Michele StuevenJanuary is popping out of the gate with a bang. Food-related things do to in L.A. include a new mad scientist lab for tea lovers at Percolate, Pain Pizza in West Adams and a ’90s throwback party at Grunge Shop Tavern downtown.
Friday, Jan. 11
The Greyhound Bar & Grill in Highland Park celebrates its fifth anniversary all day from noon to close by offering each guest a free order of five signature Greyhound Wings (veggie wings also available) served with your choice of 19 house-made traditional and untraditional sauce options, including BBQ, garlic parm, panda orange, tandoori, cajun, chile con limón, cherry bomb and honey sriracha. Wash it down with rare draft beers and vintage cellar selections from breweries including Kern River Brewing, Allagash Brewing, Highland Park Brewing and Deschutes Brewery.
French bread pizza at Highly Unlikely Cafe; Credit: Pain Pizza
Saturday, Jan. 12
Karen Palmer's French bread pizza pop-up Pain Pizza will be at the Highly Likely cafe in West Adams, serving up a pepperoni-topped, nostalgia-inducing French bread pizza party, complete with beer and wine specials. The party will start at 4 p.m. and last until the pizzas sell out.
On the menu in collaboration with chef Kat Turner: chopped salad with HiLi pickled egg, cheese French bread pizza, HiLi French bread pizza with chermoula, roasted cauliflower and S'chug, pepperoni French bread pizza, Standing's Butchery pork fennel sausage French bread pizza, and Turkish coffee tiramisu with whipped labneh.
Inside Percolate on Melrose; Credit: Percolate
Tech-forward tea brand Percolate is bringing small-batch boba, premium loose-leaf teas and other Boomerang-able drinks to Hollywood’s Melrose Avenue on Saturday. To celebrate opening day, the first 100 customers will receive a complimentary medium drink and a chance to win reusable KeepCups with metal boba straws. Percolate blends tea with technology through self-order kiosks that recall regulars’ orders to expedite the ordering process and decrease wait times.
Known for its small-batch boba, Percolate uses a slow-cooking process for the boba, which is made from grade-A tapioca to ensure freshness and consistency. Craft boba drinks and loose-leaf teas are served alongside natural sweeteners and premium milks such as 100 percent fruit purees and Oatly oat milk.
Héritage Fine Wines is celebrating Epiphany, the day the Three Kings visited the infant Jesus, by offering a free galette des rois with any meal purchased on Saturday. A French tradition in January, the galette is composed of two circles of puff pastry sandwiching a frangipani filling. Each comes with a crown and always has a trinket, called a fève, or bean, baked into it. It’s as much party game as pastry: If your slice has the fève, you get the crown and the right to be king or queen for the day.
Monday, Jan. 14
Starting at 7 p.m., Brack Shop Tavern partners with Sampson Creative Enterprises to host a themed pop-up event called Grunge Shop Tavern in DTLA. Attendees will be transported to the Pacific Northwest in the year 1991, where tie-dye and batik tapestries cover flatscreen TVs, neon signs glow in the darkness and Nirvana and Pearl Jam concert flyers make for unique photo opps throughout the space.
The evening promises to be an immersive, interactive experience for guests. Atmospheric actors strategically placed throughout the space will interact with guests to further the ’90s narrative. A fictitious bar owner, Old Doug, will regale guests with stories about how the bar played a role in the emerging grunge scene in 1991.
The special menu will reflect regional Pacific Northwest favorites, with a focus on sharable plates to encourage communal dining, including crab and artichoke dip with flatbread, smoked wild mushroom and Gouda quesadillas, Pacific oysters on the half-shell, salmon pastrami sliders and inside-out Tillamook burgers.
The cover charge to experience this unique themed space is only $5 in advance or at the door. A portion of proceeds will benefit the volunteer program L.A. Works. For more details and advance ticket sales, go to experiencesce.com.
And every night through Jan. 15, Michelin two-star chef Antonio Mellino of Quattro Passi will be coming to Nerano’s kitchen in Beverly Hills to prepare a weeklong exclusive tasting menu. The four-course tasting menu ($200) features signature dishes such as the tagliatelle di calamari, tagliolini con carciofi e tartufo and the risotto astice, limoni e zucchine.
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