The Sold-Out, Vietnamese Pop-Up Seen Around The World | Secret’s Out | NYT Cooking

[MUSIC PLAYING] “That feeling of a pop-up,
that never really goes away. It’s a traveling show. You’re just making it happen.” “You feel that energy. You feel that excitement. Cooking one menu, one
time for 24 hours is — It’s great.” “We go to London. We go to LA. It’s like, it’s oh,
it’s going to be busy. 45 minutes. Reservations have been full
for pop-ups. You announce it, It’s done.” “If we cook it,
they will come.” “I definitely
heard about them. I did a deeper dive on social
media and I was like, wait, I definitely need to know
about this because they’re Everywhere. There’s something attractive
about places that aren’t Always available.” “Sadie and Anthony do
almost everything together, And it works out
really, really well.” “What they set out to do
took the city by storm.” “I’ll grab my laptop bag.” “I’ve got to pack
the car up and down.” “Pack the car.” “Got some shelves. A lot of schlepping. I think this is going
to be two trips. I’m just going to bring
down the shelf and then grab The rest of my stuff. That’s so funny, me
with the [BLEEP]: Louboutins and you
with the grill.”

“You have a dust
bag for these? Nope?” “No. I’m Sadie Mae Burns-Ha.” “Ah! Hi. I’m Anthony Ha.” “We run Ha’s Dac Biet, which
is a Vietnamese pop-up turned Almost restaurant.” “Almost.” “This is our Ha’s sign. [LAUGHS]: Now we just use it
for dinner parties when we Want to set the vibe.” “Ha’s Dac Biet means — Ha’s my last name. Dac Biet means
special, house special. So it just means
Ha’s special.” “We’ve described it as
Vietnamese bistro food.” “Vietnamese home food.” “In our Instagram bio, it
says everything contains fish Sauce. That’s the building
block of our food.” “Yeah.” “We are going to the Union
Square Farmers Market. It’s the best of the best. They’re really
special farmers. The days like,
leading up to a pop-up Are always kind of
piecing things together. We find a space that will
host us and we coordinate with Them, building a menu,
figuring out their systems, Having pictures sent to us of
the kitchen so we know what We’re working with.” “And then you get there,
and then you’ve got to check The ingredient list.”

“It’s usually
only one prep day. The way that people eat our
food is that we will announce It on Instagram.” “They just find
a way to come.” “They come. You’re putting on a show
for a night, and you’re –” “Or week or a month.” “– by all means necessary,
you’re making it happen. And it is never that easy. I mean, the schlep is
half of having a pop-up. Wake up. We go to the farmers market. We load the car. Usually, we’re running
around Chinatown.” “Hi. How are you guys doing?” “That’s nice. Yay.” “You use those? Say, you like these
for the wedding? Now we’re just looking.” “I know. There’s so much fun
stuff we can get.” “We need a spider? These do.” “They’re like, so
tender and sweet. Best green beans
I’ve ever had.” “Hey, Donnie. How are you doing?” “Hi, Donnie. Best tomatoes in town. Can I get basil, Anthony? You’ve got the big plate?” “This is all us.”

“I’m going to get our stuff. Is that O.K.?” “Yeah. I don’t know where
it is, though. Yeah. You got a bag? Nice to see you. Bye.” “The floating
Vietnamese kitchen. No one floats like him. He floats like a butterfly
and sting like a bee.” “You guys mind telling
me what we’re going?” “We’re going to –” “We’re going to Leo.” “– Leo.” “Prepping for the greatest
steakhouse of all time.” “So we were driving back from
Montreal with our friend, Shyan. That idea of him –” “To do a steakhouse night.” “– to do a steakhouse night.” “Nothing is more monumental
than a steakhouse in New York. That’s like the best thing
you can do to celebrate.” “Go to a steakhouse.” “So we wanted to do
something really celebratory. Steakhouse, why did
we want to do it?” “No one’s ever done it before. Because it’s a dumb idea.” “It’s not a dumb idea. It’s a great idea. In different pop-ups, we’ve
never repeated the same exact Menu.” “It’ll change depending on
where we are and how we want To cook that day, what
ingredient we have.”

