Spring has finally sprung, bringing the promise of longer days to squeeze more meals into and warmer weather for more outdoor pop-up vibes. As we rip off our puffer coats and bust out a pair of fresh kicks, we’re seeing an abundance of food pop-ups sprouting up like daisies around the city. These pop-ups and dish drops are like the daffodils of the food world, bursting forth with bold flavors and unexpected twists on classic dishes. So step out of your winter hibernation and dive into a Japanese Street food festival, a Viet-Cajun feast, a Vietnamese beef dinner, a lemon curd & graham cracker cronut or throw your pinkies up with some elevated smash burgers & caviar.

As always, this article is just a small taste of the pop-ups and drops in the 8it app. Hit the green button below each dish to access 8it and get all the deets. (Private Beta password: NYCPOPUP)

Viet Cajun Night
Lower East Side // 3.28

Viet Cajun cuisine fuses the surprisingly complimentary flavor profiles from Vietnam and the American South. It’s one of those unlikely combinations that nonetheless, just makes sense. Texas and Louisiana each have large populations of Vietnamese immigrants and that’s how this marriage of cuisines came to be. On Tuesday, Saigon Social is dropping a Viet Cajun menu headlined by a seafood boil of crawfish, shrimp, mussels, andouille sausage, corn, potatoes, and rice, boiled, sauteed, and tossed in a lemongrass, garlic cajun sauce. Additionally, there will be catfish, cajun chicken wings, and a soft shell crab po boy banh mi (happy soft shell season!). Tap the crab below for all the info.

Japan Fes
NoHo // 3.26

Food festival season is back! One of the world’s biggest Japanese food festivals returns this Sunday after a Winter hiatus. The eight-hour event will take place at Astor Place between Broadway and Lafayette Street and will feature hundreds of vendors including KARLSBALLS Takoyaki, The Boiis Co. with their iconic mochi-filled cookies, and New York’s lechon lord Lechonbae. Such an immense variety of food at one event could cure any and all Sunday scaries. Tap the Japanese flag below for all the info.

Burgers & Caviar
Carroll Gardens // 4.1

Gotham Burger Social Club is teaming up with New School American Cheese and Pearl Street Caviar for an outrageously bold High-Low pop-up next Saturday. This is a chance to hold a smashburger in one hand and caviar in the other. Has anyone ever held that distinct position before? Will there ever be an opportunity to do it again? Not only does this event converge two different styles of eating but two different lifestyles, and beer from Threes Brewing, Hogwash Rosé, Velvet Llama cocktails, Liquid Death water, and Brooklyn Best iced tea will help play into that even more. GA tickets to the event are still available through 8it. Tap the high low button below for all the info.

Vietnamese Beef Dinner
UWS // 3.28

Just Pho You is teaming up with guest chef Nancy Nguyen of one of New York’s outstanding pop-ups, Beaucoup, on Tuesday for a 7-course Vietnamese beef dinner. In order, the menu features beef carpaccio with peanuts, fried and pickled shallots, mint, and basil, Vietnamese beef salad with shrimp crackers, grill-your-own lemongrass beef, shaking beef, lemongrass beef wrapped in grape leaves, beef cooked in sweet vinegar broth, and lastly, a bowl of pho. This is a chance to have more beef than Mobb Deep in the 90s. Tap the beef below for all the info.

Lemon Curd & Graham Cracker Cronut®
SoHo // All March

This week is your last chance to get your hands on this month’s Dominique Ansel Cronut® which is filled with lemon curd and graham cracker ganache. It has been nearly ten years since the famed French baker first dropped the croissant-doughnut hybrid, which he changes monthly as an edible ode to seasonal ingredients. You’d think after ten years, he’d be running out of flavor combinations to encapsulate each month, but Monsieur Dominique continues to churn out creation after creation like the Lil Wayne of baking. Tap the lemon below for all the info.

Not to rub it in, but here’s a pop-up you may have missed out on. To stay in the know on all the hottest drops in real-time, check out the pop-ups and drops categories in the 8it app.

St. John Dinner Series

St. John, Furgus Henderson’s legendary London restaurant famed for nose-to-tail cooking, held a dinner series at As You Are inside the Ace Hotel in Brooklyn from March 7 through 22. Offal is the name of the game at St. John. Some of their signature dishes like ox cheek pie with pickled walnuts and quail eggs with pig’s feet were available at this cross-the-pond residency. Each dish lived up to the hype that’s been steeped in adventurous eater lore for some time, thanks in part to Anthony Bourdain who featured St. John on two of his TV shows fourteen years apart. The ox cheek pie with its shin bone centerpiece featured meat so tender it could make you slump in your chair from an overwhelming sense of comfort. Scoop some bone marrow onto your bite, and you might just end up on the floor. The pig’s feet with quail eggs took on the form of an English shakshuka with a tomato based broth laced with tender, gelatinous strips of pig’s feet that became richer and richer as we punctured the quail egg yolks, releasing umami into the sauce. An open letter to the industry: more cross-continental restaurant residencies are always welcome. They give people a chance to try bucket list-worthy food without having to buy a flight. Hats off to As You Are for putting in the effort to make dreams come true.

Beta password is: NYCPOPUP

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