Differently from traditional pop-up restaurants, which tend to financially support their restauranteurs as means of profit or living, there is the Restaurant Day event (Ravintolapäivä), founded by Timo Santala, Olli Sirén and Antti Tuomola in Helsinki, Finland, on May 2011.[13] People are invited to put up their own restaurants in the same day, and for one day only. Restaurant Day happens worldwide four times a year, and over 3600 one-day restaurants by estimated 12 000+ restaurateurs have catered for estimated 180 000+ customers in the past Restaurant Days.
21 May 2011: 45 restaurants, 13 cities 18 August 2011: 190 restaurants, 30+ cities, 4 countries 19 November 2011: 287 restaurants, 40+ cities, 2 countries 4 February 2012: 304 restaurants, 50+ cities, 12 countries 19 May 2012: 711 restaurants, 90+ cities, 19 countries 19 August 2012: 784 restaurants, 100+ cities, 17 countries 17 November 2012: 702 restaurants, 130+ cities, 25 countries 17 February 2013: 629 restaurants, 130+ cities, 31 countries
One-day restaurants have so far popped up in 42 different countries including Aruba, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Mexico, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, Venezuela and USA. [14]
