Elina ShatkinAfter Komodo and Coolhaus, the latest food truck to open a brick and mortar restaurant is Flying Pig, which will open its 77-seat Little Tokyo cafe some time in June. The Flying Pig Café will serve lunch and dinner, offer larger portions of the truck's signature items as well as new creations from chef and owner Joe Kim.
The truck made headlines back in January after it was used in “The Flying Pink Pig,” a porno about a female-run food truck whose taco-slingers use sex to get a leg up (cough, cough) on the competition. (Ron Jeremy, in a non-sex role plays an evil truck owner trying to bring down the Flying Pink Pig.)
Kim threatened to sue, saying he had been duped, but director Erica McLean called those allegations hogwash. The film came out and the controversy doesn't seem to have hurt the business, with most customers echoing our sentiments, “I hope he wiped down the counters.”
Flying Pig Café is the first restaurant from Kim, a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef, who already had had brick-and-mortar dreams when he launched his truck. Look for classics like the belly bun with braised pork belly, cucumber, red onion and “death sauce” on a rice bun ($10) and the peanut butter carnitas ($14) plus new dishes like duck fried rice with duck leg confit, shishito chili, shiitake mushrooms and bacon, Korean hot wings ($10) and the special, a whole glazed and roasted pork butt served with bibb lettuce, marinated shrimp, boiled eggs, kimchi, white rice and death sauce ($80).
The café will feature two murals by Australian graffiti artist Stuart Stark, one with a pig flying over downtown Los Angeles in the main dining area and another adorning a chalkboard wall leading to the kitchen. Guests will be able to add to the graffiti by tagging the chalkboard wall. The café will serve lunch and dinner seven days a week from 11 a.m. until midnight.
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