Kenneth Eweka Jr. woke up on June 6, he had only been asleep for four hours. The night before, he was scanning driver’s licenses until 6am at the Pencil Factory, the bar where he worked as a bouncer. After his shift, he went home to nap before heading right back to work—this time with a cooler full of steaks. He seasoned them with suya, a peanut-based spice blend, and seared them over an electric grill until he sold out.
It didn’t matter that no one knew his pop-up, Bon Appetite by Kenny, or that he had never cooked in a restaurant. In every corner of the city, chefs of all backgrounds are launching food businesses out of bars. Different from taking over a restaurant, bars play by faster, looser rules and can accommodate larger crowds. That’s acted like catnip for professional chefs and amateur cooks who are looking to test out new ideas.
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From left: Arroces Street Paella, Bé Bep, Loser’s Eating House, Curry in a Hurry, Loser’s Eating House, Bon Appetite by Kenny (Kenneth Eweka Jr.), Piscator
Some businesses, like Arroces Street Paella, simply wouldn’t work in a cramped restaurant kitchen. The owner, Eduardo Cuenca, was the chef de cuisine at Miss Ada, a Middle Eastern restaurant in Fort Greene, when he started making paella on the side. His pop-up runs on two 34-inch paella pans. Aside from the size, they’re connected to combustible propane tanks that city officials have outlawed indoors.
The first time Cuenca popped up, outside of the Williamsburg restaurant Ensenada, more than 200 people showed up. “I don’t even know 200 people,” he says. Most of them were regulars at the restaurant or people who were passing by and smelled slow-cooked Spanish sofrito; they spilled out onto the sidewalk until the paella ran dry. It would be wrong to call any of these individuals a “chef”— they are also event promoters, maître d’s, social media managers, and amateur movers. In the days leading up to her popup, Loser’s Eating House, Elizabeth Khoury preps, posts, and hauls ingredients between boroughs. “It’s absolutely insane,” she says.
The menu revolves around kitchen equipment, which varies from venue to venue. One day, you might be cooking on a charcoal grill that the Health Department doesn’t know about, and the next you’re preparing a tasting menu over induction burners. “You work with what you have,” Khoury says. You would never know her pepperoncini chicken started its day in another neighborhood or that her pita was finished in a toaster oven. During the pandemic, chefs turned to these makeshift models because they were burned out or unemployed. Today’s pop-ups were started for other reasons. Many of the owners come from outside of the restaurant industry and their businesses are more specialized than before. Some focus on single dishes, such as focaccia (Gotcha) or grilled branzino (Piscator).
Bars, which often lack proper food menus, have become proving grounds for the new recruits and their experimental ideas, says Steve Raggiani, a founder of the food recommendation app 8it. “Going to a pop-up is like seeing Biggie at an underground show in Bed-Stuy in 1992,” he says.
Last January, Raggiani hosted the third-annual 8it Awards, recognizing pop-ups. One of the night’s top honors, Best New Pop-up, was awarded to Sanat and Arvan Malhotra, two brothers who cook out of apartments, natural-wine bars, and downtown parties. “The new wave of restaurants is all going to come from these folks,” Raggiani says.
From 9am to 5pm, the Malhotras process data for start-ups. They spend just about every other hour of the day coming up with menus for Curry in a Hurry. The business started as a meal delivery service; they found more success after pivoting to in-person events last summer and shifting the focus to Indian fusion, like curry rice arancini and panipuri ceviche.
Their dream, Sanat says, is to open a wine bar with Indian tapas—something that doesn’t exist in the city. Each time they pop-up at someone else’s bar, it becomes easier to imagine: “What if we had our own?”
Some Sudsy Pop-Ups to Keep on the Radar:
BÉ BẾP: Vietnamese standards take all kinds of flavorful, colorful twists and turns (including her locally grown Vietnamese herbs), care of Chef Phoebe Tran. (@bebep.babykitchen)
CHAAT DOG: Rethink the hot dog with Pervaiz Shallwani’s Desi-American Street Food. (@chaatdog)
SHY’S BURGERS AND FRYS: Shyan Zakeri’s thin patties—greasy, grilled, and served on a potato bun—have become a buzzword at downtown bars and beyond. (@shysburgers)
LEV: Chefs Loren and Daniel’s brilliant levantine creations appear at upscale fashion events, downtown dance parties, as well as ragers at the Hancock. (@lev.nyc)
