By Danielle Bowling
"Pop-up" restaurants are so in right now, but is there legitimate value in the idea of temporary foodservice operations? Danielle Bowling spoke to some who think there is.
It's like the Boxing Day sales or your favourite artist performing live
for 'one night only'. Australians' interest in "pop-up" restaurants is
all about them wanting to not miss out on the delicious food and wine
served up by some of the country's top chefs, for a limited time only.
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| Joost Bakker has worked on multiple pop-up concepts including one in Sydney and Melbourne. |
Our growing appetite for pop-ups has seen leaders in the industry work
day and night to not only create enough hype surrounding the launch and
ensure bums on seats, but to also dish up top quality food and drinks,
then take it all away a few days, weeks or months later, like nothing
ever happened.
Sydney hospitality group, Keystone, has started turning its attention to
pop-ups, working with a company called The Project recently to get a
Masterchef pop-up restaurant, located outside St Mary's Cathedral, up
and running.
Operating from 3 to 22 July, Keystone provided all the staff and
management and had a hands-on role with the menu at the venue, which sat
over 5,000 guests at the restaurant and bar and had every sitting sold
out before the doors swung open for the first service.
Director Paul Schulte says pop-ups have enormous marketing potential
for those brands brave enough to give them a go. "It's a very good
branding and marketing exercise for us," he told Hospitality.
"It just adds to the whole story of our company. It shows that we're not
just about our own bars and clubs. It shows that we're also about the
community and their lifestyle, which is a really important point for
us."
You can't deny the strength of the Masterchef brand, so when Keystone
saw the opportunity to align itself with the cooking show behemoth it
couldn't resist the chance to help put together the restaurant, which
saw some of the country's best chefs, together with previous Masterchef
contestants, tossing the pans.
"You can't ignore what's going on in the market, with people interested
in food," says Schulte. "To tie ourselves in with the calibre of chefs
that we cooked with, the talent there and the service we provided, was a
good thing and even today we can see more people eating at our other
venues. They come into our venues and talk about that experience."
The Masterchef pop-up isn't the only one Keystone's been involved with.
It also helped put together the Keystone Canteen at this year's
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, and more recently The Pirate Ship
bar, a collaboration with Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.
Source: Hospitality Magazine
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The article is rather interesting as it discusses the recent demand for small restaurants due to shows like master chef. However the vibe of the article seems to warn people that although it is fantastic small business in the food and beverage industry are opening up everywhere, it is still important that owners and operators understand the risks of opening a business, particularly a restaurant. The article further talks about how people have a vision that they can just open us a restaurant because they have always wanted to, this in reality though is not the case.
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