WEB EXTRA: Zolia Bistro plans first taste at Pop Up Restaurant

BATON ROUGE, LA (NBC33) — The items on the menu for Zolia Bistro Enoteca have not even been printed. No sign is hanging outside of its future home in downtown Baton Rouge. This weekend, however, Baton Rouge residents will get to take the first taste of the restaurant set to open this December.

Matt Anderson, General Manager for Zolia Bistro Enoteca [1], says that when he was approached with the pop up restaurant concept, he was thrilled with the idea.

“We really wanted a way to kind of showcase and more or less have a sneak preview of what’s to come when we open,” Anderson said when explaining why Zolia opted to be a part of the Pop Up Restaurant. “We thought this is going to be a really great fit for us to showcase some of the nice plates that we’re going to be offering in December.”

The Pop Up Restaurant concept is the brain child of Manuel Valencia. This will be the third event in Baton Rouge that his company, 300 Seats [2], has sponsored. With the goal of bringing unique, cultural experiences to the Red Stick, Valencia says a Pop Up Restaurant is the perfect addition.

“It's a concept that's being done all around the world right now,” Valencia told NBC33 News. “They're doing them in Madrid, London, Spain, New York and now Baton Rouge.

“With the Pop Up Restaurant, what we're going to offer is a unique experience at every seating,” he added when explaining how the concept came about. “We're going to do Indian, South American food one night; we're going to do Italian at another seating and then we're going to do sort of like a downtown New York dinner-type of thing with our midnight seating.”

Zolia Bistro is set to debut items that are as much a part of its future menu as they are foreign. In this extended web extra video, Anderson explains the future delectable items you will find at Zolia, as well as the tasty experiments they have planned for their afternoon seating on Saturday, Sept. 17 in the Pop Up Restaurant.