tentenTecate is featuring a new four-part Latin music livestream and benefit concert series called El Patio Tecate that kicks off this Friday, August 21, featuring performances from Fuerza Regido and El Fantasma, among others. The event will help raise funds for the L.A.-based culinary nonprofit No Us Without You, and 100 percent of all proceeds raised will be donated to the Latino-led organization. The nonprofit was created at the start of the pandemic to help immigrants within the local culinary and hospitality community, especially back-of-house staff, and now provides meals for at least 1,000 families each week across L.A.
Trejo’s Donuts is celebrating the NBA playoffs with Lakers and Clippers donuts. The L.A. Lakers donut consists of strawberry jam with buttermilk glaze and the Clippers donut is a buttermilk-frosted shell and vanilla pastry filled strawberry jam donut. The fritters are available daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Lakers donuts (Courtesy Trejo’s Donuts)
In celebration of their new DTLA location, Sky’s Gourmet Tacos is offering their $2 taco Tuesday special from Friday, August 21, through Tuesday, August 25. Choose from chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, carnitas or potato and cheese, available via their various delivery platforms for DTLA orders. Open from 9:30 a.m. – 12 a.m. Monday through Sunday, Sky’s Gourmet Tacos DTLA will focus exclusively on curbside pickup, takeout and delivery. All orders will be placed online through skystacos.com and additional delivery applications such as Postmates and Caviar. This location will be the third Los Angeles outpost and is located at 358 West 38th Street within the DTLA Cloud Kitchen, joining the original flagship restaurant in mid-city, and Sky’s Gourmet Marketplace and Tacos in Marina Del Rey.
Juice It Up! is celebrating 25 years of “Living Life Juiced” by offering Juice It Up! rewards members a free medium classic smoothie or a limited-edition old fashioned swirl on Tuesday, August 25 between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Rewards members can head to their nearest Juice It Up! to redeem their complimentary celebration smoothie using their app where the offer will already be loaded onto their Juice It Up! rewards account.
The Tasting Kitchen in Venice has re-opened with a brand new open-air patio. They closed and paused their TK-TO-GO takeout/delivery program last month to renovate and create an al fresco space, which offers seating for 28 and serves an all-day menu. Chef Travis Passerotti’s summer seasonal dishes include pan de catalunya (tomato rubbed toast, mussel escabeche) and stuffed squash blossoms (saffron rice, goat cheese, castelvetrano olive salsa), as well as classics like handmade pastas, wine and cocktails. Reservations can be made on OpenTable.
Marinated Cantaloupe Salad (Courtesy The Tasting Kitchen)
The Abbey Weho, West Hollywood’s granddaddy of gay bars, is now offering additional outside dining into the alley with “Abbey Road,” a new street café taking over the alleyway adjacent to The Abbey. The outdoor patio is a nod to the famous white striped Abbey Road crosswalk, with hanging gardens, planters and greenery and natural lighting in a “Euro-centric bistro café setting.” Expect to find all The Abbey’s signature menu items like the Abbey Nachos and Chick for Gay Sandwich, accompanied by an all new seasonal menu and The Abbey’s classic library of more than 200 specialty cocktails, mocktails, craft beers and wines: https://www.theabbeyweho.com
Lucca Pizza is a new, to-go only, wood-fired pizza and wine concept from the IB Hospitality family offering delivery and pick-up Wednesday to Sunday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. at Norah Restaurant in West Hollywood. Chef Mike Williams starts all Lucca pizzas with handmade dough focusing on digestibility and imported Italian and locally sourced ingredients and finishes them off in the Pavesi wood burning oven imported from Modena.
Update: Randy’s Donuts has collaborated with FOX TV show, The Masked Singer, for a free donut giveaway in celebration of the show’s Emmy nominations. Happening only at the landmark Inglewood location on August 22, 23, 29 and 30, the first 100 customers between 8-10AM will receive a free glazed donut. Keeping up with the spirit of the show, Randy’s Donuts iconic 32ft rooftop donut has undergone a ‘Masked Singer’ costume makeover .
What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the LA Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.