“We like, can’t do
the same thing twice. We get restless if we feel
like we haven’t been able To experiment
and play around.” “This is the whole menu?” “I like to start.” “We still need sides.” “You want to say bistro
steak or hanger steak? We’re realizing this menu
feels a little ambitious. Only because there’s
a little unknown. There’s a little –” “Of what?” “– keep you on your toes.” “I don’t think anything
ambitious, though. It’s just cooking. Cook the meat. Sauce the meat. See you later.” “Noah says, how many people
are staying with you all Before or after the wedding?” “Tell him we have a couch.” “This is going to be
equal parts pop-up talk, Restaurant talk,
and wedding talk. We’re getting married
in three weeks. Planning the wedding has
become our other full-time Job.” “We met in 2015 at
Mission Chinese food. I was a dishwasher, and then
she walked in for a trail And needed a hair tie. Had a hair tie malfunction,
and I gave her a hair tie.” “And we very quickly
started dating. We just love doing
things together. Like, we just both have –” “I think we came close
together because of food. No?”

“Totally.” “We were exploring, eating
dumplings before –” “Work.” “– work. And we were like, what can we
squeeze in before a 2:00 PM Call time? And we’d just like,
run around the city.” “Yeah.” “Before work.” “We don’t like to sit
still, and we still do that. We don’t sit still.” “No.” “Anthony, Shy!” “Yes, Sadie?” “Let’s go over the prep list.” “He’s worried about
the onion rings.” “Why?” “Because the fryer
is kind of small, And we’ve got to do fries.” “But we’re frying
them ahead of time. Every table is going to get
crudité a la Keens Steakhouse. They normally do
blue cheese dressing, But we’re going to
do tartar sauce. Celery, pickles,
cucumbers, radish, olives. Leo’s making their focaccia,
and we’re whipping butter For that.” “When was the first
iteration of Ha’s, And how did that come about?” “The conception of it was
completely Anthony’s idea.” “The conception of it was
like a street vending cart, Watching Chinatown carts,
rice roll carts be like, Just vending. And as a line cook, six
months in, everyone’s kind Of disgruntled, whatever.

I’m just kind of like, why
can’t we just run a chicken And rice cart? 2017 or 2018, it wasn’t that
much out there for Vietnamese Food, and there definitely
wasn’t versions of the pork Noodle dishes and the banh
mi that we were chasing.” “We had recently
been to Vietnam. Anthony’s family is from
California, Westminster area, Which has the largest
population of Vietnamese People outside of Vietnam. So the food out
there is so good. And even if you go to Philly,
there’s a lot more variety Than has previously
existed in New York. And so we knew that there was
a void that we could fill. It’s personal, and it’s
personal to the people who eat Our food. Our food feels
nostalgic to them, And it reminds them of –” “Tastes like home.” “Yeah.” “It’s like, well, my
mom used to make it.” “Yeah. That is the best
compliment that we get, And that is the goal for us.” “This would be a
standard setup. This was in front of Foray. We had baskets and little –” “Sadie would bake a galette.” “[LAUGHS]: It was so crazy.” “This is on the street. People would just buy
quail on the street.” “Yeah.” “People would line up. From the beginning, people
just were interested in it. They were like,
whoa, what’s this?

And then they would
wait an hour and a half For a sandwich.” “Because we were so slow.” “Because we were
so slow and messy. I mean, we learned
as we went.” “First opportunity to do a
pop-up in the restaurant space Was Vinegar Hill House. That was January 2021. So restaurants, at the
time, weren’t back.” “No one was allowed to
eat inside at that point.” “So we used their back patio.” “We used their back patio. It was literally snowing.” “People were outside,
bundled up in the snow, like, Eating pho. That was the first time that
people came to a restaurant To eat our food. Hannah Goldfield wrote
an article about us. Anthony Ha and Sadie Burns,
who worked in high profile Kitchens until
last March, opened A pop-up offering
set meals and add-ons For delivery or
takeout inspired By home cooking, their
travels in Vietnam, And whatever
strikes their fancy. That’s still pretty much it.” “That’s still it.” “So that made people
take us seriously. Then we went to Frenchette,
which has so much prestige Attached to it. We did take out there. And then there was a ‘New York
Magazine’ article that came Out. It was no longer just like,
a playful side project. It was our business
and our livelihood.”

