tentenBack at the beach – The Waterfront Venice is back open for outdoor dining and to-go orders. The boardwalk restaurant with its reconfigured patio is open Wednesday through Sunday with social distancing rules in full effect; protocols are outlined on their website here. In addition to their signature tacos and full menu, picnic baskets to go will also be available like the Beach BBQ with eight tacos (two of each: mahi mahi, Pacific shrimp, tri-tip, Baja crispy fish); chips and guacamole, ceviche, corn on the cob and watermelon. The California BBQ includes a whole chicken, chips and guacamole, artichoke dip, salad, corn on the cob, tortillas and watermelon.
Passersby on Melrose Ave. can now walk up to the Spartina street-side cart and grab their popular fried chicken sandwich to-go. The sandwich was a special off-menu item prior to the pandemic and has now been added permanently after Spartina reopened for outside dining. The outdoor patio has been set up to include a walkup booth where, at the moment, only the huge chicken sandwich topped with prosciutto di Parma, fontina cheese, hot honey dressing and sweet slaw, served on a brioche bun is available to-go every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.
NoKidHungry Spatulas (Courtesy Williams Sonoma)
You can never have enough spatulas, and now No Kid Hungry and Williams Sonoma’s has a limited collection of celebrity-designed spatulas for their sixth annual “Tools For Change” fundraising program. This year’s celebrity designers include: Kris Jenner (including her iconic catchphrase “You’re doing amazing, sweetie”), Kristen Bell (“Cooking is my love language”) and many more colorful, personal designs from famous chefs, music artists and celebrities like Hoda Kotb, Dolly Parton, Curtis Stone, Giada De Laurentiis, Ina Garten, Molly Yeh, Misha Collins and Gaby Dal-kin
bushi by JINYA will start serving its variety of traditional ramen and hand rolls to everyone in Los Angeles when it reopens for takeout and delivery on Saturday, Aug. 15. They plan on celebrating their reopening by giving away Official Bowls at random on grand opening day.
Ela Ela, the h.wood Group’s newest ghost kitchen concept featuring a Mediterranean-inspired and California-grown menu, is popping up for outdoor dining reservations Wednesday through Sunday from 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. via OpenTable.
Spicy Chicken ) Courtesy bushi by JINYA)
Located in a cozy alley tucked away off of Waring and La Cienega you can expect Ela Ela’s full menu from roast chicken with grilled lemons to tahini roasted vegetables and orange blossom pudding with sesame brittle alongside chilled wine, beers and cocktails to enjoy al fresco. Ela Ela joins the group’s two recently launched ghost kitchen concepts,Mama’s Guy and Lilah’s. And a fourth, the vegan concept Beautiful Foods, will round out their roster of ghost kitchen concepts when it launches later this month.
With Dine LBC – Long Beach Restaurant Week on hiatus this summer due to COVID-19, founder and organizer Terri Henry has launched the non-profit Long Beach Food & Beverage with planned initiatives to support local restaurants and chefs. The inaugural initiative is a series of virtual, live-streaming interactive cooking classes hosted by Long Beach chefs that start on Saturday, Aug. 15. The classes will be launched on a private ZOOM platform with limited number of viewers at a cost of $35 – $55 per class, the revenue shared between the chef host and Long Beach Food & Beverage to cover operational expenses.
Participating chefs include: Chef Kat McIver (Wide Eyes Open Palms), Chef Amanda Jackson (Netflix’s Cooked with Cannabis and Chef Amanda & Co.), Chef Kevin Lemmon (Kevin’s Kitchen), Chef Christian Simionato (Sestieri), Chef Vinod “VR” Venkataraman (Appu’s Café), Chef Jill Sassoon (Scratch Baked Goods) and others. Additional chefs and classes are being added daily, upcoming cooking classes can be found HERE.
In honor of National Bratwurst Day, guests at Dog Haus can score a $5 Das Brat or Beyond Brat on Sunday, Aug. 16. This celebratory special can be redeemed in-store with app scan, or when guests order pickup or delivery through the Dog Haus App, at participating locations. Guests can claim the offer here.
What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the LA Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.