This week in adorable pop-up news, London-based entrepreneur Ben Spier has rented out one of those iconic, disused red telephone boxes for $29 a month — and converted it into a tiny salad bar, according to Eater.
Established in 2011, Spier's Salads is a family-run business that has been selling hearty food ("Strictly no limp lettuce!" promises the website) to hungry Londoners at catered events and from a homemade cart at farmers markets, according to Tech Insider. Now, however, Ben Spier has taken his business to the streets.
Two days a week (Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11:30-2:30) curious diners can find Spier in Bloomsbury Square, a park in central London, serving his food out of his red booth-turned-salad-shop.
The menu, which the website claims changes with the seasons (rather than with fads or trends), features five types of hearty salads. Each dish is comprised of organic, locally-sourced ingredients, and served in bio-degradable and recyclable packaging.
“We want to look after ourselves (most of the time) but we want to have a good meal too, not an expensive, limp, miserly portion of leaves which leaves us hungry and disappointed,” reads the website.
The salad boxes are priced by container size rather than weight, and cost on average between £4.25 and £7.50 — around $6-$11 U.S.
"I chose to sell from the phone box, because they're beautiful London icons which are used — a perfect brownfield redevelopment," Spier told Tech Insider.
As it happens, Spier is just one entrepreneur among many who have converted the historic red boxes into various shops.
According to Tech Insider, The Red Kiosk Company works with the "Thinking Outside The Box" charitable trust to refurbish the unused icons. After the boxes attain a retail license, the Red Kiosk Company can then offer them out to different entrepreneurs.
Spier’s particular box has been gutted and remodeled to fit in a mini-fridge and custom shelves. The Red Kiosk company also had power installed.
According to Metro, phone boxes around the U.K. have been converted into coffee shops, mini souvenir shops and candy floss shops as well.