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(From left) Shift Meal pop-up founders Stephanie Stanton, Brandon Day, Donovan Herman and Dan McInerney (Photo courtesy Shift Meal)
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“Caviar service,” featuring potato chips and housemade “caviar” pearls made from vegetables (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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The menu from Shift Meal’s inaugural event, “Anything But Pizza” (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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A play on a Margherita pizza, this cocktail was made with olive oil-infused mezcal and tequila, lime, salted agave, orange and tomato cheong, and basil oil. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Blistered shishito peppers topped with Parmesan, lemon butter and “pizza shaker,” a blend of dehydrated pepperoni, garlic, tomato and mozzarella (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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Channeling a calzone, this tomato double consommé is served with three-day gnudi dumplings, smoked prosciutto fat and crispy prosciutto shards. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
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A riff on a stuffed crust supreme pizza, the Wellington was made with Italian sausage, mozzarella, caramelized onions and “supreme pizza” duxelles, served with Parmesan cream, basil-arugula pesto and red sauce. (Photo by Eileen Mellon)
A tropical Painkiller cocktail made with Duke’s mayo. A supreme pizza-inspired filet Wellington. A Cool Blue Gatorade gin sipper. Enter the wild, wacky and wonderfully delightful world of the thematic and ever-changing Shift Meal pop-up. The name is a nod to the family-style meal shared by restaurant industry workers, and the eccentric endeavor brings together a group of best friends, each offering their own unique food and beverage knowledge.
On Sept. 18, the foursome will present “Shift Meal Goes Back 2 School,” a sold-out multicourse dinner inspired by iconic childhood dishes but with a twist. Helmed by Brandon Day, Stephanie Stanton and her husband, Donovan Herman, along with Dan McInerney, the pop-up is one of the most fun, and unhinged, local edible experiences happening right now.
“It feels very much like a labor of love from every perspective. … That is really the driving force, and I think that’s what gets people out to it,” Day says. “Everyone [on our team] has always been open to trying new stuff, that’s sort of the foundation. If one person wasn’t into the silliness, it wouldn’t work.”
Although the events are collaborative, McInerney, a copywriter who previously worked aboard the Zorch Pizza truck, and Herman, who works in startups, hold it down in the back of the house while Day and Stanton, co-workers at Belle Isle Moonshine, collaborate on the drink menus and cocktail pairings. Holding a casual, every-other-month-or-so Monday residency at Zorch when the pie shop is closed and when many industry workers tend to have the night off, Shift Meal officially made its debut in May. During the inaugural event, dubbed “Anything But Pizza,” they presented a nostalgic throwback showcasing the flavors of classic Italian American pizza shops.
The meal kicked off with an Aperol-spritzed Miller High Life pony, along with a riff on caviar service featuring “caviar” veggie pearls served in a Shift Meal-branded tin with chips, blistered shishitos presented with a shaker of homemade seasoning, tomato consommé poured tableside from a coffeepot into a bowl of gnudi dumplings and crispy prosciutto, and a basket of puffed dessert-style pizza rolls with cannoli filling to end the experience.
In July they introduced “Thot Tomato Summer” as part of Duke’s annual Hot Tomato Summer event, where local eateries offer menus celebrating the quintessential seasonal combo: tomato and mayo. There was also the “Third of July Freedom Fry,” where dishes channeled backyard grill sessions, including a shot of Old Grand-Dad with a hot dog-infused bone broth back and powdered ketchup chaser called Hot Dog Water — the event sold out.
“I was like, ‘OK, people are willing to try stuff,’” Day says. “It’s about hitting that sweet spot. You can get really good food in Richmond already, we’re very aware of that. Our goal is not to do that or compete with that, we kind of try to figure out that sweet spot.”
The zany magic of Shift Meal unfolds in a shared iPhone note among the founders, a modern-day vision board for an exchange of eccentric ideas. The crew also holds meetings that range from at-home experiments (dirty martini Jell-O shots) to dinners at Chili’s (they’ve got a soft spot for the chain restaurant). And while Day says they had originally planned just a one-off event, the response from diners and the camaraderie with the team have been rewarding.
“I’m not a fan of group projects in the past, but with this, it works,” Day says. “This felt like a good space for us to do what we love already and what we don’t always get to do in our 9-to-5, and do it as a group. Having the creative juices of four people really just brainstorming and shooting the s---, I think that’s really the only way we’re able to change a theme every time.”
Although silliness is an underlying theme of the boundary-pushing, tongue-in-cheek Shift Meal, the group’s thoughtfulness, intentionality and attention to detail shine just as brightly. Each event features a curated playlist that can be found on Spotify, Donovan designs the flyers and illustrates stickers, and Day sewed the red-and-white checkered tablecloths for their inaugural event.
“I think for the person coming, you get that full experience, and for us, we feel like we can sing from the same sheet of music — the playlist, the food, the drinks, everything comes together,” Day says.
“We all genuinely love food and drinks, but I think the benefit of none of us being classically trained or big names or being bar stars, it’s sort of because no one has taken us super seriously to this point, we don’t have to [be serious],” he adds. “It’s an ego check that gives us freedom to do what we want, and also deliver something fun and delicious and excellent and not feel any pressure.”
Follow Shift Meal on Instagram for updates on future pop-up events.
