Premium food pop-up is the new dining concept trending at top drawer hotels and restaurants in Bengaluru. Like a luxury trunk show offering limited edition meals, eateries are fashionably hosting food pop-ups that temporarily recreate a signature menu from a renowned outstation restaurant or serve a special fare by a top chef.
The Ritz-Carlton Bangalore hosted Michelin Star chef Atul Kochhar. He flew down from London to conduct a three day popup showcasing three of his restaurants in April. Socialite Ila Naidu says, “I chose to attend the offering of Kochchar’s London eatery `Benares’. I travel often to London but typically skip visiting an Indian eatery . So this was the perfect plat form to experience it in the comfort of my own city and strike the restaurant off my wish list.“
Naidu also attended the pop-up of award-winning Delhi-based eatery Varq at the Taj West End in early July. This pop-up saw a mini recreation of the original eatery. The managers and wait staff played dress-up in the original attire. Even the menu designs were replicated.
The ongoing Persian food pop-up at SodaBottleOpenerWala curated by the 1990’s pop-singer-turned-culinary artist Anaida Parvaneh has centuries-old recipes with ingredients from Iran like edible rose petals for the sea-salt raita to pomegranate puree for the chicken & walnut stew. “A pop-up creates an occasion to indulge in something new and get talking about an eatery again. This model is a good way to test a market for new dishes,“ says Parvaneh.
Food pop-up also seem to be readily replacing food festivals. For their 25th anniversary celebrations next month, The Oberoi-Bengaluru is organising a 10-day pop-up of their Mumbai property India Jones.“Food pop-ups bring unique to the table. Diners taste menus that they don’t have daily access to. Like India Accent from Delhi, or rare and researched recipes from the gharaana cuisine of Rajasthan,“ says senior manager communications Pinky Padmaraj.
The flourishing F&B culture of Bengaluru makes the city a good destination for temporary pop-ups.Sandip Narang, executive chef at the Taj West End, explains, “The diverse city-scape of Bengaluru with young entrepreneurs, welltravelled IT professionals and expat population means space and demand for varied cuisines and con cepts. Combine this with small family culture, rising incomes and the consciousness to experiment makes Bengaluru an ideal market for this trend.“
