Pop-Up Restaurants

choi

David Segal, Hey, Chef: Next Time, Skip the Fennel; With a quirky business plan (and rising culinary stars), a company aims to bring the wisdom of crowds to high-end dining. New York Times, Aug 31, 2014.
www.nytimes.com/2014/08/31/busin ... -haute-cuisine.html

two consecutive paragraphs:

“Pop-up restaurants have been around for more than a decade, but Dinner Lab is the most ambitious attempt to turn the concept into a viable and continuing business. The company runs on a membership model: Pay an annual fee of $100 to $175, depending on the city, and be invited to all the meals served there each week (one a week in smaller markets, like New Orleans; three a week in larger ones, like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York). There’s a charge of $50 to $80 for each meal, drinks and tips included.

“Adding to the sense that the meal is a performance, every menu gets a title from the chef — Mr [chef Christopher] Sorter called his ‘Vonnegut,’ he explained, because both he and the famous author hail from Indiana. The events are held in large, open spaces, like the rooftop of a parking garage, or at a motorcycle dealership — places that turn meals into the food version of guerrilla theater. Mr. Bordainick predicts profitability next year, when, if all goes as planned, Dinner Lab will operate in 40 cities, including international ones.

My comment:
(a) This is a very long article, spanning two and a half pages in print (including all these big photos). So it is enough to view photos and read legends, and you get the idea. Americans are making money in all sorts of manners.
(b) Kurt Vonnegut
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Vonnegut
(1922 –  2007; an American writer)
(c) Jae Jung was }born and raised in Korea”--presumably South Korea.