Lev

Note: The Bed-Stuy address linked above hosted Lev for much of summer 2023, but follow their Instagram for future pop-ups.

New Yorkers love a pop-up. The harder to get into and the more impossible to track down, the better. That must be why Lev, a pop-up from two alums of Miznon and HaSalon, has dominated algorithms with its impressive tomato displays, and general lack of communication about dates, times, and locations.

Lev does site-specific cooking (including for hire), and their menu is different at every event, but you can expect a slew of seasonal vegetables and meats prepared with theatrical flourish, right in front of you. And natural wine, of course. A meal at Lev is edible performance art, and finding out how to attend one is no small project.

If you attend an open event, you may need to do some genuine detective work to figure out where it’ll be, and once there you’ll definitely wait in line: the kind of line that people will skip because they know someone who knows someone who dates that person at the salad station. More recently though, they've begun hosting ticketed dinners, with menus announced beforehand, and you can follow their Instagram for details.

Lev is insidery, it’s sceney, and it’s heavily photographed by Brooklyn micro-influencers. And yet as you leave, end-of-summer sunburnt after an afternoon of eating tender shawarma and artisanal cotton candy on an outdoor rug—or warmed by a fire, and pink lady apple pudding during one of their winter events—it might occur to you that you just experienced something magical.

photo credit: Willa Moore