As we listen to the dismal economic news this week — plummeting housing sales and weak employment figures, it’s easy to think about what isn’t working and what we need to cut back on to financially survive this crisis. But happily, when the going gets tough, the tough often get creative and find new ways to thrive, despite the barriers to entry.
Lucky for foodies, some of the great and aspiring chefs of the world seem to be both tough and creative in their approach to the restaurant business.
“Pop-up” restaurants and gourmet food trucks are two examples of this creativity. While wearing my chauffeur hat on Monday, I heard a yummy story on NPR about “pop-up” restaurants (http://n.pr/dzSF78). Apparently, many great chefs that have trained in fine restaurants and are ready to forge out on their own, are either finding it difficult to get the money they need to start a restaurant or they simply don’t want to take a risk in this down economy. So instead, they rent a space temporarily and open what’s being coined a “pop-up” restaurant. In the NPR story, they talked about Ludovic Lefebvre and his restaurant Ludobites in LA. Currently, he is renting what is a sandwich shop by day and using it as a restaurant by night. It’s a win-win-win for the sandwich shop, the chef, and the foodie customers. The sandwich shop makes more money, Lefebvre has much lower overhead and very little risk so he can showcase his skills without charging super-high-end restaurant prices. The result: Ludobites is packed and the patrons are enjoying fantastic gourmet food at a more affordable price (if they can get a reservation).
According to a NY Times article (http://nyti.ms/8XcHMX), pop-up restaurants are hitting the local San Francisco scene as well. In one example, the restaurant, Mission Street Foods, brings in rotating guest chefs and they use the profits in part to raise money for charitable causes. Same concept, different implementation.
Another rising trend is gourmet food trucks. These are not the “roach coaches” we all remember eating from out of desperation in the corporate parking lot. 2010 food trucks are run primarily by talented chefs who can’t or won’t take the risk to invest in a permanently-located restaurant. They usually have a specialty and become the best at that particular style of food. Like the pop-up restaurants, the food is gourmet quality for prices lower than a full-fledged restaurant could possibly offer. The idea is becoming so widespread in major cities like LA and Portland, that you can schedule your dining by the web-published or tweeted schedule of your favorite food truck. As with any popular idea, there is already a reality show about it so if food trucks inspire you, check out Tyler Florence hosting a Food Network show called the The Great Food Truck Race with 7 trucks competing for a 50,000 prize.
Not since my days attending UC Berkeley have I eaten from a good food truck or cart nor have I been lucky enough to try any of the pop-up restaurants. Have any of you eaten at a pop-up restaurant or from a great food truck that made you say OMG! Yummy? If you have, please share your experience. Inquiring and hungry minds want to know.
I’m Beth – a seasoned marketing professional, kitchen table storyteller, and enthusiastic food consumer. Hang out in my virtual kitchen and I promise to feed you recipes, stories, and lots of inspiration!
Great idea; I love seeing people direct their minds and energy to work around this economy.
Hi Simple Life! Thanks for stopping by. I agree – I know how difficult this economy is for so many but it’s hopeful to think that out of this mess will also come new and better ways of doing things — necessity is the mother of invention after all.
Interesting 🙂
Cheers, Niconica
http://niconica.wordpress.com
I’m not sure if this counts as a gourmet food truck, but there’s a restaurant around where I live that takes “delivery” to a whole new level. Wok Wagon (http://www.wokwagon.com/) will drive to your home and prepare your catered meal in front of your house. They’ve been around for a number of years, and have a small storefront for pick up or delivery only. I’ve always thought it was a great concept, and it must be making them money, because they’re still going strong. I don’t know of any that are only found on wheels though…love the idea of it! Reminds me of the Chinese takeout place from The Fifth Element…
Thanks for stoppying by “Rat”! What a cool idea the wokwagon is. Besides traveling from home to home, they could probably start the gourmet food truck idea in your area – at least during the warm weather time of the year. Seems like it could certainly serve both purposes.
I’m intrigued by your mention of The Fifth Element. Just looked it up – I see there is a flying chinese food guy – think I’ll have to rent this one 🙂
Very interesting. If these pop-up restaurants ever make their way where I live, I think it would be quite interesting to try them out. Speaking of food trucks, I’ve seen everything from fast food to dumplings to baked goods. But what I love about anything that makes/sells food is that it always smells good.
