Rhea’s Cafe, a 50s inspired sandwich cafe with green piping, small tables, and round bar stools, in the Mission, is known for their Korean inspired sandwiches. But between mid March and mid April, the restaurant was transformed. During that month, you were greeted by a cheery pink mural of an abstract paint swipe with white Helvetica on top saying, “Have a Good Day, SF,” complete with a smiley face above it. Rhea’s usual yellow and green storefront had been painted a similar shade of pink, with lilac detailing, and its baby blue sign had been replaced with a pink one, now saying: Glossier at Rhea’s.

I attended the popup on April 10th, after seeing weeks of social media posts about how great the space was, how good the chicken sandwich was, and how perfect the makeup was. Even five days before the end of the popup, Rhea’s was packed with teenagers and women dressed in Instagram influencer approved outfits, their boyfriends or fathers sat at the bar counter raving about the sandwiches, while Glossier showroom editors (sales associates,) wearing pink boiler suits, gave makeup demonstrations.

Glossier at Rhea’s was styled a collaboration, instead of a traditional pop up shop, a cross between a cult-favorite makeup brand and a cult-favorite sandwich shop. Uniting them into one convenient [and expertly curated] location.

Rhea’s started as a deli and market, with owner James Choi adding its popular sandwiches after finding a gap in the market: Korean-American fusion. Much like Glossier founder Emily Weiss (who comes from a fashion journalism and blogging background,) Choi didn’t really have a food background, but decided to enter the market anyway, with the help of a chef.

Glossier, an online based makeup brand, was originally an offshoot of Into the Gloss, a popular lifestyle blog, but has taken on a life and identity of its own. Known for their sleek yet playful packaging, use of social media marketing, and collaborations with restaurants, the cosmetics brand has turned into a huge success.

While Glossier rose meteorically, Rhea’s Cafe has been struggling. Originally opening to fanfare and making multiple local “best sandwich” lists in 2013, the attention died down. Which made Choi set up limited business hours (10AM-3PM) and maintain a smaller staff to keep the cafe open. A month long pop up shop seemed like a great solution to the problem: Rhea’s provided the space and menu, while Glossier provided a remodeled space, a month of rent, and a new demographic to try the food. But did it really benefit Rhea’s in the long run, or was it just a tool for Glossier to spread their cool-girl products in a quirky new way?

In addition to partnering with a local San Francisco business, the brand actively looked for Bay Area natives to work as showroom editors. Nikki Nguyen, a Bay Area native and “loyal Glossier customer,” got her editor positions after a rigorous interview process. “I sent in my resume, then a few days later I got a video interview scheduled. [...] After that I had an in person interview with Hadas, Glossier’s retail experience manager who gives the final ok,” she added, “I think something like 80 people made it to the video interviews, and in the end 20 people were hired.”

Nguyen loved talking to the customers at the pop up, revealing that some of them, “had come from as far as Los Angeles.” She recalled a cute exchange between a Sausalito dad who took his daughter to the pop up and owner James Choi. “The dad was at the counter ordering food from James, and they both have daughters around the same age, starting to get into makeup and all that. James said ‘I figure she’s gonna get into makeup anyway, so I don’t want to be all macho and against it.’ And the dad said, ‘Yeah, I want to be a part of that with her and show her really positive brands that let her feel confident, like this place.’”

“I think that will always stick with me. It was really refreshing to see two fairly masculine men talk like that, considering most people, even as young as myself, were raised very differently,” Nguyen added. The cafe was decorated with Glossier ad campaigns featuring women of all ethnicities and sizes, much like the editors working there. Multiple reviews from local parents taking their teenagers to the pop up said similar things about feeling comfortable with introducing the makeup brand to them, because of their body-positive stance.

But not everyone loved Glossier at Rhea’s. Our Mission NO Eviction, an anti-displacement group based in the Mission posted a call to action on March 14th, to boycott the space during the pop up. Which led to debate in the post’s comments, with people calling it a “pink eyesore” that was leading to more gentrification, while other people familiar with the brand were happy Glossier was “helping” Rhea’s stay open. They also accused Glossier of “whitewashing” a Sirron Morris mural with their “Have a nice day, SF” one.

Cheyenne Tupou, 25, a semi-regular at Rhea’s, who highly recommends the Korean steak sandwich, describing it as “bomb,” laughed when I told her about the post, saying that it was “totally inaccurate.” The mural space was actually painted by Deli Up, and had been covered up a couple of years ago, and Sirron Morris (an SF artist and head animator for “Bob’s Burgers”) had painted a small mural of the sitcom’s characters on the roll-down door of the restaurant, which was removed on February 2017 under the landlord’s orders.

But the few negative comments, didn’t seem to stop Rhea’s regained popularity. When I visited Rhea’s on May 2nd, and was greeted by a line that went outside the front door. “I can’t believe it’s still so busy,” said Sarah Sikora, 22.

Sikora, one of the pop up’s showroom editors, had made the trek from the Sunset to Rhea’s to get the buttermilk chicken sandwich. “I’m obsessed with this place now, which is funny because I had never heard of it until I applied for the editor position,” said Sikora.

Around us, all of the barstools, seats, and tables were full of people chatting and eating. Choi and two cooks ran around the exposed kitchen toasting buns, frying chicken, and making slaw. “It doesn’t feel so hot in here, and there’s so much space now,” says Sikora, “that was the most difficult thing about working here: the heat from the kitchen and the amount of people in the store.”

When we get to the front of the line, Sikora hugs the cashier and reminisces about the popup with him as she orders. I ask her why she returned to Rhea’s so soon after the pop up; she quickly answered, “the staff is incredible, and it was kind of a weird workspace with limited space, but they made all of us [editors] so comfortable, and made sure we were fed. Plus, everything is delicious, why wouldn’t I love it here?”

The difference between Glossier at Rhea’s and pop up shops displacing the businesses hosting them is that Glossier is in a completely different industry than Rhea’s Cafe. Additionally, the company currently has no plans for opening more brick and mortar locations outside of their New York showroom and upcoming Los Angeles showroom. The truth of the matter is that Glossier is incredibly successful due to the brand’s embracing of scarcity: keeping demand high with low supply, and hosting these pop ups as once in a lifetime events.

Current research on pop up shops inside existing stores, essentially say that pop ups create a paradox of sorts, preventing gentrification by helping struggling businesses pay their rents and serving as “vacancy fixes,” while also encouraging gentrification by serving as a test-run determining whether or not a store is likely to succeed, which may displace the business hosting the popup. Which means that the pop up phenomenon is paradoxically both the gentrifier and the thing preventing gentrification.

In the case of Glossier at Rhea’s, Glossier was not the gentrifier, and prevented gentrification by covering Rhea’s rent and bringing in publicity. But they also brought a possible gentrifier: upper middle class women who travel for miles to buy luxury cosmetics. But how terrible can they be if they’re buying lunches from an independently owned sandwich shop?

Tupou, a Mission resident, originally had conflicting feelings about the popup, saying, “I’m happy they’re getting more buzz and I like Glossier’s lip balm, but it kind of sucks that I have to use the takeout window to get my lunch because it’s so busy in there.”As busy as it was, the pop up didn’t stop her from getting her twice weekly steak sandwiches, “I love this place and I hope this whole thing lets them have more regular hours and keeps them open, you know?”