Starting Thursday, Jan. 26 through Sunday, Feb. 26, Danny Trejo will team up with L.A. chef Dafne Mejia of Hell’s Kitchen, and feature her winning “HELLrizo” taco made with chorizo, Al Pastor sauce and topped with a slice of grilled pineapple, and a slice of avocado on a green corn tortilla, at the Trejo’s Tacos Hollywood Cantina location only.  Trejo was recently a judge on Season 21, alongside Chef Gordon Ramsey, in the “Everyone’s Taco’ing About It” episode, where the competing chefs went head-to-head in creating an elevated taco. To kick off the winning collaboration, a celebration will be held at Trejo’s Tacos Hollywood Cantina on Jan. 26 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., with Trejo  and Mejia on hand, alongside live music.

Looking to extend Dry January? Lunetta will welcome The New Bar Pop-up on Thursday, Jan. 26, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., in the all-day side of the restaurant, for samples of their various non-alcoholic options, as well as mocktails made in-house by Lunetta’s bar team. The Golden Hour menu of bar snacks will be served alongside. The New Bar in Santa Monica will have a market set up at Lunetta, so many of their  non-alcoholic products will be available for purchase at the event.The regular bar menu will be available, as well.

Trejo's Tacos

The P-22 Cocktail (Courtesy Connie & Ted’s)

This event, along with the Crudo e Nudo pop-up by Isla, is a part of Lunetta’s incubating Pop Up series, which will continue throughout the year, with new restaurant concepts taking over the space on Sundays and Mondays.

Whether you have been dry, damp or drinking, the Clearheaded Pop-Up Shop at Platform LA will close out Dry January with non-alcoholic margaritas by The Free Spirits Company and a book signing with Drinking Games author Sarah Levy on Tuesday, Jan.  24 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The famed and locally celebrated mountain lion P-22, who captured the hearts of Angelenos, is being remembered throughout the community as a mascot for wildlife conservation in Southern California. Ahead of the sold-out memorial service at the Greek Theater on Thursday, Feb. 9, Connie & Ted’s is honoring the mountain lion’s life through a specialty cocktail with proceeds being donated to benefit the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Fund.

The P-22 Cocktail consists of Four Roses bourbon, housemade rosemary agave, black walnut bitters, and a squeeze of lemon. Priced at $17, a dollar from each drink sold is donated to Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing Fund in support of the vegetated overpass that will eventually link the Santa Monica Mountains to the Simi Hills. Many non-drinkers who have been observing Dry January  donated to the fund in lieu of buying drinks.

As part of Caldo Verde’s ongoing cookbook dinner series, Suzanne Goin and Caroline Styne will welcome critically acclaimed British chef and author of “A Girl and Her Pig” and “A Girl And Her Greens”,  April Bloomfield to the Downtown L.A. Proper on Sunday, Jan. 29, for a four-course prix fixe dinner celebrating recipes from her two cookbooks.

What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the L.A. Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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