• Marketplace, Monday, July 19, 2010 10:49 AM

Tess Vigeland reports that pop-up stores have taken on a new dimension in the Bay Area: budding chefs are enticing foodies to an abandoned trolley car garage in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday evenings where they offer (and test market) gourmet offerings such as duck confit, handmade rigatoni and carrot cupcakes with goat cheese frosting.

Samin Nosrat and Christopher Lee started the Pop-Up General Store concept last winter after shuttering their high-end Italian restaurant. "It's just kind of a little incubator for businesses," Nosrat says. "We've realized that the current paradigm of what it means to be a food business owner is a really difficult thing. There are just so many costs involved."

Nosrat and Lee say the direct-to-consumer model is helpful for young chefs looking to make a name for themselves in the food industry, and it also helps them to monitor what's connecting with customers as they search for the next big thing. In searching, they may already have found it.

Read the whole story at Marketplace »