Lessons Learnt At A Pop Up Restaurant

No Commentsby David Bawden on January 26, 2012

Barn Suppers. Image courtest of Philip Dunda

It was a little bit chilly when my friends and I apprehensively walked into an old Citroen garage in Islington, North London. Fortunately, we were entering the cosy and fabulous Pipsdish pop-up restaurant. Friendly service, hot food and floor heaters warmed us up in no time. We were greeted by the remarkably friendly chef, Philip Dundas, who ushered us to our hay bale seating and insisted that we flick through his records if we didn’t like the music. Other restaurants, and indeed businesses, could and should learn some lessons from this disarmingly relaxed attitude toward dining.

Philip Dundas

Philip Dundas wrote a book called “Cooking Without Recipes” and Pipsdish exists without many rules. I’ve never been anywhere that lets you scrape out the ice cream bowl before. The candidness of watching Philip gracefully waltz round his open kitchen had our table guessing at what might be on the mystery menu. An open kitchen is not new but Philip isn’t working from a crib sheet to replicate the same dish as he did the day before. It was exciting to think that there was no other Citroen garage on the planet serving delicious Coq au Vin last Sunday. This is the joy of the bespoke that makes the consumer feel special.

Reservations were made using twitter and toward the end of dinner the more electronically literate at our table had made friends with fellow diners. Twitter has simplified and fetishised our desires to be social. It has allowed pop-ups like Pipsdish to bypass expensive advertising costs and rely simply on an amplified world wide word of mouth. All a proprietor needs to do is convince their customers who will then convince their friends.

In reducing costs of set up, Dundas has afforded himself a freedom to do as he pleases. With so many large business failing, pioneering pop-ups are invading their empty spaces to give the public shops, galleries and restaurants that distance themselves from the monotony of the high street chain. The UK Arts Council funded Pop-Up people report into the impact of the phenomenon is being published next week. It will be an important contribution toward understanding the direction in which ethical business is and should be heading.

This is the future as we want it to be. We want our experiences trimmed of fatty advertising with the distance between the consumer and the product kept to a minimum. Oh, and if it is really tasty – that helps too.