A Brooklyn apartment turned pop-up steakhouse for four nights this fall, lowering dinners down to the sidewalk on a homemade pulley before it got shut down amid a wave of neighbor complaints. Some Guy's House, run out of a second-floor unit on McKibben Street, sold just three meals on its opening night and eleven the next — enough buzz to draw social media attention before the whole operation folded.
Chianli Hang, a 24-year-old chef and tenant of the McKibben Street unit, started Some Guy's House with five friends in October as what they described as an offbeat way to make food and social-media content, according to the New York Post. The pop-up operated Thursday and Friday evenings, delivering meals to customers on the street using the window-mounted pulley system. Hang told the outlet the group simply started the venture as a fun activity with friends.
From Three Meals to a Viral Moment
Sales were modest at first — three meals sold on night one — but jumped to eleven by the second night, per the same account. The group had reportedly prepared for as many as 100 pre-orders and sold $25 stickers that came bundled with a free steak, even as the operation racked up several hundred dollars in food and equipment costs. Social media influencers visited to review the food concept, and the pop-up drew invitations to collaborate with Michelin-rated chefs, the report notes.
Dexerto also picked up on the apartment's social-media footprint, reporting the pop-up had caught attention on social media, Instagram in particular, according to Dexerto. The outlet drew a comparison to a Norwegian pizza operation called Pizza from a balcony, which went viral earlier this year for selling slices to passersby.
Complaints, Warnings, and an Early Shutdown
The fun didn't last. Some Guy's House shut down after just four days of selling steaks, the Post reports. Records cited in that story showed six complaints filed to 311 about the operation, and the city's Department of Health submitted written warnings to the landlord in two separate cases over potential violations — complaints that remained under investigation, per those records.
Hang's landlord told him that one person had lodged numerous complaints to the city, and Hang said he believed at least one neighbor strongly opposed the pop-up. The group had planned to operate for one more week and was even considering a DJ for its planned send-off before the shutdown cut those plans short.
What the Health Code Says
New York City's health rules are unambiguous on where food businesses can operate. Under New York City Health Code § 81.17, a permit cannot be issued for a food-service or non-retail food-processing establishment located in a private home or apartment, and such an establishment is not permitted to operate there at all. That provision alone doesn't determine whether Some Guy's House specifically ran afoul of the code — the complaints against it remained under investigation, with no final finding reported.
