Pop-up restaurants flourish as cafes get creative on covering costs

The Age

13-07-2025

It can feel impossible to find a cafe serving coffee after 3pm in most Australian cities, but increasingly, you might be able to buy a taco from one instead.
With a large chunk of small business owners continuing to grapple with soaring rents, utilities and wage bills at a time when customers are feeling the ever greater cost of living pinch, a growing number of cafes and daytime eateries in Sydney and Melbourne have begun subletting their shopfronts and kitchens.
Beyond sharing the burden of rent, the trend has paved the way for a wave of food entrepreneurs, often individuals or couples who maintain day jobs and would have otherwise tested their culinary business ambitions as a market stall or food truck, instead taking over a cafe's physical location, sometimes for just a handful of nights a week.
One such business responding to the mounting pressures is the Rosebery location of Sydney cafe group Luxe.
Damian Burcher, who has owned Luxe Rosebery since August 2023, was acutely aware of difficulties that lay ahead, having seen several branches of the brand across Sydney shut in recent years. Last year, when the nearby Luxe Green Square closed, one of its employees, Luis Arana, approached Burcher with an idea.
'I said mate, you're still paying rent after 2pm until the next morning, why don't you let me try out a taco night. What do you have to lose?' Arana said, seeing a lack of authentic, casual Mexican eateries in the area.
Arana had migrated from Mexico to work as a head chef at a pub owned by hospitality giant Merivale, but had left to pursue a less stressful existence, working between a butchery and Luxe Green Square. There, he had trialled taco pop-up nights and was eager to continue the side hustle in Rosebery.
Adobo Taco was born. Initially opening just Friday and Saturday nights, within months it had added Thursdays to cope with demand.
Arana said sharing a location made the barriers to entry were far more manageable than the costs and regulations associated with a food truck, which he and his partner Andrea Tenorio had earlier explored. All the couple needed was an ABN, insurance and an EFTPOS terminal. Luxe's kitchen, liquor license, and over time, customers, would be shared.