Daniella Illerbrand and Elin Bordenave Svartengren are behind the initiative POPupSTHLM, which, according to the creators, hopes to infuse the gastronomical scene in Stockholm with great food from all over the world.
For those who don’t yet know that much about you, how would you describe yourself and what you have achieved so far?
You could say we have created a company encompassing exactly what we want it to encompass. As long as it’s fun and food-related it makes its way onto the list.
Our main focus has been to bring restaurants that we like to Stockholm and let them do their thing to the fullest for a couple of days or three. Usually it’s things we feel Stockholm is lacking. We have had Burn Ends from Singapore, Rolf and Daughters from Nashville, In de Wulf from Dranouter and Hero from Paris here just to name a few. It has been incredible fun and kick-ass, and we have learned a lot but it’s been hard work to ‘launch’ a new restaurant every time.
How does 2016 look for you, anything in particular we could look forward to?
In 2016 we will do less pop-ups and more of other things. We are for instance in the midst of developing a food-related concept for a serious player that will, provided everything goes according to plan, see the light of day early 2017.
Would you say Stockholm have a healthy pop-up scene, or is this a trend that is yet to fully develop?
A lot of restaurants, who earlier had guest appearances, now choose to call it a pop-up when they invite other chefs or restaurants. So it feels like the pop-up trend has been making great inroads into Stockholm, and that’s really nice.
But the pop-up phenomenon includes many aspects, and I think we’re still the sole player in the way we choose to do pop-ups. We’re not restaurateurs and not tied to any particular venue. The menu is always 100 percent the invited restaurant’s own, never a collaboration. We try to find a venue that suits the invited restaurant, we play their music, use their clothes and so on. We try to always fly in both front-of-house as well as kitchen for a complete experience.
And the pop-up is a great way for the restaurants housing the events to provide a treat for their guests as well as for their own sake – to acquire some new influences and to get the chance to work with great chefs from all over the world.
What do you think 2016 have in store for the Stockholm food scene?
We see a continuation of the trends that started last year, the smaller, slightly simpler, cheaper and more relaxed establishments are coming in a big way.
The neighbourhood restaurant is experiencing a boom and it’s more the ordinary restaurant employee that opens their own business, rather than the big names. To have many players come together within a small space (both as in the same block or as in under the same roof) is something we think we may see more of in 2016 and 2017. And we think that sustainable, locally-produced and organic at last don’t have to be a direction a restaurant can take but a given. Something that everyone will be doing without even having to mention it.
Follow POPupSTHLM on Instagram, Twittter and Facebook as @popupsthlm and on their website www.popupsthlm.wordpress.com