“One day, Sadie finds Early
June’s Instagram and it says, We host traveling chefs. Making Paris happen.” “Guess we’re going to Paris. We’ve been to Paul Bert in –” “Montreal. Paris, London.” “Mexico City, LA. We have established little
networks in those cities. Another restaurant
will reach out and say, You should do it here. And then we’ll say, O.K. We
describe the model as kind Of being on tour. It’s a traveling show.” “It’s kind of fun.” “And it’s –” “It’s like a show.” “– totally
exhausting, though.” “Yeah, you get tired of it. But again, we get used to it,
and it’s like, how we live. There’s no other
income other than this, So it’s a necessity to do it.” “We’re somewhere in between
restaurant cooks and event Cooks, at this point. And we had to make a decision. We do things a certain way,
so we’re kind of establishing Slightly new systems, but
adjusting to the systems that Already exist in
that restaurant. And each one has their own
quirks, and eccentricities, And ways of doing things,
different walk-in spaces. Where did you say
the fish sauce was? Different equipment shortages. You don’t know
until you get there. Then you pivot, pivot.

Sometimes, that’s
really stressful. Maya, what’s my mood
during pop-ups?” “You wouldn’t see it, but
energetically, you’re like –” “Yeah.” “– O.K. We’re going
to get through this.” “We work with such
awesome people, And they’re also our friends. And so it would be stupid
if we were mad and stressed The whole time. But obviously, it
gets stressful. Like, tomorrow is going to be
a really hard day, for sure. It’s going to be
like 250 people. We’re doing all the
prep for it today. It won’t be a
walk in the park. Do we want the huevos?” “Do we want it?” “I don’t care.” “Well, yes or no?” “Shy, what do you think? When you order a wedge, are
you excited about the addition Of eggs?” “Not really.” “O.K. No eggs.” “Reality is that it took
a really long time for us To separate the emotion
of being a couple from The emotion of
running a business, And that’s the
hardest part still. But I think we’ve gotten
so much better at that side Of things.” “Sadie and Anthony, I
admire them as cooks. They don’t hide
behind anything. All their food is like,
four-seam fastball, Down the middle
every single time.” “Yeah.

I think punch it
up, but it’s good.” “I think the pop-up model
allows them to run as exciting As a menu as they want.” “So you blend
half of the corn. So I’m just going to saute
it down with the jalapenos.” “One big night,
two big nights, Three big nights in ways
restaurants don’t normally Have, and can
give it their all, And cook all the
way to burnout.” “My name is Mike.” “Hey, Mike.” “I own Leo Restaurant
in Williamsburg. We love doing events here, and
we do the same thing every day Of the week. So it’s really fun for us
and the staff to have anybody Come. Whenever they call,
we don’t say no.” “So we went pretty
classic, pulling from all Of our favorite steakhouses. Oysters Rockefeller,
breadcrumbs already In the butter. We cannot do that without.” “They have such
amazing palates. They never put out food that
isn’t delicious and exciting. Shrimp cocktail. Cocktail sauce is
this sweet chili. We take all these peppers
from the market and cook them Down.” “Part of the draw for pop-ups
is that it is like a one night Thing, or a two night thing. It makes it more of an event. You feel that energy. You feel that excitement. Cooking one menu, one
time for 24 hours is —

It’s great.” “It’s going to
be a great night. Thank you, guys. I’m mostly feeling like I
really have to intensely Focus, because this is a
specifically big one that We’re prepping for, and a lot
of people that we know are Coming, and blah, blah. It’s hot in here.” [CLASSICAL MUSIC] “Fully booked here.” “I mean –” “O.K., so I’m
re-centering myself. And what I need is some
whipped cream, whipped fast. Maybe we try to put the
sauces on the plate. Let’s work six burgers, Shy. Fiorella, can I have
a buttered green bean? No, I don’t need
any more chicken. What I need right
now is two hanger. One to table one with this
chicken, and a corn pudding. Is there a lobster coming? Two more ribeye.” “I got a ribeye here and
then another ribeye.” “Just fire the other one.” “Vanilla ice cream, chocolate
fudge, that whole thing. Lemon meringue pie. Oh my God, lemon
meringue pie.” “This is all the people that
are still waiting to sit, Which is substantial.” “You’re the absolute best!” “It’s really good.” “220 people tonight. I believe that’s the most
they’ve ever served in one Service, like, one pop-pop.” “Order in, hanger, burger.

