Pop-ups can be like restaurant purgatory. Escaping isn’t easy.

Operating seven days a week at the counter-service Saluhall spot means they’ve had to hire staff and embrace the challenge of training and managing a team. If the staff can’t maintain the current levels of quality and consistency, Han and Donado may decide to remain a pop-up once the residency ends. “This is our livelihood,” Han says. “This feeds our children. So we pour our heart and soul into it.” 

But even when a chef seems to have broken out of pop-up purgatory, escape isn’t always clean. Max Blachman-Gentile worked as culinary director of Tartine Bakery before launching his wildly popular pizza pop-up Jules in 2023. The pop-up was always a stepping stone toward opening a proper restaurant — a marketing tool. “I saw it as a means to an end,” he says, which is why he could afford to invest in sometimes impractical culinary choices, like prepping three sauces — tomato, fennel cream, and mushroom cream — for a menu of just four pizzas. “The point is to get people to say, ‘This is serious pizza,’” he says.