Thanks for stopping SunflowerDiva. Smell really is at least 50% of what makes something yummy, isn’t it? I guess that’s why Emeril is always hoping that they’ll invent “smellovision” for his cooking TV show.
Hmm…this is interesting! Great Post!
-Noor
http://noor724.wordpress.com
🙂
Man…I wish someone would come to South Dakota and start pop-up restaurants during our tourist season. I think if someone had the wherewithal and the skill they could make a ton of money!
Crystal
http://www.crystalspins.com
Thanks for stopping by Crystal! There are so many ways the pop-up idea and gourmet truck idea can be used. Might be hard to keep a restaurant going all year during the winters in South Dakota, but you’re right, probably a gold mine during tourist season. I live near great culinary areas, but my specific location has a dearth of interesting restaurants. But we have empty store fronts and lots of room to park trucks 🙂
Love the concept of pop up restaurants. Hungry just thinking about it. How did you get on the WordPress home page? How fabulous!
Thanks for stopping by. I left a link on your blog about the 5 parameters for getting “freshly pressed”. But it was a surprise to me this morning – a great surprise though. Busiest day ever on my blog by far. And yes – I am so intrigued by this pop-up restaurant idea, especially with all the empty storefronts you see these days.
I’ve heard about the gourmet food trucks but not the pop up restaurants. I’ve also been hearing more and more about chefs creating meals in non-restaurant locations. Some travel around from place to place and announce dinners, others run farms and invite guest chefs to prepare meals. I’ve been to one of the latter and it was amazing.
Thanks for stopping by! Your blog is hilarious. I think your husband and my husband might have the same “shopping” gene. Oh my.
I have also heard wonderful things about the farm dinners – no chance yet to participate but it’s on my list.
What a great idea. I am going to be on the lookout for this in my area.
When I lived in Taiwan, there were these food carts everywhere; they were the norm, there, as many people could not afford to rent out actual space to build a restaurant. The food carts were everywhere and one could find really delicious, plentiful eats for two dollars.
It was also a way for them to up the competition; food carts allowed mobility, and they could just pack up and head off to another place if they scoped out a better area. Taiwan is constantly going through these food trends, which are usually invented by food carts (years ago, the fad was sweet egg tarts; then later on, it was all about crepes).
Many people also open up restaurants (or rent out their ground-floor space to chefs) in their own homes. Since Taiwan is so small, everybody builds up; a home may have several stories, with the garage at the ground floor. Since the garage opens out into the street, a lot of people just start their own restaurants in their own homes.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your insight into food trucks/carts and temporary restaurant locations in Taiwan. How interesting! I think the gourmet food truck idea in this country is a re-invention of an old idea. The pop-up restaurant seems to be a fairly unknown idea in this country, except in the most “hip” culinary locations but one that is quite timely, in my opinion.
I listened to this story on NPR this morning. I haven’t actually spotted one of these trucks in my neck of the woods yet but what a clever tactic! Great post!
If you spot one, let me know! Thanks for stopping by my blog.
I love love love the food truck movement. I live in NYC and they have become quite popular here. We’ve always had middle eastern food trucks (let me tell you, you’ll never taste better schwarma or falafel), but it’s fabulous to see it expand to bistro food, burgers, artisanal ice cream and other fantastic concoctions. If I didn’t love to cook I’d easily go broke here.
http://www.biggirlkitchen.com
I can only imagine the plethora of fabulous foodie finds in NYC. How lucky to be part of that! I recently posted about a great falafel stand I found at a Farmer’s Market. I know they are looking for a restaurant and struggling with the financing. I’ll have to stop by their stand and suggest they think truck!
I love the food truck concept. We don’t have any (good or bad) where I live except for the occasional hot dog vendor.
Stopping by from SITS.
Thanks for stopping by – hope something more exciting than hot dogs finds its way to your area soon. Love the photos on your blog.
Fascinating to read about trends in restaurant concepts. My husband and I, who recently started our own food/wine/spirits blog, have always fantasized about starting our own restaurant one day. It’s rare to make a success out of that sort of business; it’s nice to see how people are thinking outside of the (lunch)box!
Enjoying your blog.
