11 must-try pop-ups, the next generation of L.A. dining

Takeout projects, social media-based microbusinesses, collaborations between bricks-and-mortar restaurants and independent operators, underground events. The term “pop-up” has become a catch-all phrase. It encompasses the many ways that chefs feed customers outside traditional restaurant models and mobile setups such as food trucks.

In 2020’s darkest COVID-19 pandemic months, laid-off, furloughed and otherwise unemployed chefs and dining room staff started pop-ups as a means of survival. They posted menu options on social media feeds, took orders via DM and accepted payment through mobile services.

As with everything, the takeout subculture is evolving. When sit-down dining stabilized in 2021, many chefs returned to restaurants, catering or private dinners. Some successful pop-ups — among them Jihee Kim’s Perilla L.A., with its astonishing array of banchan, and Quarter Sheets, the fantastic Detroit-style pizza and “slab cake” mashup from Aaron Lindell and Hannah Ziskin — have restaurants in the works. Other up-and-comers resumed as weekly vendors to Smorgasburg L.A., the city’s great incubator of culinary talent.

And some pop-ups continue apace, seeding the next generation of Los Angeles dining even in their mercurial nature. These 11 favorites point the way forward.