In which L.A. TACO's Hadley Tomicki fills you in on the most exciting new restaurants, pop-ups, and food events cracking in and around Los Angeles. Plus, a discount for members to Saturday's Asada Fest.
DOWNTOWN
This Saturday, EVERYone is invited to the carne asada. Asada Fest, to be specific. It's a huge party in the Arts District honoring northern Mexico's most venerated cuts of mesquite-grilled meat, centered on the 40-year history of the head butchers of Northgate Market.
Some notable chefs will offer their own recipes to sample here, including Baja big gun Javier Plascencia, Claudette Zepeda, Sonora's Nereida Vejar, Yesenia Rios, RobeGrill "Que Chillie," and the gang from Heritage BBQ, while a handful of our own hometown heroes from Tacos Don Cuco, Macheen, La Carreta, Tacos La Rueda, and Mochomitos will be among the taquerias doing their own cooking.
There will also be mezcal, Mexican wine, beer, cocktails, live lucha libre, a DJ, cooking demos, photo opportunities, and live music from a Selena tribute band and Mi Banda El Mexicano at 5 PM.
Aaaaand, Northgate is offering a discount code for L.A. TACO Members to use for tickets. Simply write in merosmeros when checking out!
Saturday, July 13 ~ 1005 Mateo St. Los Angeles, CA 90021
VENICE
Chef Wes Whitsell, who was awarded his first Michelin star while at Culver City's Hatchet Hall, is now cooking at Winston House in Venice, where he's giving a Texas drawl to the world of red sauce Italian with his own concept, Mama's Boy.
Under stygian lighting and the soulful spins of a DJ, checkered tablecloths are soon layered with unique riffs like pimento cheese arancini, dry-aged kingfish crudo with passionfruit and Fresno chile, plates of agnolotti stuffed with smoked brisket and manicotti filled with venison ragu, along with cornmeal-fried oysters and pizza pies on a base of razor-thin flour tortilla made with Tehachapi Grain Project's Sonoran wheat.
To drink, you may opt for a My Way martini with house vermouth and fino sherry or the Gin & Juice, with gin, white vermouth, peach, matcha, and yuzu designed by a vet of Nomad and Melrose Umbrella, as your relative summer mood sees fit.
23 Windward Ave, Venice, CA 90291
ARLETA
Catch Tacos El Jalisciense's shiny black food truck out in Arleta. The crew loves loading up tortillas, bolillos, nachos, and fries in almighty heaps of buche, asada, al pastor, cabeza, and chorizo for the betterment of the world.
9750 Woodman Ave. Los Angeles, California 91331
DOWNTOWN
Yess, London chef Junya Yamasaki's creative Japanese restaurant is now reopening in the Downtown Arts District. It riffs on izakaya standards with California ingredients. You'll find an a la carte menu with dishes like a whole lobster katsu burger, silken tofu with salsa macha, vaca vieja beef tataki, Dungeness crab "under a fur coat," binchotan-grilled tenderloin steak, and pit-smoked Peads and Barnett's pork collar with ginger honey and cantaloupe.
Dessert includes Irish coffee kakigori shaved ice with coffee-whisky syrup, dates and whipped cream. To drink, you'll have your pick from natural wines, sake, shochu, Japanese teas, and aperitifs. A seasonal, 10-seat "chef's table" omakase will launch in the weeks to come.
2001 E. 7th St. Los Angeles, CA 90021
KOREATOWN
Adobo on the double! Adobo squared!
Today, Downtown's Open Market L.A. is offering Mejorado tortillas from Burritos La Palma filled with a blend of Mexican and Filipino adobos. You can eat the chicken-based burritos on the spot or take a box of frozen burritos home to the adobo-adorer in your life.
11-3 pm pop-up launch, 3339 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90010
ECHO PARK
The team behind Lonely Oyster and Little Joy has taken over the boathouse and restaurant on Echo Park Lake to open Piknik, the perfect stop before you steer a colossal, swan-shaped paddle boat through uncertain waters.
The concept offers coffee drinks and juices, as well as chef Don Crisp's dishes such as ground pork-and-wagyu meatballs, gravlax, gouda cheese bombs, mushroom toast with onion soubise and shimeji pickle, quiches, and pastries like a toffee-and-cornflake cereal cookie, chocolate-hazelnut layer cake, and strawberry madeleine.
Piknik also offers to-go picnic baskets that come with blankets, so you can stretch out with someone cute and conk out for a nap.
751 Echo Park Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90026
WEST HOLLYWOOD
Private Reserve, a stylish new cannabis consumption lounge, is now open in West Hollywood behind Off The Charts Dispensary. Central to the experience is a 24-seat u-shaped bar where a dedicated budtender will hand-roll your bombs and pack your bong loads, while bigger groups can take over a booth.
Touting a selection of 16-20 flower strains and promised rarities, customers can also opt for a custom omakase-style cannabis flight in which an assortment of high-end strains are hand-picked for them to try. Guests can also pre-order their herb for the after-hours when the space is forced to stop cannabis sales and hold it in a locker for you so you can grab it later and blaze it in the lounge through the witching hours.
The concept is one of West Hollywood's small number of consumption lounges.
8448 Santa Monica Blvd. West Hollywood, CA 90069
