NYC food-pop-up platform 8it is taking its discovery-first model off-screen with First Taste, a one-day festival set for Saturday, Sept. 19 at LilliStar, the rooftop venue atop Moxy Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Running from 2 to 8 p.m., the event operates on a strict premise: every dish, drink, song, and garment debuting at the festival is being released for the first time anywhere.

The Chef Collaborations

Three exclusive food pairings anchor the lineup. Potluck Club and Ace's Pizza are dropping a Chinese Sausage & Peppers Detroit-Style Pizza that fuses Potluck Club's Chinese-American cooking with Ace's signature square-pan format. Titi's Empanadas is collaborating with After Eden chef Nancy Nguyen — an Eleven Madison Park alumna whose banh mi sandwiches have been selling out in 15 minutes on weekend pop-up shifts — to create a Banh Mi Empanada. The third collab pairs Loser's Eating House with OREO Cookies on the Big OREO Roll: a sourdough brioche cinnamon roll layered with OREO butter, finished with olive oil cream icing and OREO cookie chunks. The partnership originated when 8it asked each participating chef their dream collaboration. For Loser's Eating House founder Lizzy Koury, the answer was immediate: "I grew up eating OREOs, and I've wanted to put them in our roll since day one. Getting to actually do it with OREO is surreal."

Beverage and Format Details

Hennessy is the beverage partner, with bartender Gelo Honrade of After Eden debuting two original cocktails crafted with Hennessy Very Special cognac exclusively for the festival. Guests 21 and older receive a complimentary welcome cocktail — Henny Rita, Henny Berry, or Henny Iced Tea — on arrival. The featured beverage drop is a collection of ready-to-serve bottled cocktails made with Hennessy VS, available for purchase onsite. Every attendee also receives a First Taste passport at check-in; stamps collected at all three food drops unlock a limited-edition tote from designer New York Penn, customized on-site with NYC-inspired patches. New York Penn will also debut an exclusive customizable jacket in three colorways, available only at the event. The DJ set list — built around unreleased tracks from Sunny Cheeba, Curly Nez, Just Dimy, Rae Sada, and Dos Flakos — rounds out the all-premiere programming format.

For operators tracking emerging food festival formats and brand partnership strategies, First Taste is a compact case study in experiential scarcity: low ticket price ($15 advance, $20 at door), food purchased separately, and a passport mechanic that drives traffic across all vendor stations. Reserved group tables are available at $500. The model mirrors what beverage brand activation teams have pursued at music festivals for years, adapted here for the independent restaurant and pop-up community.

8it, which also produces the 8it Awards, the hospitality give-back series Family Meal™, and the Paella Rave food-and-music series, positions First Taste as a recurring franchise — the "001" designation in the official event name signals the company's intent to build it into a series. For independent chefs and emerging food brands, the platform offers a low-barrier route to co-branded visibility alongside established names like OREO and Hennessy, a dynamic that is increasingly common in foodservice as CPG brands seek authentic culinary partnerships beyond traditional retail activations. Food & Beverage Magazine has covered the broader trend of CPG brands embedding in chef-driven pop-up culture as a strategy to reach younger, food-forward consumers.

Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.