The Residence Hosting BBQ And Fried Chicken Pop-Ups, More On The Way

The Residence Hosting BBQ And Fried Chicken Pop-Ups, More On The WayPhoto: torbakhopper/Flickr
Mike Gaworecki
Published on September 18, 2014
You may be in the habit of wandering into The Residence at 718 14th Street for an after-work drink or weekend night of boozing with friends. But there are now a couple more reasons to pop in at the cozy neighborhood bar. Delectable, savory reasons.
Since experimenting with a pop-up called Easy Creole a while back, The Residence has been cooking up a lot more in its kitchen, and we got co-owner Marija Maldonado on the horn to dish out all the details. Currently, she tells us, there are two regular pop-up food offerings at The Residence.

On MondaysSneaky’s BBQ is serving up classics like pulled pork, brisket, and baby-back ribs, with baked beans, collard greens, and shells and cheese on the side. Plus, it’s trivia night!

On TuesdaysUncle Brother’s Chicken changes up its menu weekly, crafting a different style of fried chicken, two sides, and bar snacks, all of which fit the week’s theme. Past incarnations have included General Tso’s chicken, German Chicken Schnitzel, and Korean Chicken Karaage with Kimchi. “It’s a fun exploration of not just these styles of chicken, but that whole style of cooking,” chef Wes Rowe tells us (yes, the same guy is behind Mojo's Wesburger pop-up). 




Sneaky's BBQ/Facebook

The Residence opens at 5pm, and the pop-ups start serving promptly at 6pm. They go until 10pm or whenever the food runs out, which has been known to happen as early as 8:30 on some nights. The best advice is to just go straight there from work to get your fix. 

If your tuba lessons are on Mondays and your group yogalates classes are on Tuesdays, don't fret: you're still going to get the chance to experience the pop-up fun at The Residence in the near future. According to Maldonado, they’re in the process of searching for pop-up chefs for Wednesday and Sunday nights. (Incidentally, if you’ve got a pop-up concept you'd like to debut, let us know in the comments and we can connect you.) 

This type of constant reinvention is nothing new to The Residence. Maldonado and fellow owner Peter Paul Garcia opened the space in 1998 as the Zodiac Club, a restaurant and bar. But after September 11th, 2001, a large swath of the city's restaurants closed, and Maldonado says they felt like they had to make a switch. “People didn’t want to go out to eat. Can you blame them?”


tkamenick/Flickr

So, in 2002, the Zodiac Club became a full-time bar called Amber, which longtime residents will remember as one of the last bastions of indoor smoking in the city. When 2010 rolled around, they once again changed concepts, and The Residence was born. 

Future plans include having someone back in The Residence’s kitchen cooking up bar snacks every day, in addition to the current and future pop-ups, so stay tuned for more on The Residence's culinary offerings in the future.