Laura
http://culinaryspirits.wordpress.com/
Thanks for stopping by! We are wine and spirit lovers in our house as well so I will be checking out your site too. I hope these new restaurant ideas do bring even more creative cooks/chefs into the mix. I know where we live we need more restaurants and I’m sure the cost of rents and the economy are not helping to fill that void.
Hi There! Thanks for stopping by my place. I love food trucks, used to eat at them all the time when I lived in L.A. There was a taco one on my way to the library that was fantastic. Where I live now, the idea of a big city means it has a Target, so no yummy food truck goodness.
But the good news is that a truck can travel so maybe you can convince someone to pass through – if they park at the local Target, it could be big business!
I live in the DC area and have only ever had DC Area Food Truck Hot Dogs. Pretty, pretty good. Your post makes me motivated to get around to the pop-up places and food trucks a bit more.
If you do a web search, maybe you’ll find some non-hot dog trucks with locations and times. Let me know what you find and more importantly, anything yummy you eat! Thanks for stopping by.
In Durham, NC we have a great collection of food trucks. I think we made the NY Times in the spring because of how many we have. Durham also has plenty of other local food establishments to sample, but the trucks are out in force, and tasty.
I will have to check out the article. Have you tried any of them and do you have a favorite?
There is a food truck in Columbus that serves crepes with a variety of gourmet fillings. We never quite know when or where they will turn up, or if they will run out of food… they use Facebook and I imagine Twitter so that their fans know where to get crepes. I think tomorrow one of the fillings is short ribs.. mmmmm.
Short ribs in crepes. Wow – that sounds pretty mouthwateringly yummy! Thanks for sharing.
I keep hearing about food trucks and pop-up restaurants on foodie podcasts and feeling rather jealous that I no longer live in the US and therefore can’t experience them. Enjoy!
Where abouts in Australia are you? Are you near any of the major cities? I haven’t researched but there must be some interesting culinary activity going on. I know I’ve seen Australia featured in Bon Appetit magazine more than once. I was just looking at your blog and see there is certainly some interesting culinary activity going on in your house! Thanks for stopping by my blog.
I’m in Melbourne (the second biggest city after Sydney). We have lots of culinary activity here – from farmers’ markets to great restaurants so I’m definitely not lacking for experiences. Just having a moment of nostalgia for some of the specifically American food experiences. I used to love taco trucks when I lived there and it’s so exciting to hear how the food trucks are diversifying so much
Glad you enjoyed my blog too! 🙂
Great Post! And I think the food truck idea is a good suggestion.
great idea !
What a cool idea! I love the thought of a pop-up restaurant. I have never had the privilege of going to one either (we’re behind the 8 ball here in Charlotte), but if they started to “pop up” here, you better believe I’d be first in line for a reservation!
Hi Julie, thanks for stopping by. So a previous comment says they have a lot of trucks in Durham, when is Charlotte going to get on the ball :-). I bet if you took your Amaretto banana cake on the road, you’d do really well!
Street Food is definitely a trend that could just become a culinary way of life. Other countries like Asia and Europe thrive on it; it’s about time the rest of the US did, too! I’m fortunate enough to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, where this surge is powerful and tasty. The Eat Real Festival in Oakland’s Jack London Square is happening all weekend; I’m SO there!
We’re heading to the Italian Festa in San Jose soon. Wish we had time to get up to Eat Real as well. Would love to hear more details.
Nice post! It reminds me a lot of food trucks and hole-in-the-wall restaurants in L.A.
Interesting article. With a tough economy, entrepreneurism and new ideas come to fruition.
I have not really seen any pop up restaurants but will keep my eyes open.
http://www.moneyprovidesfreedom.wordpress.com
We’ll be blogging about this weekend’s Eat Real in Oakland. We attended last year and loved it! From Korean Tacos to fresh pulled mozarella, the food carts are amazing. This is our post from last year’s event.
http://yourfoodchoices.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/eat-real-in-oakland/
Cheers,
Steve & Jason
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Thanks for sharing this link and for telling me about the festival. If I don’t drop by, I will be looking for your post to read all about it. And next year, it will be on my calendar for sure. We were in Calgary last summer just in time for the Taste of Calgary and were able to sample fabulous food from all over the world in one location. I was amazed by the quality of the food and thought something similar would be great here. Often, street festival food is mediocre at best. In Calgary, the summer is so short, that they really make the most of any outdoor event.
