Impossible Burger Opens Covert 'Meateasy' in Chicago

As any native Chicagoan will tell you, the city is famously carnivorous - witness the hotdog stands on every corner and legendary four-hour queues for the best burger in town at Au Cheval. 

So for Impossible Foods, the brand behind Impossible Burger, bringing vegetarian patties into the Windy City was always going to be a tough sell.

Teaming up with Wieden+Kennedy, the brand looked to the Prohibition era for inspiration, and came up with a tasty solution: a pop-up speakeasy serving clandestine plant-based burgers and beer - aka a 'meateasy'.

Keeping up with the 1920s theme, old-school delivery boys passed out newspapers on street corners offering information on the location and secret passcode for the Meateasy, which was housed - naturally - behind a fake butcher's shop facade in Chicago's Wicker Park district.  

To work up an appetite for the event, W+K also teased the event with pro-meat propaganda posters and a retro, black-and-white PSA [above] from the fictional 'Chicago Sausage Guild' which called on citizens to 'do their part and keep Chicago sausage-y'.

The Meateasy marked Impossible Food's first branded experience with W+K, which won creative duties earlier this year and will partner with the brand on overall brand development and marketing strategy.