Pop-up restaurants take on a new form with Joystick GameBar’s Kitchen Incubation Program
By Alexander Gagnon
Georgia’s culinary scene is presenting unique opportunities for local chefs to showcase their talents in a variety of new and innovative venues. A few years ago, the Food truck phenomenon exploded onto the streets of Atlanta and other cities across the state, reviving the concept of chef-driven restaurants on wheels. These mobile chef experiences continue to thrive with places like the Atlanta Food Truck Park and Market, and now people are wondering, what’s the next big thing to shake up the industry?
Blink and you may miss it: Pop-up chefs are becoming more popular as many local restaurants open their doors for guest chefs to come in and take over their kitchen for an evening, creating a whole new eating experience in a familiar setting.
The Joystick Gamebar on Edgewood Avenue near downtown Atlanta is known for their old-school arcade ambiance, craft beverage program and overall friendly neighborhood vibe, what many do not realize is they are setting the standard for an entirely new interpretation of the pop-up. Joystick opened its doors three years ago with a very limited food menu consisting of common bar snacks. The owners Johnny Martinez and Brandon Ley knew that Joystick’s kitchen was not living up to its full potential and decided they had to make a change. This realization motivated them to start inviting local chefs to come in a few nights a week to create nightly menus for the Gamebar’s hungry patrons.
“We realized that the short-term pop-up was not a permanent fix to our food problem, so we had to come up with a creative solution,” says Ley.
Brandon and Johnny were inspired by the success of Atlanta’s Fox Bros Bar-B-Q and their humble beginnings serving pulled pork sandwiches out of the back of Smith’s Olde Bar. They realized that Joystick’s kitchen could provide a comfortable, fail-safe environment for chefs to experiment and build their culinary portfolio. With this thought in mind, they transformed the idea of the traditional pop-up and created Joystick’s acclaimed Kitchen Incubation Program. This creatively named program allows chefs to take residency in the Joystick kitchen for a one- to two-year term, in which they are given the freedom to create their own menu without corporate interference.
“It’s hard to get your start in this industry,” Martinez says. “It takes luck, it takes planning, and if you have a little help it can go a long way.”
The first participant of their Kitchen Incubation Program was husband and wife team Chef Steven Lingenfelter and Laurie Dominguez of Illegal Food. Their residency at Joystick started as a short-term pop-up, but with the success of their menu and the couple’s dedication they decided to extend their stay. During their time at Joystick, Illegal Food evolved from a locally known eatery into a culinary destination. Illegal Food’s popularity boomed when they were voted Best Burger in Georgia from Business Insider.
“Our time with Illegal Food was a big educational experience for both of us. We learned something new every day,” say Ley and Martinez. “We were honestly surprised by the success of Illegal Food. Once they were awarded Best Burger in Georgia business doubled almost overnight.”
The Kitchen Incubation Program provided Chef Lingenfelter with the supportive environment he needed to jumpstart his culinary career, and in February 2015, Illegal Food opened its flagship restaurant in the Virginia-Highlands.
The success of Illegal Food inspired another local chef to take residency in the kitchen in hope of a similar result. Joystick’s kitchen is now home to Chef Joey Zalinka, who has held many reputable chef positions all around the city, including Rathbun’s, 4th & Swift, Café Circa, and the Soundtable. Chef Joey began his residency at Joystick with Junk Food, his years-in-the-making restaurant and pop-up concept. Junk Food’s debut menu consisted of his take on traditional comfort food prepared using groundbreaking techniques and creative plating styles.
“I have run a couple of kitchens around the city, but I will tell you running a Pop-Up is 10 times harder than a regular kitchen. Anyone that thinks that it is glamorous or it’s fun, come wash dishes with me every night,” he says.
Chef Joey’s hard work and dedication of his Junk Food program has now evolved into a completely different entity. Junk Food added Babcia’s Pierogies to its menu this past June, and the Polish dumpling quickly became the highlight of the menu. Babcia’s debut pierogi was made from scratch using all local Georgia ingredients like local potato and Vidalia onion and was served with house-made Clabber cream. The popularity of the handcrafted pierogi was so great that he decided to switch concepts completely.
“The transition from Junk Food to Babcia’s has been really slow moving and organic, he says. “No one else in the city was doing Polish food, and it’s something I have been interested in a long time. I am really diving into the Polish culture.”
Babcia’s now offers a wide variety of flavor-filled pierogis, ranging from six-hour braised Oxtail to a sweeter option chock-full of fresh Georgia blueberries. His pierogis are served with your choice of six internationally inspired homemade dipping sauces for a combination of cultural flavors you can’t find anywhere else. Chef Joey is escalating the small kitchen’s potential and is now offering Polish sausages that are made and smoked inhouse.
“There is a traditional Polish element to my pierogis, but I am using Georgia ingredients to create a flavor and texture you can’t get anywhere else, he says. “Even the flour is milled in Georgia. There is nothing else like it.”
Joystick’s Kitchen Incubation Program provides its residents with unparalleled flexibility like no other kitchen program in Atlanta.
“We like food with attitude,” Ley says. “Illegal Food had it, and now Babcia’s is taking a new punk approach to classic Polish cooking. We couldn’t be happier with the change, it is more fitting for us.”
Chef Joey says he’s had an amazing experience at Joystick and he’s so grateful to be a part of the program. The ability to completely change the direction of a kitchen mid-season is something that he could have not done anywhere else in the city. This type of kitchen program encourages creativity through mutual trust and lack of restrictions. Chefs are able to focus on the type of food they are most passionate about, and it can be tasted in every bite.
Chef Joey plans on opening Babcia’s Polish Food in his own location whenever his residency is finished. The kitchen program has given him the necessary tools to move into a new location and be ahead of the game by having an established menu, a cult following and the reputation to be successful. The opportunity that Joystick GameBar is offering local chefs is surely setting a new standard for kitchen programs in Atlanta, and the owners hope that other restaurants will follow in their footsteps with a similar service for the chef community.
With the success of Illegal Food and the popularity of Babcia’s steadily growing, there is no reason why other restaurants should not attempt their own version of the Kitchen Incubation Program to continue progressing Atlanta’s exciting culinary future.
