One of the biggest hospitality trends in the last two years has been the rise of pop up bars and restaurants – but has your restaurant realised its true pop up potential?
Pop up bars and restaurants were initially used by up-and-coming food and drinks brands looking for a platform to get them noticed by financial backers. Primarily in London, brands used pop up bars to trial their food concepts and raise awareness of their brand in the right circles, before using this experience to pitch for financial backing.
However, larger, already established brands soon jumped on the bandwagon, realising the commercial value of going mobile. Through pop up bars, these brands were able to take their business into areas they weren’t traditionally associated with, namely festivals, fashion shows, street food festivals and literary hubs.
One example, featured in BigHospitality, is Joho Soho, a stand which serves street food variations of Cinnamon Kitchen’s most popular dishes. Joho Soho featured at the Summertime Festival in Hyde Park, as well as appearing at the UK’s first Halal Food Festival.
Vivek Singh, chef at Cinnamon Kitchen commented:
“We wanted to do something that was a lot more accessible and experimental.”
“There’s a lot of very interesting things happening with street food and pop ups at the moment, so I was keen to get us involved. In terms of the big festivals, there really isn’t much on offer by way of Indian food. Joho Soho fills that gap, it allows us to reach out to a new demographic and make new friends – it’s a bona fide commercial opportunity.”
Singh tackles an important point here: a pop up bar or restaurant can allow brands to reach demographics that they may never have had access to previously, encouraging them to consider the brand in a new light, and potentially visit the brand’s original restaurant.
Oasis Bars manufacture a range of stylish yet lightweight bars that can be easily transported to the location you need – whether that be an extra bar area in a busy room, or a muddy festival food and drink area.
To find out more about our range of pop up bars, call 01858 881 115.