Love your blog and enthusiasm for food. I’m a new follower and hope to stay in touch.
Great Post. I’ve never heard of pop up restaurants before, what a great idea. I wonder if anyone is doing it Miami, i would love to go. I have a few friends that have gone to food truck tweets and they say the food was very good. Unfortunately I haven’t had the opportunity yet. Hopefully soon.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! Love the name of yours. Hope you find some pop-up restaurants or great food trucks in Miami soon. Maybe you can take your baking talents on the road someday…
Jane at MidLifeBloggers says: One of our fellow SITS sisters–NannyGoatsInPanties.com–has a great post on why Sacramento will never be a world class city because the City Council won’t allow food trucks.
Thanks for stopping by Jane! I will check out the article. A commenter below said the same thing.
I went to the Eat Real food fest in Oakland today, all food trucks. The lines were absurdly long, so I didn’t get to eat exactly what I wented to, but I had some fabulous miniature dim sum and a great stuffed baked potato. Really wanted a lobster roll from Sams Chowdermobile, but the line was hours long, and I’m an A-type personality.Ditto for a paella truck. The festival’s on again tomorrow, Sunday, so check it out. Fabuloso!
Several people wrote to me about Eat Real. It sound fabulous and I’m going to try to head up there today. Jason and Steve from Your Food Choices plan to blog about it. Your comment has me drooling. Thanks for stopping by. I’m heading over to check out your blog right now.
And how were the Eat Real food fest in Oakland and stuffed baked potato? And paella?
Here in Sacramento, they are making it very difficult/next to impossible for food trucks which is a shame. Trucks are only allowed to park at any location for a maximum of 30 minutes and then they must move. As for the other, I hadn’t heard of the pop-up restaurants but what a great idea.
I really like the idea of a pop up restaurant- it reminds of southern Europe where you can have small kiosks that sell you fabulous paninis, ice-creams etc etc (one of the BEST is on Capri, Italy). I hope this idea would catch on in Northenrn Europe as well! ;o)
I expect with so many people just trying to survive these days that even the lower prices of the goumet food trucks are way out of their league.
Food trucks are huge here! You can follow the more popular trucks on facebook and twitter. But not all of them have lower prices then restaurants. Because of the popularity I guess they figure they can charge as much as a restaurant; $12 for a sandwich…that better be one good sandwich!
Thanks for stopping by my blog and sharing your experience! I suspect the pricing will find its proper place based on demand. If it is a great sandwich that you might end up paying more for in a sit-down restaurant with service, then there may still be a demand to justify the cost. If not, I guess they’ll figure that out and adjust. I went to the Real Eats Festival in Oakland yesterday and was able to get a glimpse of the mobile food craze and hope to do more field trips to learn about the market and the test the offerings.
Yes Portland has many wonderful food carts. http://www.foodcartsportland.com
Thanks for the link. I’ve bookmarked marked it and plan to spend a little time browsing to see just how pervasive mobile food is in Portland. I’ve always wanted to visit Portland and this food movement makes me that much more intrigued.
I’m from Portland, OR have two words…….WAFFLE CART! Yumm…Oh, and can’t forget the Grilled Cheese Bus either 🙂
I’m going to have to explore this waffle thing. I’ve been reading more and more about them becoming a staple in a savory way, rather than just for breakfast. How fun. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your food cart favorites!
FYI The cooking channel is airing a show 8pm(est) tonight called food truck revolution
I managed the first pop-up restaurants in London with Reindeer and then FLASH beginning in 2006. Although in theory they are a good way to do a restaurant without big investment, the one’s I was involved in cost as much as a fully fledged restaurant but without the long trading period to guarantee (hopefully) a return. I do think mobile food however is a fantastic way to get people following you as a chef, or just buying into your business without the large risk, and supper-clubs also are a good way without the risk or hassle… you just need a house that is respectable enough – or not..
Thanks Eliza for the really interesting information. After doing some online surfing, I can see that pop-ups are not so new to other parts of the world (like Reindeer and FLASH back in 2006) but perhaps they are evolving into less of a flashy way to enter the dining scene and more of a creative entry into what might otherwise be an impossible hurdle to cross. But I agree with you that mobile food is really accessible for both the cook/chef and the consumer. Cheaper to start and potential to last for a long time to turn profitable and increase your ROI.
