Hardly livin\u2019 the hipster dream then.<\/p>\n
But just as the whole hipster look was easily appropriated from elsewhere, the hipster image can just as easily be appropriated by any corporate entity. MacDonald\u2019s is already giving it a shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with the food at Pizza Massilia, and for a parking lot it is an awfully attractive setting, but it does raise the question about why it isn\u2019t in an actual building. There is not going to be any business conducted at all if it happens to rain, and rents are hardly at Singapore levels in this town (less than a third, in fact, so if you ever wondered why a coffee in Singapore requires a mortgage, the \u2018landlord tax\u2019 may well be the answer).<\/p>\n But the hipster trend may offer an answer to why a pop-up is actually a good idea.<\/p>\n Last year Alex Proud wrote a piece\u00a0in The Telegraph about being \u2018Shoreditched<\/a>\u2019; the UK version of Brooklyn or whatever other area around the world has been taken over by the bearded set and the process that entails:<\/p>\n \u201cYou find a previously unnoticed urban neighbourhood, ideally one that\u2019s a bit down on its luck. Pioneer hipsters move in and coolhunters ensure it starts trending on Twitter. A year later, the mainstream media notices and, for the next 12 months, the neighbourhood is byword for urban cool. Soon property prices soar pushing the original residents out, the bankers (always a trailing indicator) begin to move in and a Foxtons opens. Finally, the New York Times runs a piece in which it \u201cdiscovers\u201d the area and the cycle is complete. The last hipsters move on and find a new neighbourhood to play with.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n So if you\u2019ve actually got a hipster business \u2013 or even one that looks like a hipster business \u2013 it helps if you can relocate it easily enough to the next trending neighbourhood. And a pop-up is perfect for that.<\/p>\n In Bangkok nailing down the cool areas is rather difficult \u2013 they seem to change from one month to another, so not quite enough time for the New York Times to ‘discover’ it.<\/p>\n But there is one thing that the pop-up trend in Bangkok has failed to notice, and that\u2019s the fact that just about every street in this town features a pop-up restaurant or two, or twenty.<\/p>\n Not a pop-up, apparently<\/em><\/p>\n My local corner restaurant is set up and completely pulled down and carted away six days a week. The greater irony is that they\u2019re probably using local ingredients too (they\u2019re cheaper, after all). All they need are beards and fixies and they\u2019re set.<\/p>\n Until the next trend arrives.<\/p>\n In the meantime pop-ups are the height of fashion, and hawkers are not. Go figure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey, I stopped by a pop-up pizza joint in the Silom area in Bangkok recently. Not a bad pizza, though running out of fresh tomatoes and onions in a pizza joint seems a little out of order \u2013 I\u2019m calling it teething troubles. But making a proper pizza in a wood-fired pizza oven mounted … Continue reading Will the pop-up pop off?<\/span> ![\"pop](\"http:\/\/www.brothersbites.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/pop-up-300x205.jpg\")
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