The Concept

8it, the New York City app that curates food pop-ups and new dish drops, is translating its discovery-first digital model into a ticketed live event. First Taste 001, scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 19 from 2 to 8 p.m. at LilliStar — the rooftop of Moxy Williamsburg at 353 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn — will feature three chef collaborations, a branded beverage debut from Hennessy, and a limited-run fashion drop, all being released publicly for the first time. General admission tickets are priced at $15 in advance and $20 at the door; food drops are sold separately on-site. Reserved tables for groups are available at $500.

The Food Collabs

The culinary program centers on three exclusive pairings engineered for the event. Potluck Club and Ace's Pizza are debuting a Chinese Sausage & Peppers Detroit-style square pie, merging Chinese-American cooking with Ace's signature format. Titi's Empanadas is collaborating with Nancy Nguyen — an Eleven Madison Park-trained chef behind After Eden, whose banh mi sandwiches have been selling out within 15 minutes of weekend service since opening — to produce a Banh Mi Empanada. The third collab pairs Brooklyn pop-up Loser's Eating House with OREO Cookies on the Big OREO Roll: a sourdough brioche layered with OREO-infused butter, finished with olive oil cream icing and OREO cookie chunks. The OREO partnership originated when 8it asked each participating chef to name a dream brand collaboration; Loser's founder Lizzy Koury identified OREO immediately.

The cross-category brand play is notable for OREO, which moves more than 20 billion units annually in the U.S. alone. Embedding the brand inside an independent-chef pop-up context reaches a food-forward consumer cohort that mass retail activations typically do not. For operators and food-and-beverage brands tracking experiential marketing, the format offers a case study in co-branding through culinary IP rather than conventional sampling.

Beverage and Broader Program

At the main bar, Gelo Honrade of After Eden will debut two original cocktails crafted with Hennessy Very Special cognac, created exclusively for the festival. All guests aged 21 and over will receive one complimentary Hennessy Very Special Cocktail on arrival — options include the Henny Rita, Henny Berry, and Henny Iced Tea. The featured beverage drop is a collection of ready-to-serve bottled cocktails built on Hennessy VS, positioning the cognac brand within the fast-growing ready-to-drink spirits segment that has expanded aggressively into on-premise foodservice and event channels.

Beyond food and beverage, the event's format reflects a broader trend of food-platform operators layering cultural programming — music, fashion, limited merchandise — onto culinary activations to drive ticket revenue and brand equity. A First Taste passport system incentivizes guests to visit all three food stations: collect stamps at each drop and receive a limited-edition tote bag from New York Penn, customizable on-site with patches. The DJ lineup, featuring Sunny Cheeba, Curly Nez, Just Dimy, Rae Sada, and Dos Flakos, is built exclusively around unreleased tracks.

"8it has always been about helping people stay tapped into what's next in New York food before everyone else is talking about it," said Steve Raggiani, co-founder and CEO of 8it. "First Taste takes that same idea out of the app and into real life."

First Taste joins a growing portfolio of 8it live events that includes the 8it Awards, the recurring hospitality industry give-back series Family Meal™, and Paella Rave — signaling the company's strategic push to monetize its tastemaker community through owned-and-operated experiences, a model gaining traction among food-media and discovery-platform operators across the foodservice sector.

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.