Pop-ups can be really cool, both because they offer an easy way for us to try something new—Mexican fusion pizza? Bring it, baby!—and, for their proprietors, serve as a low-overhead means to field-test recipes and see whether there are enough people in the world who share their vision (and palate). Plus there's always a kind of giddy, communal vibe to the proceedings, especially if they're held outdoors, as you briefly bond with your fellow diners over the impermanent nature of it all while standing before a tent on some random patch of sidewalk.
Less appealing aspects of the form include: having no real kitchen, hauling everything everywhere, having to set up and break down every day, and the weather. Those Mexican pizzas were delightful, for example. Eating them outside on a 28-degree day in January? Not so much.
Anyway, two of my favorite pop-ups in recent years—the worker-owned, sandwich-centered outfit Sea & Soil; and Beto's Carnitas y Guisados, run by a charming chef-couple—recently opened spiffy new restaurants in Cobble Hill and the Lower East Side, respectively. Last week I ate happily and well at both of them. Here's the full report.
