Three Summer Pop-Ups To Catch Before They’re Gone

This summer saw three killer pop-ups land in St Kilda, Fitzroy and West Melbourne. But hard as it might be to believe, the season’s nearly over. Which means there’s only a few more weeks left to visit these pop-ups until they vanish for good.

Pebble, West Melbourne

In mid-December we declared Cam Tay-Yap’s Pebble summer’s hottest pop-up. And we stand by these words. The former Amaru head chef’s roaming kitchen project Pebble began in the car park of Oakleigh South bouldering gym La Roca last November. But in December, he took up residence at the former Earth Angels site in North Melbourne.

Pebble is open Tuesday to Thursday for dinner; Friday and Saturday for lunch and dinner; and Sunday for lunch, with an upstairs room bookable for functions. Snacks are playful and loud. The car park-favourite fried potato flatbread has made the jump. Vietnamese-style chicken wings are fried hard and without batter, then tossed in a nuoc mam glaze. Mains include a hearty Singaporean black-pepper sirloin steak as well as a stingray wing served with a pumpkin and crab curry.

The space is soon to be turned into a tempura concept by Kentaro Okada (Hareruya Pantry, Chiaki), but Tay-Yap and his crew are hanging around until the end of April.

Ellie’s Kiosk, St Kilda

Saturday February 28 is your last chance to visit Ellie’s Kiosk before chef Ellie Bouhadana hands the keys back to the Stokehouse team. The former Hope St Radio head chef launched her walk-in only pop-up inside Stokehouse’s Beach Box kiosk at the start of summer. The lines formed instantly for a changing menu comprising dishes influenced by Bouhadana’s North African heritage and recent travels around the Mediterranean. Standouts have been fries with fennel salt; marlin tartare; and a fritto misto of fried prawns, vegetables and fish with preserved-lemon aioli. 

Bouhadana also worked with the Stokehouse team on a wine and beer list that has affordable by-the-glass pours and some bottles fit for special occasions. Everything is available to take away, so if you can’t snag a beachside table, you can always eat on St Kilda Pier, about a 15-minute walk away. 

Pipis North, Fitzroy 

A visit to Pipis Kiosk is dreamy. The Albert Park restaurant is right on the shore, overlooking Kerferd Road Pier and Hobsons Bay. The view and the atmosphere are so good, it’s easy to forget the food – from the restaurant and the adjoining fish’n’chips stand – is equally impressive.

At Pipis North, a pop-up ending on Sunday March 1, the team – led by executive chef Jordan Clay and head sommelier Tom Hunter – brings its beachside-appropriate culinary approach to the former Cantina Moro space. The pop-up is inspired by tapas bars on the Basque coast and, as a result, is more relaxed than the Albert Park Pipis.

With the exception of the salt-and-pepper squid, an old Pipis favourite Clay says he took off the menu at the main location because it was too popular, the team serves entirely new dishes such as tomato with peaches and whipped tofu and flatbread with a white sauce and parsley oil. To drink, you’ll find a remarkably long wine list as well as saline white wines, mineral-driven chardonnay and “salty sips” made using Pipis’ seaside salad gin, a collab with North Melbourne distillery Here’s Looking at You Kid, where native bull kelp; kunzea, a plant endemic to Australasia; and oyster shells from Pipis Kiosk are used in the gin ferment. 

Additional reporting by Claire Adey.