The Rise of Pop-Up Restaurants
Discover why pop-up restaurants exploded in popularity during the pandemic in this real-world B2 lesson. Students watch a lively video, learn key vocabulary like vulnerable, sustainable, and storefront, and discuss how pop-ups are changing the food industry. The lesson blends critical thinking, speaking practice, and creative activities like pitching their own pop-up ideas. It’s designed to get students using natural language while exploring a fresh, relevant topic. Perfect for classes that enjoy practical topics, strong discussions, and real examples.
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| Level | Vocabulary | Video length | Lesson Time |
| B2 / Upper-Intermediate | 10 words | 5:40 min | 60 min |
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Vocabulary
- vulnerable
- strapped for cash
- sustainable
- sous chef
- fine dining
- it took off like wildfire
- untenable
- storefront
- nomadic restaurant
- brick and mortar
Contents
- Lead-in 1
- Lead-in 2
- Vocabulary match
- Video
- Comprehension
- Comments
- Practice
- Discussion
- Answers
- Restaurant recommendation
Lead-in
This upper-intermediate lesson on pop-up restaurants begins with a page featuring three images of different types of restaurants. Start by encouraging students to examine the pictures carefully and discuss their differences, advantages and disadvantages, and personal preferences. Push them to describe each restaurant in detail, focusing on atmosphere, service, and food.
The next page offers a set of discussion questions to activate ideas and prepare students for the main topic. Use as many questions as needed depending on your class size and timing.
Vocabulary match, Video, Comprehension
The vocabulary matching activity introduces 10 key words taken directly from the video, chosen to suit upper-intermediate learners. Students match definitions on the left to the correct words on the right. After completing the match, ask students to watch the video, which explains the rise of pop-up restaurants. Their only task during the first viewing is to watch carefully and focus on capturing as many details as possible. Note: there is a short advertisement (around 20 seconds) between 3:33 and 3:55 — you can advise students to skip it. After watching, students move to a comprehension task where they complete 10 sentence prompts by recalling key information from the video.
Comments, Practice
Next, students read and react to real comments posted under the video. They should share whether they agree, disagree, or have a different opinion. The following practice task invites students to pair up, choose a question from the list, and fill in the blanks based on their partner’s answers. The key vocabulary is not provided on this page, encouraging students to recall and reuse the new words naturally from earlier activities.
Discussion, Restaurant recommendation
The next page introduces a group discussion task. Students first work in pairs to guess the meanings of several restaurant-related concepts. Give them about three minutes to brainstorm together before leading a full-class discussion to compare ideas and see where opinions differ. After the discussion, students turn to the next page to check the correct meanings and talk about any personal experiences related to these concepts. The final task, Restaurant Recommendation, asks students to recommend a real restaurant from their city, following a simple set of guiding questions. This activity is highly flexible — you can use it for speaking practice in class or assign it as homework if you prefer.
