Shadowing Practice: Why "pop-up" restaurants are everywhere now - Learn English Speaking with Video

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We saw five people, doing the line there, waiting for me.

20 people, 50 people.

I just hit my head and hit it.

I don't have anything else.

According to the National Restaurant Association, in 2021, nearly 90 ,000 restaurants across the U .S closed.

The pandemic changed everything.

The restaurant industry was especially vulnerable.

People were unemployed.

They had time on their hands, but they were also really strapped for cash and it pushed a lot of people to develop pop -ups.

In 2022, there were 105 % more temporary restaurants or pop -ups than there were in 2021.

And in 2023, there was 155 % more than in 2022.

While the pandemic certainly didn't create the pop -up, it did lead to an explosion of them.

So what does it take to make a pop -up restaurant successful.

And is this business model sustainable?

I was a sous chef at Eleven Madison Park.

I worked in fine dining for almost 10 years.

That was always my goal, to open my own fine dining restaurant.

My name is Eric Huang.

I am the chef and founder of Pecking House.

I'm Amanda Rosa and I'm the co -owner of Porter Town.

I left Eleven Madison Park in January of 2020 and then all of a sudden lockdown happened.

Everybody's stuck at home.

We were unemployed and just had the time.

Traditionally, people would have thought of a pop -up as more of a space you go to.

But due to the circumstances of the pandemic, it became this pop -up that came to you.

The pandemic pushed Jorge and Amanda to take to the streets to bring their specialty tortillas and tacos to people,

while Eric decided to sell pop -up Sichuan -style fried chicken deliveries from the back of his car.

One day we just replied to an ad on Craigslist.

That was our first pop -up we ever did.

We were like, let's just go for it.

And once he kind of got the taste for being able to do our own thing, we just kind of went from there.

Instagram specifically has become the biggest tool for pop -ups.

Once I committed to the fried chicken recipe, we just kind of told people about it via Instagram,

and it just kind of slowly spread from there.

The only marketing we've ever done is through Instagram, and again, it was very little by little.

Then we got a couple press hits, and it just took off like wildfire.

That Rob Martinez video that went viral on Instagram.

It's called Border Town.

Smoky, spicy, rich.

Let's support Jorge's business and come out next week.

Yeah, the following pop -up that next Sunday was lined.

I think the line was running to the end of the line.

Around the block.

We were just two people making tacos for the food.

We could only really deliver to about 120 people a day, which was already a lot.

It was crazy and really challenging.

The worst thing is disappointing people who have waited.

It's just like you never, never want that to happen because...

Yes, we're one of those.

We're at this turning point though, where a lot of people who were running these pop -ups feel,

you know, it was incredible to do it for as long as they've done it,

but it's untenable to kind of grow until they decide what the next step is going to be.

Let's take a second to thank our sponsor, Verizon.

This month, Verizon's Small Business Days are back to help make things a little bit easier.

From August 5th to August 11th, you can meet with business experts, get one -on -one advice, free tech checks, and special offers,

like a free 5G phone when you switch over to their service.

So don't miss out.

Now back to the video.

Popups are incredibly hard to run.

It's not everyone's goal to be doing that forever.

And the power of power, power, power, power, power, power,

power, power, power, power, There's not a ton of data on the successes and failures of pop -ups,

and that's largely because every small business has different goals.

You know, what is the success rate?

I can't really answer that

because I think that's not everyone's goal to be doing a pop -up that turns into a restaurant.

There are many pop -ups, like Apocalypse Burger in Indianapolis, that found success, yet closed their doors to focus on other projects.

Or Southeast Roadhouse in Texas, which is a new pop -up from two chefs who previously popped up with other restaurants.

In some cases, the limited run is the goal.

For so many people, this is the first time that they've ever been able to really dream.

The good things about the pandemic is they shook up the normal order of things.

And I think people were just like, oh, we don't, there are no rules.

If the pandemic hadn't happened, we'd probably just be working in someone else's restaurant right now.

The pandemic definitely gave us the time, the freedom to just make this happen.

There are many storefronts that are opening this year

that came from people who built an audience through pop -ups just on Instagram, which is really exciting.

We were kind of a nomadic restaurant for almost a year.

It was a whole process of learning how to sign a lease, how to set up insurance,

workers come into all these things you never learn as a chef.

Then you build a restaurant and that's a brutal process.

The future of Border Town is definitely a restaurant, you know, definitely a brick and mortar.

That kind of brought me back to my roots of like, you know, this is what being a chef is really about, is making people happy.

I'm very grateful for it and that's how I met my future wife, so it's pretty good too.

I'm going to go to the next video.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This speaking lesson is built on the video “Why "pop-up" restaurants are everywhere now”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: pop, restaurant, pandemic, chef, Instagram. This video has 77 sentences and 1147 words to shadow. The speech runs for 5:55. The speaker talks fast, about 194 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
chef noun	/ʃɛf/	The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
boom verb	/bum/	To make a loud, hollow, resonant sound.
taco noun	/ˈtɑkoʊ/	A Mexican snack food made of a small tortilla (soft- or hard-shelled) filled with ingredients such as meat, rice, beans, cheese, diced vegetables, and salsa.
unemployed adjective	/ˌʌnɪmˈplɔɪd/	Having no job despite being able and willing to work.
fry verb	/fɹaɪ/	To cook (something) in hot fat.
temporary adjective	/ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/	Not permanent; existing only for a period or periods of time.
occur verb	/əˈkɜː/	To happen or take place.
founder noun	/ˈfaʊ̯n.dəː/	One who founds or establishes (a company, project, organisation, state, etc.).
worker noun	/ˈwɝ.kɚ/	One who works: a person who performs labor for a living; traditionally, especially, manual labor.
sudden adjective	/ˈsʌd.ən/	Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
incredibly adverb	/ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/	In an incredible manner; not to be believed.
grateful adjective	/ˈɡɹeɪtf(ə)l/	Of a person or their actions, feelings, etc.: expressing gratitude or appreciation; appreciative, thankful.
commit verb	/kəˈmɪt/	To give in trust; to put into charge or keeping; to entrust; to consign; used with to or formerly unto.
compensation noun	/ˌkɑm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/	The act or principle of compensating.
shake verb	/ˈʃeɪk/	To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
pop up verb		To come up with a "pop" sound.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
come out verb	/ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/	To be discovered; to be revealed.
go up verb		To move upwards.
line up verb	/laɪnˈʌp/	To align; to put in alignment; to put in correct adjustment for smooth running.
miss out verb		To miss an experience or lose an opportunity, etc. that should not be missed.
shake up verb		To agitate by shaking.
take off verb		To remove.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

We were like, let's just go for it.
You know, what is the success rate?
I'm very grateful for it.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	has become · we've ever done · have waited
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	day, which was · people who have · people who were
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	were unemployed · were also really strapped · was lined

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 13 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, they've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: chef /ʃɛf/, compensation /ˌkɑm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, explosion /ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/
Long words — get the stress right: temporary /ˈtɛmp(əˌɹ)ɛɹi/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, compensation /ˌkɑm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/, sustainable /səˈsteɪnəbəl/, traditionally /tɹəˈdɪʃ.ə.nə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like chef, boom, taco.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Why "pop-up" restaurants are everywhere now - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?