Photo by Stephanie McCabe
Pop-up dinners have taken the Richmond dining scene by storm in recent years. For the uninitiated, a pop-up is an event that uses a space where one normally wouldn’t eat a meal as a method of experimentation and presentation unachievable in a restaurant. Chefs and artists across the country, including many local entrepreneurs, have used them to create unique dining experiences.
Founded in September 2016 by cheesemonger Joshua James Franklin and chef/butcher Adam Musselman, The Ivy Wall has quickly made a name for itself in the local pop-up scene. Forming out of dinner parties hosted at the Fan home bounded by the titular ivy wall, Franklin sought to recreate a “wow” experience he’d had eating a meal prepared by his friend, former Metzger Bar & Butchery chef Kylie Gellatly.
“That was the biggest experience of going to a restaurant and feeling very good,” says Franklin. “Everything just tasted on point, and I remember having this cheesecake with sorrel bernina and not speaking afterward for 10 minutes and being like, 'I want to find a way to recreate this feeling somehow.' ”
Enlisting the help of guest chef Gellatly, Franklin and Musselman put together what would become the first Ivy Wall dinner. It was a runaway success, and the duo would go on to host more dinners in the months to follow, not adhering to a set monthly schedule but focusing more on when the time felt right or a special location was secured.
“I think people are excited to think about how they can put their food clothes on, not in a restaurant. How can I experience restaurant-quality food in the middle of two coffee roasters, or in the middle of a bunch of jeans?” says Franklin.
Ivy Wall keeps their menus a secret until the night of each event, asking guests only to let them know if they have any dietary restrictions or allergies.
“Not having to worry about whether something will sell on a menu perpetually is great. Nobody knows what they're eating until they get there,” says Musselman. “Five courses, you don't know what it is until you sit down and we start bringing it out.”
This set menu has allowed guests to try a wide variety of foods they made not have encountered on their own, like braised/charred octopus, beef-heart tartare or rabbit ballotine.
The Ivy Wall has no plans to start a restaurant based on the events or make them larger, preferring to keep dinners at 25 to 30 people so they’re more intimate.
“The idea is it's an evening with us. It's not come in, get dinner and make it to the movie in time — this is the night,” says Musselman.
Announcements of future dinners can be found on the Ivy Wall website or on Instagram. Tickets start around $70 and sell out quickly. Though they were reluctant to reveal the secrets of their upcoming dinners, Franklin and Musselman did give one teaser: “What is cobra burger?”
Though the Ivy Wall team has quickly made a name for themselves, they’re not the first dinner club in the city. That distinction belongs to the Underground Kitchen, founded by former Louis Vuitton head designer Michael Sparks, a staple of the Richmond pop-up scene for the last few years.
After moving from New York to Richmond with his boyfriend, Sparks found getting people together socially to be more difficult and started having dinners in his backyard as a remedy to that problem.
“We didn't find it hard to meet people here, but we realized Richmond was a car community, and we wanted to get people together to eat food and drink wine,” says Sparks. “From that backyard gig, it sort of morphed over the years and has grown into this 25-city event.”
Not content just to put together the conventional pop-up experience, Sparks paid attention to every last detail — from the obvious, like location and food, to the smaller, more subtle elements such as linens, floral arrangements and table layout.
“I don't think people really know. A lot people do it, restaurants do it, chefs do it, and I think it's a form of publicity,” says Sparks. “I like to think ours is a way of life, I like to think we give people ideas and enthusiasm to do their own thing at home.”
This level of care has helped Underground Kitchen develop a dedicated following that Sparks says has allowed the operation to expand to 25 cities from Baltimore, Maryland, to Columbia, South Carolina.
Though expanding quickly, Underground Kitchen is still based in Richmond, and very popular. Dinners are announced via their Facebook page, and interested parties need only register and buy tickets when a dinner is announced. Tickets range from $100 to $200 and sell out quickly, as Sparks and the UGK folks like to keep the dinners small.
“We try not to go over 60 because then it loses its charm,” says Sparks. “It's not the quantity of people, it's the quality of people, foodies and those who like to be around people.”
