Food on the move: Look what's popped up

Soggy samosas and sad sausage rolls are out. So, too, are tired ideas about small business promotion.

Sasha Simpson is the concept caterer behind Prep'ed by Sasha and the driving force behind a foodie pop-up in High Street, Bramley, that's all about collaboration and leveraging off shared networks.

It merges her food with speciality ice creams, live bands, creative cocktails and coffees like you've never tasted before. Its aim is to delight and surprise Joburgers while sating their craving for things innovative and unexpected.

"The food scene can be fickle. People want new things all the time so I needed a different way to showcase my food. My kitchen and offices are in an office block that's nothing like a corporate park, so it became an obvious step to transform the parking area into the after-hours pop-up events space we've called Unit 8," she says.

The "we" Simpson is talking about is her and her sister, Mikasa Sonnenberg, a photographer, designer and inadvertent trend-spotter. The sisters reinvented the parking space with lighting, candles, plants, inventive furniture (much of it homemade from recycled pallets) and the right vibe.

"I get bored quickly myself so I know people are always looking for different things to do in the city," says Sonnenberg.

A year ago they hooked up with Paul Ballen of Paul's Homemade ice cream and the band Sutherland and launched Unit 8's first pop-up called "Ice Cream" Sundays. It became an instant hit, with about 600 people served that day. Now, every last Sunday of the month they get through 100 litres of Paul's ice creams, including flavours like earl grey and pink peppercorn with salted caramel. Ice creams are served in glass jars and are accompanied by Simpson's baked creations like madeleines or butternut brownies. She includes a savoury menu too, sometimes with an ice cream twist - sweetcorn ice cream with avo, salsa and braised beef in a tortilla.

Simpson puts the pop-ups' success down to mutualism. She says: "Collaborating, sharing networks, resources and stimulating new ideas is the way to go."

Their mid-week soup night pop-ups were a hit last winter and this month they launched a Friday pop-up bar called Backyard. It is a collaboration with Molecular Bar for cocktails and March Hare for coffee. H omemade bottled cocktails are served alongside beetroot coffee and balsamic and pumpkin coffee.

"We love to keep things fresh, seasonal and quirky, and we play with ideas. So even we don't know exactly what we will come up with next," says Sonnenberg.

• Like Unit 8's Facebook page or go to www.prepedbysasha.co.za