I just wrote a post about food trucks and the Eat Real Festival: http://togetherinfood.wordpress.com/. There are a plethora of fantastic food trucks in SF, and I highlighted my favorites from the festival in my post: chicken adobo from Adobo Hobo, spicy pork sisig tacos from Senor Sisig, pulled pork sliders from Good Foods, and Chairman Bao. Pop-up restaurants are also very popular in S.F. and have helped a few chefs hone their concepts and build a following, thus enabling them to launch full-on restaurants — e.g., Mission Street Food begat Mission Chinese Food, which then begat the full-fledged restaurant Commonwealth; Hapa Ramen served their ramen and izakaya menu in bars across the city before opening their own stand at the Ferry Building. If you follow the food trucks on Twitter, you can find out when they’ll be near you! Enjoy.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your post. I also made it to the festival yesterday and will be sharing my finds and perspective. There was so much to try and see! I ran out of room in my stomach. Thanks for sharing your pop-up info as well. I’m anxious to get into the city and try a couple of restaurants. I just saw an article in Bon Appetit about a pop-up cookie store in the retail section of a hair salon in New York City. Can’t wait to finish reading that article!
Interesting concept! I wish we had food trucks around here too!
Enjoyed reading your post. Regardless of the economy, people still need to eat! I know if I had a choice of food that was quick–I’d go to a gourmet food truck rather than a fast food joint. And, I never heard of pop-up restuarants till reading your blog. Great info! Congrats of getting freshly pressed too! LB
Thanks for stopping by. I’ve been doing more research on pop-ups and it seems that in some other parts of the world and country, they’ve been around for a while in various forms but most people aren’t/weren’t “in the know”. They seem to have started as a trendy upscale idea, but I’m getting the sense that they are now becoming more of a creative and economical way of sharing your cooking expertise without risking your financial future.
Great Post! Among other ideas, I saw this idea for a “Burger Bar”. Check it out http://bit.ly/bWVNAF Does anything like this exist? I would definitely check it out if it were a “pop-up” restaurant. Thanks for any info.
Great post. I live north of Boston and hot dog trucks are fairly plentiful in season–there are enough to get rated (“Don’t go to HotDog Man, Jethro is better!”) It’s nice to see them as it means warm weather has arrived.
Hawaii was a mecca for truck restaurants! Delicious local fish, fruit and vegetables. I ate best authentic Hawiian and Polynesian food from a truck.
Finally, as a New England transplant, my first experience with a food truck other than the icec cream variety was hearing of the “canty truck”. It was a canteen truck that pulled up to the hospital in the middle of the night to sell coffee, sandwiches, doughnuts, cookies and other homemade treats to the night shift workers.
Cheers, Sweetman
Thanks for the fun food truck information and for stopping by my blog. My husband’s family is from Hawaii and we’ve visited often but I had no idea it was a truck mecca. Probably a great way to find “local” food which is what we love to eat when we’re there. I did attend the Eat Real Festival in Oakland this weekend and one of the food trucks was Sam’s Chowdermobile and they were serving a mini lobster roll, east coast style. It was a very good attempt. Not as good as the one I had in Mass last Sept but not too bad for the west coast :-).
I hope the gourmet food trucks come to Canada. I refuse to eat from Hot Dog vendors!
Stopping by from BlogFrog!
I love the idea of gourmet food trucks! What a great solution to the current economy.
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. It’s really too bad you didn’t swing down to Belize while you were in the Yucatan.
Cheers 🙂
– CoconutPalmDesigns
Check this out- the trend is so big we built a food truck for an edible oil company (they make frying oil). Moe is the biggest hit of any sponsor at any event-
http://www.bungemoe.com
http://www.cenergy.com
Thanks for sharing — that is so interesting to me from many angles. Interesting that the trend is reaching out to other parts of the country and also to products that might be considered on the periphery or just a supporting act to the main course, so to speak. Also interested in your comment as a communicator since that was my job for over 15 years in a previous life. I am so fascinated by the impact of social media on how we communicate and who can become well-known, regardless of budget.
Thanks again for stopping by.