Tuatara Popping up in Sydney

Hardly anyone saw them coming as a culinary trend but ‘pop-up restaurants’ are simply huge right now. Empty spaces – anywhere from theatres, shops, closed eateries, warehouses, car parks, tunnels and parks – can be quickly but temporarily converted into a restaurant. The same can be done with a private home but it is not really legal. Well, not legal at all.

A proper ‘pop-up’ always has a finite life span. It will start – usually relying on word-of-mouth for publicity – serve great food then close on a specified date, never to re-open. Equally, no matter how good the head chef is, dining at a ‘pop-up’ should be relatively cheap. This almost-guerrilla style of dining has gained popularity, in part because of the current tough financial climate.

Journalist Matt Campbell from Scene Adviser explained the phenomenon best when he wrote:

“Pop-ups are the embodiment of our high-octane, short-attention-span culture. One minute they're here - restaurants and bars opening in unexpected locations, causing a storm - and then they're gone. The temporary dining spot manages to break all the rules of what a traditional restaurant should be. Which is precisely why the trend for temporary locations dips into our whimsical 21st-century consumer mindset.”

He even went so far as to call them “raves for the restaurant world.” London restaurateur Pablo Flack had perhaps the most famous (or infamous) description saying that ‘pop-ups’ were “the crack cocaine of restaurant-running. We want to do it quick, sharp, full-throttle, and then shut up shop.”

On 14 September, a Wellington ‘pop-up’ will open in Sydney for two weeks and the only beers on offer will be from Tuatara. The restaurant is called WLG and it will be run by four of the Capital’s top chefs who will take it in turns to serve local food and drinks to over 2,500 patrons who have already virtually booked the place out.

In a press release, Tuatara Director Sean Murrie recently said Tuatara jumped at the chance to be involved:

“This will be a brief but intense opportunity to give the people of Sydney a taste of Tuatara and hopefully they will get a bit of a thirst for it. We are already putting in place a distribution network over there so Sydneysiders can find Tuatara on the shelves after they have tried it at WLG.”

“For many of the guests, this will be the first time they have tried a real craft beer. It will certainly be the first Tuatara for the vast majority of them. We are taking across Tuatara Helles, Tuatara Hefe and Tuatara Pilsner to introduce them to quality craft beers. There is huge interest from the dining public in Sydney already and we are expecting a lot of cameras and media interest as well.”

Cheers from the team at Tuatara