CharPOP's Secret Dinner Event a Big Success

Last night I attended the second installment of CharPOP, Charcut’s much ballyhooed pop-up restaurant held at the Sidewalk Citizen Bakery and, like most things Connie DeSousa and John Jackson do, it was a smashing success. The three-day dining experience, which began on Sunday is a collaborative effort between Jackson, Desousa, Toronto chef Grant van Gameren and Aviv Fried, Calgary’s citizen baker.

CharPOP's open-concept temporary kitchen was a hive of activity, and made for a very intimate dining experience.

The pop-up restaurant concept has been popular in cities including New York and London for some time, and is essentially a temporary restaurant set up in a non-traditional space like a warehouse, home or, well, a bakery. The idea is that it gives chefs a chance to experiment with concepts and dishes that might be a bit out there for a regular restaurant without risking too much since the project — successful or not — only runs for a few days.

There is a certain cachet to these dinners since there is such limited access, and there is a whole secret-society vibe to the process. In the case of CharPOP, you needed to be on Charcut’s e-mail list or follow them on Twitter to know the dinners were happening, and you needed to respond within minutes to secure a reservation. There were early and late seatings on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday nights and they all sold out in six minutes.

People weren’t told where the dinners would be held until three hours beforehand, and the details of the à la carte menu remained a surprise as well.

However, knowing Jackson’s and DeSousa’s penchant for tip-to-tail cuisine, it was hardly a surprise to see the likes of beef heart steak, smoked veal sweetbreads and foie gras and blood sausage on the menu.   

I began my meal with a salad of crispy pig ear, a perfectly soft-cooked egg, chili, lemon vinegar and greens.

Next up was foie gras and blood sausage with rutabaga and a maple burbon gastrique.

I finished up with a stew of beef cheeks with squash and a savoury scone — the prefect foil to what was a very chilly night — and rounded it out with a side of Poplar Bluff potato and guanciale gratin.   

Although tonight's two seatings are both technically sold out, CharPOP have had cancellations on the previous nights and have put it out on Twitter for people to snap up the last-minute reservations. So if you pay attention today, you still could get in on the action.

DeSousa says they have plans to do four more such dinners this year, though not all in Calgary. San Francisco perhaps? New York? Fans will just have to keep their ear to the ground and their fingers near their keyboards so when the time comes, they’re ready to join the select few lucky enough to share in a unique, intimate and thoroughly enjoyable dining experience.

You can stay up-to-the-minute with CharPOP by following them on Twitter (@yyc_charpop) or heading to their website, www.charpop.com. 

This story was part of Avenue's free weekly Food & Drink Newsletter. Sign up now and get fresh dining news in your inbox each week.