Culinary pop-ups have never been more popular. It’s exciting, and likely because every raw ingredient of the restaurant industry—food, drink, labor, rent, linens, everything—has skyrocketed. Pop-ups let cooks or chefs try out their concept without taking the huge financial risk of leases and kitchen equipment and construction and design and eggs. Plus, they result in fairly cool (and sometimes amazingly weird) collaborations.
A few recent local examples include chef Francesca Marjan Pourfard’s Persian dinners, La Tiendita’s baking collective, chef Ambrely Ouimette’s omakase series, and Pixán’s plant-based pop-ups. Other pop-ups in the process of making the leap to permanent locations include Relic Bageri coming to East Village and Marigold Bagels moving to North Park.
The next one is coming this spring—Chao Club, Dennis Vu’s pop-up series and supper club.
Born in Thailand to Vietnamese parents, Vu grew up cooking specialties from all around Southeast Asia with his mother and grandmother. When his grandmother passed, he realized the comfort food they’d prepared together could be more than a memory. “It started with me watching her in the kitchen, and it just became a passion for me,” he explains.
Vu went to college for cellular biology before nursing school, during which he started hosting private dinners at his and other people’s houses. That evolved into events for friends and family, which became huge hits. “Hosting these big events, it’s truly my favorite thing to do,” he says. “So I started this Chao Club vision.”
Nursing three days a week, he used his days off to develop recipes and write a business plan. “I’m young, I have a lot of energy,” he says. “Restaurants are hard… [but] if I’m going to do anything like this, this is the best time.”
Chao Club doesn’t have any official events lined up yet—he’s waiting for his final permit from the city—but he hopes to host his first pop-up at Atypical Waffle (soon rebranding into Good Measure) in North Park this April. Vu says he also plans to host supper club dinners with a more fine dining element. If Chao Club catches on, the dream is his own brick-and-mortar and food service full-time.
“I already know what our first dish is going to be,” says Vu—a green onion fried rice dish using short-grain koshihikari Japanese sushi rice with a Vietnamese pork jowl marinated in fish sauce, lemongrass, and shallots, topped with rendered pork cracklings and pickled red onions. The food will be elegant, but approachable, he promises, with lots of Japanese influence.
“I just don’t think anything brings people together like food,” he says. “I owe it to myself to start the business and share the food and kind of hope my vision comes through.”
San Diego Restaurant News & Food Events
Hawaiian Fresh Seafood Opening Third Location in March
Known for ultra-fresh poke bowls and a wholesale arm serving sashimi-grade seafood, Hawaiian Fresh Seafood is ready to open their third brick-and-mortar location at 12202 Poway Road, Suite 100 next month. Owner Frank Porcelli grew up in the area before relocating to Hawaii for 17 years, where he started Hawaiian Fresh. The new location follows their spots in Centerpark Labs and Liberty Station, and will offer things like grilled fish plates, fish tacos, spam musubi, and, of course, their famous poke. “There’s no fryer in there, so we’re not gonna have any fish and chips,” he explains. (But who needs chips when you can order poke by the pound?)
Beth’s Bites
- Last year, chef Accursio Lota announced his next restaurant coming to La Jolla, promising plenty of Sicilian deliciousness following his team’s success at Cori Trattoria in North Park (which readers named Best Pasta and Best Date Night Spot in our 2024 Best Restaurants issue) Now that concept has a name: Dora. With the entire menu made from scratch (including gelato!), La Jolla is poised to continue its march toward culinary domination.
- My heart is with the City Heights businesses who’ve been stifled by delay after delay during so-called construction “improvements” along University Ave. I’m all for safer pedestrian crossings, but two years? That is utter nonsense, and local businesses like Cafeina Cafe are starting to (rightfully) speak out. If you can, now would be a great time to brave the maze of closed streets and take a stroll from Fairmount to Euclid. I promise there are plenty of delicious stops along the way.
- New bagels alert! Mission Bagel hopes to join the recent bagel revolution by launching a food truck to serve “chewy, golden, perfectly schmearable” bagels across San Diego. I say the more carbs the merrier, so I’m keeping an eye on this one until I can get my hands on one for myself.
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