WHAT A TURN OF EVENTS THIS WEEK HAS BEEN! 

2020 has been a damn rollercoaster of a year already. In effort to keep myself occupied with all of the COVID-19 and hysteria, I’ve decided to keep myself accountable and try and write more blog content. Because we’re all going to get through this and dagnabbit I will go to more pop-ups!

Last month (and again, it’s crazy to think how things have changed in just one month 🤯), I was able to visit the King’s Hawaiian’s Breakfast Bungalow.  So let me take you back to that day…

Brand Name/Title: King’s Hawaiian’s Breakfast Bungalow

Location: 1701 Broadway, Midtown, NYC 

Why: King’s Hawaiian is bringing paradise to NYC for 9 days from February 22-March 1. Breakfast Bungalow is an interactive breakfast restaurant and instagrammable pop-up museum.

Appeal:

Coming from California, I can tell you that the Hawaiian food options in NYC are LACKINGGGG. (Can someone please open up an L&L or an Aloha Hawaiian BBQ over here? Like seriously). I immediately gravitated to this pop-up because I love King’s Hawaiian bread. It’s the perfect soft pillowy vessel to make all my sammiches. It’s nice and sweet and provides a nice contrast to whatever filling you put into it. I would happily make 90% of my sammiches with KIng’s Hawaiian bread. They have classic slider sized buns to sliced bread, whole wheat, hamburger, hot dog, etc. Also, since this was timed during NYC winter, an escape to the islands makes a lot of sense. Interestingly this year’s winter wasn’t too bad, but Hawaii is a 5000 mile flight so a fun pop up was a great idea!

The Pros:

I think a big pro was definitely knowing that there isn’t a big Hawaiian food scene in NYC. When I first saw the Facebook Event for this, I thought they were opening a King’s Hawaiian Restaurant in NYC (like the one they have in Southern California). I would have lost all my shits because I’ve wanted to brunch there for sooooo long! In all seriousness, King’s Hawaiian PLEASE OPEN UP A LOCATION IN NYC.

Another pro was the food. I liked that they had sweet and savory options, as well as a vegetarian option. The menu was concocted by Chef Jaime Young.  I tried the Chicken Fried Steak Katsu with Miso Hollandaise, Scrambled Eggs and Crispy Shallots on King’s Hawaiian Original Hawaiian Sweet Sliced Bread and my boyfriend did a Build Your Own Option with a sweet option.

Other selections included a Spam-Egg-and-Shoestring-Potatoes Sandwich, Coconut Smores French Toast, as well as the Build Your Own option I mentioned earlier with almost 50 different toppings and sauces to dress your rolls with. The brand also provided self-serve coffee and water. There might have also been juice (since this event was open to kids) but I can’t recall for sure. 

The last pro was staffing. The venue itself was pretty small, but it seemed like the staff was organized and prepared. Since they did timed entry, none of them seemed overwhelmed or were at a loss for answers (which can happen very often at these pop-ups).

The Cons:

Biggest con for me was the ticket price. For this pop up, Adult tickets were $25 and Children (aged 10 and under) were $10. Entry was timed in one hour blocks and they would have everyone exit after their hour was done so they could reset for the next batch. For $25 you got one small sandwich and a few photo opps. In my opinion, the price didn’t justify the experience. Other paid pop ups like the Museum of Ice Cream charge upwards of $30. While I think that’s still overpriced, they are in larger venues and have more interactive grammable experiences.

There were about 5 photo opps total. Their nicest one was the volcano lake type one that was on the second floor loft area. It was very small and very hot up there so you couldn’t stay around too long because it would have become crowded. There was also a mini ball pit meant to look like a beach, a sand sculpture, a hammock, and surfboards. 

How could we improve the experience?

• A larger venue- I think we could have been in an area that had more room to play in.

• Either more food or a smaller ticket price- I don’t know the exact ins and outs of the cost breakdown for the ticket price. But again I will say that the $25 did not justify the experience given the amount of food given and the photo opps available. 

• Location- most pop ups in NYC are either in SoHo or Chelsea. There’s lots of empty spaces and lots of foot traffic. On a good day, you could even hit up 2-3 different experiences within a 5 block radius of each other. This particular pop up was on Broadway and 54th Street, between Times Square and Central Park but closer to lots of corporate buildings. Not a very busy block and definitely would have fared better if they could have had foot traffic. 

• Experience- I would have enjoyed getting lei’d upon entry, maybe hula dancers or things that made the experience feel more like a luau. 

Overall, I wouldn’t rate this pop up at the top of my list. It was a fairly small venue and I think could have done more given the inspiration. I would have really loved to have felt like I was in Hawaii and the experience came up a bit short.  Still a fan of King’s Hawaiian bread though. Make yourself some Spam sliders and thank me later.