The Astro Diner Starts Popping Up at Seven Star in July

An Asian street food-inspired restaurant in Roslindale is getting ready to debut a space-themed breakfast pop-up next month, complete with "galactic spacecakes" and chorizo hash. Seven Star Street Bistro will bring The Astro Diner to life in its 153 Belgrade Ave. space next month, serving breakfast and lunch.

Seven Star posted about the forthcoming pop-up on its Facebook page, and Astro Diner has a social media presence of its own, complete with some alien graphics and vague hints of what kind of food will be served, including those spacecakes (pancakes perhaps?), hash, and organic eggs.

Seven Star is currently open Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday from 5-9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 5-10 p.m., so this pop-up will extend the restaurant's hours to cover the most important meal of the day (and lunch). Eater has reached out to Seven Star for some more details on the Astro Diner pop-up and will share all the details on the menu as soon as they are available.

Update, 6/28, 5:45 p.m.: Christopher Lin, the chef and owner at Seven Star, told Eater the restaurant had been looking to add a breakfast and lunch concept to offset its "quirky dinner-only hours" and to "get more use out of our new dining room." Lin said the concept came to life when he met Mickey Velasquez, who most recently worked at Rox Diner and whose family helped run Sorella's in Jamaica Plain.

"I had a space that wasn't being utilized during the day, and she wanted to open a breakfast spot but needed someone who had the experience and space to bring that to fruition," Lin said. "We decided she would run the kitchen, and I would be in charge of the concept, design, etc."

Lin said the space theme came about randomly. "I threw out the name Astro Diner as a joke, and Mickey liked it," he said. "I looked up the meaning of astro, and kind of thought it was appropriate, as we would be marketing the Astro Diner as a pop-up of Seven Star — and astro means 'pertaining to the stars.'"

After they landed on a name, the themed dishes followed: "space cakes" for pancakes, "space jam" for homemade jam, and "moon rocks" for house granola. Also on the menu: lemon ricotta and kiwi strawberry banana pancakes, chorizo hash, beet and sweet potato hash, panini, and burgers. Lin said they also planned to serve Kaldi's Coffee from St. Louis — "kind of random but the best coffee I have had so far nation-wide; hopefully we will do them justice. They take their brewing very seriously."

Astro Diner will run two pop-ups from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a limited menu July 9-10 and 16-17. Eventually, it will have an expanded menu and more permanent hours Thursday through Sunday.

"We are very excited, and to be honest we are just kind of having fun, putting out some great food and seeing where this dual concept/long term pop-up thing takes us," Lin said.