The Latest Melbourne Pop-Up Trend? Open a Restaurant

From Rosheen Kaul’s nine-week stint at Bar Bellamy to former Amaru chef Cam Tay-Yap’s car park pop-up , pop-ups have become a defining feature of Melbourne’s dining scene in recent years.

Some are one-off experiments – here for a good time, not a long time. Others serve a more strategic purpose: a low-risk way for chefs to test ideas, fine-tune menus and gauge customer appetite before taking the plunge into permanent bricks and mortar.

“Melbourne boasts a vibrant restaurant culture that depends on the approval of its customers,” says Angie Giannakodakis, who turned her pop-up Taverna into a buzzing Hot-Listed neighbourhood restaurant , and also hosted other chefs’ pop-ups at her now-closed restaurant Epocha. “A pop-up venue encourages this interaction, as patrons are more willing to share feedback and exchange ideas to refine the concept.”

Not every pop-up chef dreams of going permanent. But for some, a pop-up is the start of something bigger. Here are three new spots that started as pop-ups, and two pop-ups that are soon to be fully-fledged restaurants.

Taverna, Brunswick East

Taverna – Angie Giannakodakis and Guy Holder’s follow up to Epocha – pays homage to Athenian taverns. But before it was a restaurant, it was a pop-up series run at Epocha and born out of Giannakodakis’s desire to preserve her mum’s recipes.

At the restaurant the duo opened in Brunswick East in January, you’ll find a moussaka inspired by Giannakodakis’s mum’s recipe alongside slow-cooked lamb shoulder, house-baked olive oil bread and creamy fava dip. Although Giannakodakis and Holder are seasoned hospo vets, Giannakodakis says starting as a pop-up gave her “the freedom to work through both the good and bad aspects of a concept”, including everything from dishes to how to best market Taverna.

“We embraced early mistakes as opportunities for improvement, ultimately becoming better. The process was delightful and fun, fulfilling a deep craving.”

Palay , Fitzroy

Chef Fhred Batalona’s goal was always to open a Filipino restaurant. But he wasn’t sure if there would be enough interest to launch a new venue dedicated to the cuisine. Running his pop-up series Palay , which he launched at Epocha in April 2024, gave him confidence there was.

It also helped him refine the concept. “The pop-ups allowed us to see what we can be as a cuisine and how we wanted to run the restaurant,” he says. “Originally Palay was gonna be more fine dining, but we abandoned that idea.”

Now at Palay’s permanent home – which opened in Fitzroy in April – in place of the fine-dining dishes from the pop-up days, you’ll find comforting Filipino dishes including chicken pyanggang, a grilled dish from Mindanao (southern Philippines) made with burnt coconut sauce, and silog (fried egg and garlic fried rice) served with atchara (pickled green papaya) and a choice of beef tapa or pork tocino. Though, at the Fitzroy home, you’ll still find some pop-up favourites, including Batalona’s pandesal (a semi-sweet Filipino roll) and his vegan ode to Filipino liver spread made using portobello, shiitake and brown mushroom.

Voor Ouker , Castlemaine

Katrina Dunnett de Jong’s Voor Ouker started as a uni supper club before she turned it into a pop-up that temporarily set up shop at community halls and in venues including Eldorado Road in Beechworth.

She didn’t start Voor Ouker with plans to open a restaurant, but Dunnett de Jong says running pop-ups became “exhausting” and she wanted “the opportunity to build a proper team and build a lasting community”. In February, she transitioned to a full-blown restaurant at historical Castlemaine guesthouse Temperance House in February.

Now you can get Dunnett de Jong’s takes on Dutch and Indonesian dishes including grilled whole fish with sambal and rice and pangsit goreng (fried beef and pork dumplings) drizzled with chilli sauce every week, Thursday to Sunday.

“Pop-ups gave me the freedom to experiment,” says Dunnett de Jong, who recommends anyone thinking about opening a venue start with one. “They’re agile, low-investment and allow space to trial ideas, pivot quickly, and learn from every service. I’m still very much on that journey of learning on the fly – forever grateful for the lessons my pop-up experience gave me.”

Sachi , CBD

Over the past three years, former Kitsume chef Reki Reinantha has taken his Sachi pop-up to two temporary homes: Leonie Upstairs in Carlton and the former Shizuku Ramen space in Hawthorn. But next month, he’s finally settling down at 179 Queen Street in the CBD.

“Pop-ups were great, but we were tired of moving. We needed a permanent home, somewhere we could grow, innovate and create something lasting,” Reinantha says. The final menu is still being worked out, but Reinantha expects it will mirror the Leonie Upstairs offering, with a mix of raw fish, catch-of-the-day dishes and a new sushi omakase on the cards. Hawthorn favourite the marlin hambagu will also feature.

Matsuyama , Prahran

Keng-Hao “Kenny” Chiu’s Prahran Market yakitori pop-up Matsuyama was only meant to last for a month, but it proved so popular that the former Benchwarmer and Chiaki chef is opening a permanent venue at the market. The pop-up will continue until the permanent Matsuyama opens in August. When it does, Chiu says there’ll be local craft beers, counter seating and a soundtrack of blues, funk and pop.

Additional reporting by Claire Adey, Raine Cabral Laysico, Quincy Malesovas, Sarah Palmieri and Haymun Win.