Starter Kit. Idea 128 of 500. Cluster 6
Fusion pop-ups and supper clubs
The mechanism, from the book
Dilmah says it earns over 3 times the national average price for tea, because it does its own blending, branding and packing. The proof has been sitting inside the industry all along.
The first step
Host one supper club in a borrowed space, a friend's garden or a café on its closed night, with a set menu mixing Sri Lankan dishes and another cuisine you cook well. Sell 16 seats in advance through social media and a guesthouse noticeboard. If it sells out and guests ask when the next one is, you have a monthly event and a list of names.
- Who pays first
- Residents and visitors in a city or tourist town who want an evening out that is not another hotel buffet.
- What leaves today
- Sri Lankan food is sold cheaply as rice and curry; a sold-out supper club is proof it can carry a premium, which every food exporter needs.
Ask first
- the local council (Municipal Council, Urban Council or Pradeshiya Sabha). Ask what licence a temporary food event needs.
- the area Medical Officer of Health. Ask what hygiene standard a pop-up kitchen must meet.
Check before you spend
That the venue and kitchen are licensed for food, that alcohol is served only with a licence, and what insurance covers guests.
Find out these three numbers
- What will guests pay for a supper club evening?
- What does one evening cost to run?
- How many guests make a pop-up pay?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.