One of the world's greatest chefs moved to Mexico for 7 weeks and launched a pop-up that did $4 million of business
Renovation is expensive, especially when you're renovating a high-end restaurant. Beyond the costs of renovation, every day your restaurant isn't open you're losing money.
For one of the world's most celebrated chefs, René Redzepi of Copenhagen's infamous Noma restaurant, a planned renovation presented an opportunity. "We just wanted to come to Mexico," Redzepi told Vogue.
And so they did.
With Noma's Copenhagen location closed temporarily, Redzepi and his staff re-located to Tulum, Mexico - a tiny town along Mexico's Caribbean coastline, where Redzepi, his staff, and a group of locals are serving 7,000 meals across the span of a month.
Each of those 7,000 meals comes with a $600 price tag attached (over $750 with tax and services included) - the absurdly high cost of a "hyper-local" tasting menu meal created by Redzepi and co. When the pop-up restaurant, known both as "Noma Mexico" and "Noma Tulum," closes shop on May 28, it'll have grossed over $4.2 million.
Not too shabby for a one-month pop-up restaurant in a remote region of Mexico! Here's how they did it.