Uno wedge.” [CHATTER] “Over the years, we’ve
developed a lot of familiar Faces, and we have regulars. And that is the most special
part about it, hands down.” “Totally.” “Recognizing –” “A pop-up with regulars?” “– and people who we don’t
have any connection to.” “We went when it was on the
Lower East Side in that little Restaurant space.” “Like, Forsyth Street.” “They go to all these
different restaurants, But they still maintain like,
the same signature dishes.” “It’s always really hard
to get a reservation here. She got one like, three
minutes after it was posted Online.” “We love their food. We run a pop-up
series ourselves, And we’re also a couple. And –” “Yeah, so they’re a big
inspiration for how to make That work.” “Why did you guys decide that
was going to be your last Pop-up?” “We signed the
lease for a space. I don’t think people have
truly seen what we think that We’re capable of yet because
we haven’t created a space That’s completely ours yet. And it’s run itself out. We’ve known for a while. We’ve felt it for a while.” “The tour is the tour.” “Yeah.

We want to focus
on a restaurant. The goal has always been
to open a restaurant, And so we’re shifting gears. Like, we don’t want to
do a pop-up anymore.” “We’re thinking that the bar
kind of starts where Sadie is, And then runs along to
where you still have room For the bathroom. It’s a bar. It’s a snack bar. It’s wine. It’s small plates.” “I think it’s a new
challenge for them. They have to now
do the same thing, Execute it every single
day for their customers. That’s like, very different
from what they do now.” “To me, this kind of seems
like the culmination of all Their efforts in a really
exciting and fun way.” “I expect their menus to
continue to be as inventive.” “It’s hard to imagine them
not popping up all around The world. It’s the end of a chapter. If anybody’s going to do it
well, it’s probably them.” – [LAUGHS]: “What is this place
going to be called?” “Ha’s Snack Bar. The goal is to have
that on plates.” “On plates.” “Stamped.” “Waiting to see.” “I can picture now.” “I know.” “Congratulations.” “Thank you so much.” “Thank you.”

“How’s the new space going?” “You should see it.” “Can you believe it? Have I seen you since?” “You know we signed a space.” “I know. That’s what it said.” “Yeah. We’re opening a restaurant. And then we’ll probably
get tables along here, A little more seating here. All this is out. And I’m going to put a new
table so we can build around What is necessary. Bring down that shelf. Knock out the kitchen. Gut it so that we can
start from a blank slate.” “And then this
pipe going up –” “Yeah.” “– it’s too small.” “Where’s that going? Is somebody stealing?” “This has been my
goal from the get go. I knew in high school. I mean, it’s beyond my wildest
dreams because I’m doing it With my husband. Um,” “Fiancee.” “Fiancee. Soon to be husband. Husband to be.” “[LAUGHS]: I’m going
to the jeweler. I’m going to go get
my wedding ring. All right.

We’re good. This video is really
about us getting married. [LAUGHS]: I’m getting
married to Sadie, And then we’re getting
married to the restaurant. It’s all happening. It’s hilarious.” “Our motivation is that
we love cooking together.” “Totally. We’ll be cooking at home.” “We have to — totally. We have to do this together. It is our love language –” “Love to cook.” “– with each other.” “Yeah.” “And then we get to build
a business off of it.” “Thanks, Flynn,
for the floors. They’re Incredible. [HUMMING]: You guys have
got a lot of editing to do.” “I’m sorry.” “I keep [BLEEP]:
muting [BLEEP]:.” “Hard to manage. I told you.” “Yeah. Should we go?”