With The Corner Kaput, Pop-Ups Find New Homes

On Sunday night the Ken Ken Ramen pop-up served its last noodle at The Corner. Meanwhile, the managers gave away free ice cream to diners as they moved everything out of the basement during service. There was a flood, they said, so they had to leave. But The Corner is in deeper water than that. SFoodie spoke with chef Joanna Karlinsky of the Sweet Joe's pop-up, who said the Health Dept. recently inspected the space, finding it was only set up to be a wine bar, not a full service kitchen. Naturally, they had to cease operations.

On a brighter note, most of the transient businesses The Corner housed since it morphed into a pop-up venue will live on elsewhere. Ken Ken will open its permanent location before the year's out. Sweet Jo's will move its weekend brunch operations to Winemaker's Speakeasy (the artist formerly known as B³ and "B cubed" at 1152 Valencia St), and EAT from chef Tommy Halvorson will do the same. In fact, Halvorson will start his residence at Winemaker's Speakeasy this week with dinners on Thursday and Friday. A portion of proceeds from both nights will benefit Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard.

The Corner's other remaining pop-ups, CatHead's BBQ and Soul Groove (chicken and waffles), are moving operations elsewhere too. See this tweet here and this one here. Places like Vinyl Wine Bar, Mojo Bicycle Cafe, Radius and La Victoria Bakery continue to house pop-ups on the regular, and the overall pop-up phenomenon appears to be weaving its way further into the fabric of San Francisco dining, so there's hope. Any in-limbo pop-ups will probably land on their feet, at least for a little while.

· The Corner, the Mission's Pop-Up Host, Shut Down [SFoodie]
http://sf.eater.com/tags/the-corner All Previous The Corner Coverage

[Photo: SFoodie/Janine Kahn]