Atlanta’s 2026 pop-up dining scene: Traveling dinner parties, omakase and more
New ideas and culinary innovation in Atlanta are often developed in the traveling kitchens of “pop-ups,“ restaurant concepts that don’t have permanent brick-and-mortar locations.
Pop-ups are ephemeral, sometimes transforming into permanent establishments, while others exist for only a brief moment.
Social media makes discovering and tracking pop-ups much easier, as most chefs advertise events and collaborations with other restaurants on Instagram.
“Pop-ups feel like the future of the restaurant industry,” Cynthia Hoang of Side Quest said. Without the sky-high costs and financial commitment of operating a brick-and-mortar, burgeoning chefs and mixologists can get their food in front of people, while established restaurants that play host bring in extra business from the pop-ups’ loyal followers.
New concepts are always appearing. Here are seven pop-ups to check out this year.
Mix & Simmer
Ruma Kashoro’s self-described traveling dinner party, Mix & Simmer, offers a “culinary and cultural experience that brings people together through food, music and art,” he said. Kashoro, a season four member of “Next Level Chef” with Gordon Ramsay, creates an experience that fosters connections between diners and up-and-coming chefs, DJs, performers and artists.
Each pop-up is about four hours long and features a different country’s cuisine, culture and music. It includes a sit-down dinner, cocktails from mixologist Mixing with Marko and performances so guests are really “experiencing this culture,” Kashoro said. An after-party usually kicks off following dinner with more music and dancing.
Kashoro created the menu for the first Mix & Simmer with a focus on Tanzania. At subsequent events, he’s featured Mexico, Colombia, Japan and the Philippines with entertainment ranging from a mariachi band to a live art installation. He’s cooked with guest chefs like fellow Atlanta pop-up chef Jorom Paler and Natalia Gutierrez from “Next Level Chef.”
The dinner parties rotate locations for each event, with visits to a loft above the Pisces nightclub, a hidden event space along the Beltline and inside an art gallery so far. Kashoro envisions Mix & Simmer continuing as a “living concept” that travels and transforms with each new chef, artist and performer.
Mix & Simmer takes place about every other month. Keep up with Kashoro on Instagram to learn about the next one.
$90-$110 per person. instagram.com/mixandsimmer
Barkada
Jorom Paler, the chef behind Jorom the Sushi Guy, was drawn to hospitality because he loved feeding people, sharing that moment with guests genuinely interested in the cuisine. His chosen medium of omakase, a Japanese dining experience that means “I’ll leave it up to you,” is an intimate experience where the chef prepares each diner’s food in front of them.
“You become part of their time,” he said. “They choose to spend an hour and a half to two hours with you for a reason.”
Paler apprenticed at sushi restaurants as a teenager and college student. After graduation, while working a corporate job in Atlanta, he fed his passion for hospitality by hosting small supper clubs for friends in the common area of his apartment, using the vendor contacts he’d developed to source high-quality fish from Japan.
The spirit of these supper clubs carries into the omakase pop-ups he hosts at Larakin in Midtown, which he launched after his friend and Larakin owner, Jordan Chambers, invited him to use the wine bar as a venue.
Since then, the 25-year-old has been running separate omakase services at Larakin and MidCity in Midtown, and a Filipino concept inspired by his heritage at 7th House in Adair Park, all under his hospitality group, Barkada.
His current omakase service at Larakin offers seats for 10 to 12 people and includes about 16 courses, sometimes with wine pairings from Larakin. The menu rotates often as Paler develops his omakase style of creating “classic dishes with a modern twist,” he said. While he isn’t classically trained, Paler said he incorporates the new methods he’s learned from staging, or interning, at restaurants around the country into his menu.
This winter, diners can also look for a new handroll sushi concept coming soon from Barkada Hospitality, Paler said.
$135 per person. 208 12th St. NE, Atlanta. barkadahospitality.info
Coffee Was Black
Combining coffee and fashion makes complete sense to Atlanta native Malcolm Voltaire, who said an empty cup is like a blank T-shirt to him.
“We eat and we drink in our clothes,” he said. “And I fundamentally believe the world is always looking for the next accessory.”
Voltaire created Coffee Was Black as both a fashion line and a cafe pop-up focusing on Caribbean coffee and tea. Its current residency is inside the Haugabrooks Art Gallery in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood, where Voltaire built a space for regulars and newcomers alike.
“When all the lights are on, when all the machines are on and there’s people (here), this feels like your cousin’s house. And it’s designed like that for a reason,” Voltaire said.
Voltaire wanted a venture that would enable him to keep the “Black dollar” in the community for longer and to carry on his mission of giving “people that look like me a different voice or a different outlet to convey bespoke ideas,” he said.
Whenever Voltaire needed to fund his creative ventures in the past, he worked in the food and beverage industry, so he decided to combine those passions, bringing together fashion with coffee.
He designed his menu to read like a new language unique to Coffee Was Black, Voltaire said. It includes drinks like the Joy, named after his mother, with sorrel and ginger beer. The Wah Gwan, in reference to a Jamaican greeting, is a hibiscus latte with allspice, lavender and oat milk over ice — Voltaire’s version of a dirty chai.
During its residency at Haugabrooks Art Gallery, visitors can enjoy the art installations while sipping on Voltaire’s beverages.
