Trading Spaces: Pop-up Edition
Katy Vestal and Dan Carruthers at Tasso. (Credit Pete Grady & Bob Vestal)
There’s a reason the phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen” exists—and there’s also a reason why some restaurateurs in Boise choose to ignore it.
In a way, the pop-up restaurant model is the ultimate test of faith. It requires the owners of already-established eateries to open their doors and kitchens to outsiders, who then make culinary magic in borrowed spaces. But for pop-up hosts Rene Iwamasa, Dan Carruthers and Angel Moran of Zen Bento, Tasso and Guru Donuts respectively, the stress is worth it if they can give their fellow entrepreneurs a leg up.
“Starting out [like I did] as such a sidewalk-stand kind of a restaurant, you really feel for these people, these up-and-comers, and you want to help them out,” said Iwamasa, who hosts the late-night biscuits and gravy pop-up GravEyard at her downtown Boise Zen Bento.
For her, the make-or-break of hosting a pop-up is trust. Even though Zen Bento’s simple menu of rice bowls and salads means its kitchen doesn’t have many complex, pricy appliances to steal or damage, Iwamasa said she’d still worry about letting a stranger loose in her restaurant.
Luckily, GravEyard chef Zac Clark had earned her trust as a manager at Zen Bento by the time he pitched his pop-up idea. In October 2017, he took over the restaurant’s disused walk-up window to sling reimagined Southern fare from 9:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. on weekends. The hours mean he and his fellow cook don’t start their prep until after Zen Bento closes for the night, and they have the kitchen back in ship-shape long before it reopens Monday morning.
Zac Clark at Zen Bento. (Credit Pete Grady & Bob Vestal)
“He’s got all of his systems so tight that it’s easy for him to set up and take down. He’s very efficient that way, so we’ve never had any issues,” Iwamasa said.
Like Iwamasa, Carruthers first opened his BoDo sandwich shop to the upscale dessert pop-up Figgy Bakes because he remembered being in her shoes. The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that about one in 12 small businesses close each year—a troubling statistic for restaurateurs looking to get their fledgling operations off the ground— and Carruthers is still keenly aware of the challenges after a long search for his own brick-and-mortar.
“Five years ago there wasn’t anyone who was going to give you a chance, or even rent you space in a kitchen or anything, you know? It was really, really difficult,” he said.
Katy Vestal, who owns Figgy Bakes, approached Carruthers in August about a double pop-up with local artist Camilla Dahlin, and won permission to pitch a table of cupcakes, cookies and tarts in Tasso’s entryway. She and Carruthers hit it off, and on Oct. 1 Vestal moved permanently into the Tasso kitchen, paying rent and making desserts for the eatery in exchange for using the space to bake for other clients. Though deciding on a price for rent was a challenge for Carruthers, he said he and Vestal eventually landed on a number that they both thought was fair, and have agreed to “play it by ear” going forward.
Moran, who owns Boise’s Guru Donuts, ran into the same problem when it came to setting a rental price for Lime and a Coconut, the Thai brainchild of Chef Sararak Sapiro.
“We said, ‘You know, just check it out first and see if you make any money,’” Moran said, laughing. “And I think the second time it was, like, ‘Just give us $100.’”
When Moran offered up Guru’s space, she told Sapiro, “‘We’ve got chairs, we’ve got tables and we’ve got a kitchen. Just start there.’”
Angel Moran (left) and Sararak Sapiro (right) at Guru Donuts. (Credit Pete Grady & Bob Vestal)
Lime and a Coconut puts on monthly pop-up dinners at Guru after hours, using its kitchen space to prep in the window between when the donut shop closes and when its bakers arrive for the next day.
Eventually they agreed on a price, which is doubly good for Moran, who plans to host a lot more pop-ups in the future. She’s already stepped into the role of small business mentor, and said she actually talked Sapiro down from a brick-and-mortar (though Sapiro did eventually buy a food truck), explaining why “playing house” with a pop-up, as she had once done with Guru, was less financially risky.
When asked about her motives, Moran said, “Watching somebody create something out of passion is something that I think really just inspires everybody.”
One thing that all three pop-up hosts emphasized is that despite the sometimes-complex logistics, they have enough faith in the model that they’ll be hosting again.
“We’d actually like to host as many pop-ups as we can,” Carruthers said, adding that he feels they up the local cool factor, and lead to sustainable business growth downtown.
In a separate interview, Iwamasa echoed him: “I would always consider it, because I would never, ever shut a door.”
This story was originally published by Edible Idaho. Read the original here.