BaoBowl is the new pop-up by Chef Trevor Lui of Joybird Fried Chicken and creative agency Quell Now, that is temporarily running in Stackt Market's Bathurst Street facing units, while the inside of the premises undergoes city maintenance.
As February 27 was Joybird's last day of service inside Belgian Moon Brewery, for the time being, Chef Lui is choosing to shift his focus from fried chicken to bao.
Debuting earlier this week, BaoBowl is set to run in its own spot for one month only at Stackt Market and has a "build-your-own" menu, where you can customize either bao sandwiches or rice bowls to your liking.
Once you choose between either pillowy bao buns or fragrant jasmine rice, the decisions become even tougher as you select from proteins including mapo tofu and pulled beef, as well as sauces like gochujang and adobo. Making your topping choices easier, at BaoBowl you can add all eight to your order, for no additional costs. These include Taiwanese pickles, chef Lui's Crazy Rich Chili and crispy shallots.
As for what you need to try first, the chef says there has been a clear fan favourite so far, "We've run out of pork belly two days in a row, so I'm going to say people have a fond love of pork belly."
Located at 28 Bathurst, in Unit 1-103, BaoBowl shares a space with Belgian Moon's new bottle shop and this pop-up itself was actually brought to fruition spontaneously.
"It was just opportunity because one of the stalls on Bathurst Street was vacated by a past tenant, so we knew that Stackt was going to open a bottle shop, well what if we shared the unit and made this happen and literally, we made the decision almost overnight," says chef Lui. "We had to flip this and get it ready inside in four days."
Already busy with shutting down Joybird's operations inside Stackt Market, another challenge the team faced was trying to devise a menu that would accommodate their new space, which isn't equipped for a restaurant to take over.
"We had to be creative because we don't have a hood in there, so we can't fry, we can't stir-fry, so we came up with ways to do food with what we had," says chef Lui.
Devising a way to create delicious food in a limiting building, the chef says that this was the perfect opportunity to showcase their assets and love for Asian cuisine, incorporating elements in the food that represent his staff at Joybird. This you'll notice, while taking a glance at the menu.
Sharing the new location with Belgian Moon's new bottle shop means that similar to Joybird inside of Stackt Market, you'll still be able to add beer or cocktails alongside your order.
BaoBowl operates Tuesday through Sunday from Noon until 11 p.m. Takeout only, they're available for both walk-up orders and Uber Eats for delivery. Be sure to follow along with BaoBowl via Joybird Fried Chicken's Instagram, especially for new updates on a more permanent location for the concept, to be announced soon.
