Michele StuevenMeteora, the holistic, live-fire, and multi-sensory restaurant from award-winning Chef Jordan Kahn of Destroyer and Vespertine will welcome Chef Leonor Espinosa of the celebrated restaurant Leo in Bogotá to Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 9 for a one-night-only collaborative dinner. The experience will represent the second installment of Meteora’s inaugural Ut Unum series. Translating to “as one” in Latin, Ut Unum is a new, annual series where Kahn and the Meteora team host some of the most revered and masterful chefs worldwide to create a multi-sensory, fleeting experience. The first chapter begins with Latin America.
The six-course experience at $195 a person will feature signature dishes from both chefs and collaborative dishes created especially for this dinner along with optional beverage pairings. Presented by OpenTable, Ut Unum will continue on Wednesday, Sept. 25 when the Meteora team will welcome Chef Rodolfo Guzman of Boragó in Santiago, a collaboration with Chef David Castro Hussong and Pastry Chef Maribel Aldaco Silva of Fauna in Mexico’s Valle de Guadalupe will conclude this year’s series in October.
Juicy Lucy Burger (Courtesy Barney’s Beanery)
Another limited-time collaboration takes place on Friday, August 23 at Barney’s Beanery in West Hollywood when the historic joint will join forces with Lei’d Cookies and Sad Girl Creamery to offer a dining experience featuring their signature Juicy Lucy burgers and custom ice cream sandwiches. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m indulge in Barney’s Beanery’s Juicy Lucy burgers for half-off alongside crafted ice cream sandwiches featuring guava jam ice cream, with cookie options like chocolate chip, ube matcha, and guava goat cheese.
Barbara Gene’s Soul Food Cafe opens on Saturday, August 24 in Arlington Heights. Chef Eric Campbell is bringing a new menu of barbeque and southern-style dishes based on family recipes he learned as a child from his Grandmother, after whom the restaurant is named. The TexiCali fusion-style smokehouse barbeque features brisket burgers, mac and cheese, and an assortment of smoked meats with his homemade secret sauce., fried chicken and his signature Soul Rolls stuffed with mac and cheese, collard greens and a smoked protein of choice.
On Friday, August 24 two Santa Barbara legends are teaming up McConnell’s Ice Cream to debut a new flavor, Baby You’re A Firework Blue Raspberry. Katy Perry along with her sister Angela and their Firework Foundation, are teaming up with McConnell’s to debut the new flavor that features raspberry jam and “let your colors burst” rainbow sprinkles, made 100% from scratch using grass-fed milk and cream at McConnell’s Family Dairy in Santa Barbara. The final recipe is the product of months of collaboration between McConnell’s, Perry, and her sister as a nod to their Santa Barbara childhood. Ten percent of all proceeds benefit The Firework Foundation, founded in 2018 to empower children through the arts and outdoors.
What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the L.A. Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.
Baby You’re A Firework (Courtesy McConnell’s Ice Cream)