Jorge Aguilar & Amanda Rosa, chef & co-owners of the breakfast taco pop-up Border Town, their story starts in the pandemic. They were unemployed, and instead of trying to rent a space and open a brick and mortar restaurant, they started working temporary locations, marketing themselves via instagram. Eric Huang, chef and owner of Pecking House, a Sichuan-style fried chicken pandemic pop-up that became a brick and mortar restaurant, told us a similar story.

So how did these restaurateurs pivot during difficult times to ultimately find success?

Links and further reading:

Emma Orlow who we spoke to for this video is a writer for Eater. You can read her work here: www.eater.com/authors/emma-orlow

An awesome foodie newsletter we subscribed to while making this video: sweetcity.substack.com/

Other pop-ups we spoke to: austin.eater.com/2024/6/3/24170461/southeast-roadh… natecox.net/BIG-CHUNE-2

Yelp’s state of the restaurant industry 2024: data.yelp.com/state-of-the-restaurant-industry-202…

Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out www.vox.com/.

Watch our full video catalog: goo.gl/IZONyE
Follow Vox on Facebook: goo.gl/U2g06o
Or Twitter: goo.gl/XFrZ5H

All Comments (21)
  • @johnshin6731
    it's like the phrase, the dodgier the place is, the better the food would be because the chefs can concentrate on the food not the place itself
  • @focoagrotech
    Pop-up restaurants not only help many chefs realize their dreams but also bring unique and creative culinary experiences to diners.
  • Low spaces forces pop ups to use everything and keep it all fresh. Quality is typically high and significantly more consistent than most big restaurants.
  • One point we all ignore as to why these pop-ups have better tasting food is because their ingredients get over almost every day and they get fresh ingredients daily whereas this doesn't happen in a restaurant which stores food in cold rooms for a week or more!
  • Pop-ups are very common in many parts of the world (LATAM, SE Asia, etc.). I personally prefer having a bite to eat at one of these places than sitting at a restaurant.
  • food trucks been the best even before 2014's Chef low maintenance = lower consumer costs and best thing quality is usally always good at food trucks
  • @Daniel-Strain
    Cool video. But I am surprised there was no discussion of the health department laws regarding these things? That would be interesting to have learned here.
  • @JustJulyo
    Quality, quantity, and supporting local business is the reason why they're better than fast food corporations
  • Little Korea in Mayfield, Ky is now a brick and morter, but it started as a food truck/ pop-up (possibly during or shortly before the pandemic). Great video, @Vox. As a nonprofit owner who produces a music festival every year, this was helpful in more ways than I thought it would have been.
  • @TheLotan
    So hot dog stands with more than just hot dogs. So basically all of Asia for thousands of years.
  • @jbi1839
    So people can find these restaurants only through Instagram? So these restaurants have to spend an upfront advertisement to attract customers first.
  • @paakjis
    stil have no idea how a pop up restaurant is different
  • In the 90’s you could open a restaurant for under 10k, now you need a minimum of 100k to get started. Celebrating pop ups is like celebrating container homes 😢
  • Bathrooms - many popups don’t have to fund and many bathrooms. No cleaning of bathrooms, or paying for the space, maintenance, water, cleaning products etc…
  • Man… I recognize Pecking House anywhere That place has my entire heart
  • @Digit404
    Why did you have Jorge speaking Spanish the whole time when he's fluent in English? That's got to be something Vox asked him to do.
  • @Jmnznetwork
    I went to Mexico last month and people there have WhatsApp to order food from neighbors pop-outs on speed dial
  • OMG YESSSS!! Apocalypse Burger!!.... It was walking distance from my house and I was getting it once a month. The owners opened up a permanent Dine-in Pizza restaurant across the street from the former burger location and it is also fantastic!!