Why “pop-up” restaurants are everywhere now

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From 2021 to 2022, one specific type of restaurant grew 105 percent in the US: pop-ups, or temporary restaurants. From 2022 to 2023 there were 155 percent more pop-ups. If you’re a foodie in a US city, it’s made the diversity of food you can get today higher than ever before. Why are so many chefs deciding to “pop up” all of a sudden?
To find out, we talked to the owners of two New York City pop-ups to get their stories. For chef Jorge Aguilar and Amanda Rosa, co-owners of the breakfast taco pop-up Border Town, their story starts during the pandemic. They were unemployed, and instead of trying to rent a space and open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, they started working in temporary locations, marketing themselves via Instagram. Eric Huang, chef and owner of Pecking House, a Sichuan-style fried chicken pandemic pop-up that became a brick-and-mortar restaurant, told us a similar story.
So how did these restaurateurs pivot during difficult times to ultimately find success?