364 Auburn Ave., Atlanta. instagram.com/coffeewasblack
Side Quest
Nik Soukavong and Cynthia Hoang’s Vietnamese/Laotian pop-up is like an extended “family dinner,” Hoang said.
Soukavong, who’s worked at bars like Lucky Star, Little Trouble and Stereo, always wanted to start a pop-up that would allow him to “be a little more experimental in my cocktails and my drinks because I don’t have to worry about building out a menu for an entire week.”
Hoang, his roommate, loves cooking dinner every night, so Soukavong asked her to make the food accompanying his cocktails.
“My only credential regarding cooking is being an eldest daughter in an immigrant family,” Hoang said. “So I’m used to cooking high-volume.”
Hoang has worked in Vietnamese bars in Gwinnett, but she felt like the menus in Atlanta rarely had Vietnamese drinking food.
“We wanted to open people’s perceptions outside of what they’re eating,” she said.
She keeps the food authentic, she said, with flavors that are always true to the dish’s origins. She experiments with presentation to make her food approachable for those unfamiliar with Vietnamese cuisine. Hoang’s quail balut, a dish of fertilized quail eggs that sold very well, Soukavong said.
For Soukavong, the freedom of a pop-up allows him to offer experimental cocktails that use different ingredients and methods, some that are too labor-intensive to appear on a traditional restaurant menu. The lacto-fermented melon in his Moon Theory cocktail, for example, is a result of Soukavong’s recent experiments with time-intensive fermentation.
Follow the Side Quest Instagram to see where the next pop-up will land.
Vinny’s Mutual Aid
As Vince Pellegri watched the humanitarian crisis unfold in the Gaza Strip, posting on social media didn’t feel like enough. He founded Vinny’s Mutual Aid, a pop-up Italian bakery, and donated the proceeds to charities.
In 2025, Pellegri covered the costs of supplies so that 100% of the income from Vinny’s Mutual Aid went directly to charities like the Trans Housing Coalition, Second Helpings Atlanta and the Sameer Project, an organization that supplies aid to families in Gaza. Last year, the pop-ups raised over $8,000, he said.
Pellegri’s recipes, including focaccia and Italian cake, are inspired by his Italian heritage and the experience of growing up on farms in California. His cannoli, the stars of the show, change seasonally based on what he finds at farmers markets.
“What’s hyperlocal to Atlanta, and how do I take this Italian background and put it through the lens of really good Georgia produce?” he said.
One recent offering was an apple and pear cannoli with apple butter, whipped ricotta, spiced pecans and a dusting of dehydrated apple skin powder. He also offers savory options like a sweet potato and muscadine cannoli.
This year, he plans to keep operations sustainable by donating $5 of every item sold to aid organizations and using the remaining profits to purchase ingredients and supplies for the pop-ups. He will also launch a seasonal lasagna club featuring rotating vegetables.
instagram.com/vinnys_mutualaidbakery
Luz Del Sol
When Natyelli Lopez couldn’t find an Atlanta coffee shop representing her culture, she started her own pop-up. Luz Del Sol, meaning “light from the sun,” a reference to South America’s bright, warm climate, offers El Salvadoran coffee drinks inspired by her favorite treats.
The seasonal menu features drinks like the atol de elote latte with espresso, condensed milk and sweet corn syrup or foam; the chocobanano latte with espresso, vanilla, mocha and banana milk; and the leche flan with caramelized vanilla and cinnamon and vanilla bean.
Her coffee bean partner is Sleepy Mango Coffee Company, a local roaster that offers beans from El Salvador.
“It doesn’t feel like work,” she said. “I’m actually feeling fulfilled when I do it.”
Luz Del Sol has a residency at La Bodega Market & Pupuseria in Atlanta’s Sylvan Hills neighborhood, where she appears with her coffee cart on the weekends.
Saturdays and Sundays. 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. 1975 Sylvan Road SW, Atlanta. instagram.com/luzdelsolcoffee
Links N’ Ice
A summer job for most teenagers may mean a stint at an ice cream shop or bagging groceries during the week. For Nylah and Zion Isaac, it meant starting a hot dog business with their dad, Alfredo.
Alfredo, who’s from New York, always wanted to bring the Coney Island-style hot dogs from his youth to Atlanta. He grew up in the “braggadocious” era of hip-hop, he said, which is what inspired the pop-up’s name. While it’s rooted in Alfredo’s old-school nostalgia, his kids bring a youthful energy to the business, including creative ideas for hot dog combinations.
Links N’ Ice offers slushies, sno-cones and towering hot dogs like the viral “I’m so ATLien,” topped with oxtail, lemon pepper, candied jalapenos and garlic aioli, and the “Joey Crack Dog” topped with pineapple, bacon, candied jalapenos, cooked-Coke teriyaki and jalapeno ranch.
What started as a summer job for Nylah and Zion turned into a gig that lasted into the school year as they made it into the Smorgasburg food festival’s first season in downtown Atlanta.
Nylah and Zion understand what Atlanta wants in a menu, Alfredo said. They took something as simple as hot dogs and turned them into “five-star” dishes.
“Our food looks good, but it tastes even better,” he said.
Links N’ Ice is paused for the winter season, but it will return to Smorgasburg in March. It also offers catering.
About the Author
Olivia Wakim is a digital content producer on the food and dining team. She joined the AJC as an intern in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia with a journalism degree. While in school, she reported for The Red & Black, Grady Newsource and the Marietta Daily Journal.
