NYC food-pop-up platform 8it is taking its dish-drop model off-app and into a ticketed live format with First Taste 001, a one-day food and culture festival set for Saturday, Sept. 19 at LilliStar, the rooftop venue atop Moxy Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Entry is priced at $15 in advance or $20 at the door, with food drops purchased separately onsite and reserved group tables available at $500.
The Food Lineup
Three exclusive chef collaborations anchor the event, each conceived as a true one-day-only LTO with no prior public exposure. Potluck Club and Ace's Pizza debut a Chinese Sausage & Peppers Detroit-style square pie, fusing Chinese-American technique with Ace's signature format. Titi's Empanadas teams with After Eden — helmed by Eleven Madison Park-trained chef Nancy Nguyen — on a Banh Mi Empanada, a mashup that tracks directly with the cross-cultural fusion trend driving independent foodservice in urban markets. The headline collab pairs Loser's Eating House with OREO Cookies on what the brand is calling the Big OREO Roll: a sourdough brioche cinnamon roll layered with OREO-infused butter and finished with olive oil cream icing. "I grew up eating OREOs, and I've wanted to put them in our roll since day one," said Lizzy Koury of Loser's Eating House. "Getting to actually do it with OREO is surreal."
The OREO partnership is particularly notable from a branded-ingredient standpoint. Consumer packaged goods players have accelerated co-branded foodservice activations in recent years as a low-cost route to trial and earned media — and a single-day, high-demand pop-up format limits supply-chain exposure while maximizing scarcity-driven buzz. For independent operators like Loser's, the arrangement offers brand equity and ingredient subsidy without a long-term licensing commitment.
Beverage and Experiential Layer
On the beverage side, Hennessy is debuting a collection of ready-to-serve bottled cocktails made with Hennessy Very Special cognac — the featured beverage drop of the event. Guests 21 and older receive a complimentary welcome cocktail from Hennessy's Very Special Cocktails lineup, including a Henny Rita, Henny Berry, or Henny Iced Tea. The RTD format aligns with continued category growth in premium ready-to-serve spirits, a segment that has seen consistent volume gains as on-premise operators look to reduce bar labor and speed throughput at events.
8it is also layering in a passport mechanic: guests collect stamps at all three food drops to earn a limited-edition tote from New York Penn, customized onsite with patches. A separate exclusive jacket in three colorways from the same designer rounds out the merchandise offering. The passport-and-reward structure is a proven engagement tool in experiential foodservice — operators from major food hall concepts to festival formats have used it to drive full-venue traffic and extend dwell time.
For 8it, First Taste represents a deliberate expansion of its monetization model beyond app-based discovery. The platform already produces recurring live formats including its annual 8it Awards, a hospitality industry give-back series called Family Meal, and Paella Rave. A ticketed, brand-sponsored festival with CPG partnerships adds a higher-revenue event tier to that stack — and a proof-of-concept for scaling the format to other cities or recurring editions. Whether First Taste becomes a quarterly franchise or a one-off test will likely depend on sell-through and operator interest in a second edition. The foodservice pop-up and experiential dining segment has shown durable consumer demand in post-pandemic urban markets, with scarcity and exclusivity remaining the primary demand drivers.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
