The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The art of the pop-up
Turn your home into a hip eatery with recipes, pro tips,
Jarrett Stieber helped pioneer the pop-up in Atlanta when he launched Eat Me Speak Me at Gato in Candler Park in 2014.
Since 2017, he’s continued to hone his crafty cooking at SOS in Decatur, offering an array of dishes with what former Atlanta Journal-Constitution dining John Kessler once described as “wit and smarts to spare.”
Stieber got his start working in fine-dining restaurants such as Abattoir and Empire State South. But he’s always combined a playful and sometimes irreverent attitude with a penchant for serving value-priced food made with high quality local ingredients.
“I never set out to do a pop-up, it just kind of happened,” Stieber says. “But with Eat Me Speak and a few others, we were some of the first people to do it on a regular basis in Atlanta. It will be five years in June and I think what we do still mystifies people in some ways.”
Demystifying his approach, Stieber explains it as both a reaction to his fine-dining background and way to keep himself and others entertained.
“The biggest thing for me is trying to break down the traditional barriers associated with fine dining. It’s a style of food that I grew up cooking. But it’s such a small number of people that understand the terminology and the ingredients, and can handle the price tag, which is the biggest thing.”
“We’re trying to control overhead, source cheaper cuts of meat, and be more vegetable-focused, so we can keep our food costs low to keep our prices low. We want to make the little satirical kind of menu that hopefully puts people in a fun spirit when they come in. You don’t feel like you’re in a stuffy fine-dining place, but you can still get food with that attention to detail.”
Given all that, we wondered if home cooks could learn a thing or two from Stieber, and maybe even try doing a pop-up themselves as an alternative to the same old dinner party. Thankfully, his answer was an enthusiastic yes. And he even offered up a three-course menu with recipes straight out of the SOS playbook.
“We did a yakitori supper club about once a month that a friend hosted at his house,” Stieber remembers.
“Put a little extra effort into tidying up and curating an atmosphere, whether it’s with some string lights or candles or what ever you like. Get a group of people over, and treat it more like a restaurant service.”