What is a pop-up restaurant? A pop-up restaurant is a provisional event designed to showcase your culinary talents at a temporary location. This includes everything from an exclusive one-night food event to a public rooftop food tent open for a few months.
Pop-up restaurants have been popular since the 2000s in Britain and Australia, but they are not a new phenomenon. Pop-up restaurants have existed in the United States and Cuba.Diners typically make use of social media, such as the blogosphere and Twitter, to follow the movement of these restaurants and make online reservations.
Pop-up restaurants, like food trucks, are an effective way for young professionals to gain exposure of their skills in the field of hospitality as they seek investors and attention pursuant to opening a restaurant or another culinary concept.[6]
Pop-up restaurants have been seen as useful for younger chefs, allowing them to utilize underused kitchen facilities and "experiment without the risk of bankruptcy".By 2013, this restaurant style had gained steam and prevalence in larger cities thanks in part to crowd-funding efforts that offered the short-term capital needed to fund start-up costs.
How does opening a pop-up restaurant compare to opening a permanent restaurant? Here’s the key positives and negatives to help you weigh up the prospect.
Pros
Lower cost: Start-up pop-up dining experiences are far cheaper to begin than a standard equivalent. Investment, overheads and labour are all less costly as you’re only there temporarily.
More freedom to experiment: If you’re considering a permanent venue, a pop-up could be a great way to test out menus, themes and pricing before taking the plunge.
Flexibility: you can test out different locations, even different towns and cities, to see where there’s a market for the street food you have planned. And this allows for some creativity in your location choices too.
Free publicity: open inside an established venue, like a shopping centre, or as a stall at a music festival, and you’ve an instant potential crowd looking for somewhere to eat dinner. You might just catch their eye.
What are the benefits of a pop-up restaurant?
Pop-up restaurants have a lot of advantages over their permanent equivalent. They enable first-time restaurant owners or aspiring chefs to build a presence and reputation, and seasoned industry leaders to test new concepts and create a space for creativity that might be lacking in an established space.
Shinelong's reliability and service orientation ensure the development of long term relationship with customers.