Michele StuevenOn a mission to inspire creativity and support local businesses, Postmates and TikTok have launched TikTok Treats, a creator-led menu featuring some of the year’s most viral food trends on TikTok. Starting today, the treats are available exclusively on Postmates through Sunday, November 22 and will feature some of the most shared food trends on the short-form video app including the insanely good Cloud Cupcake with a cotton candy “Cloud” topping and candied rainbow topper, #cloudbread by Dialog Cafe, #whippedcoffee by Coffee N’ Clothes, #pancakecereal by B Sweet and #bentobox by Sweetfin.
The items have reached massive popularity on TikTok this year with the Bento Box seeing a reach of 231.4 million, Pancake Cereal 1.5 billion, Whipped Coffee 2.2 billion and Cloud Bread at 2.8 billion. Each item has been created and will be prepared by a locally-owned restaurant. Additionally, every TikTok Treats order will include free delivery.
From now until November 22, limited quantities of each menu item will be available each day in L.A., while supplies last within the delivery radius. To order contactless delivery from TikTok Treats, visit Postmates.com or download Postmates on iOS or Android.
The Cloud Cupcake
Recently named “Best American Hotel Bar”by the Spirited Awards (Tales of the Cocktail), The Spare Room at the Hollywood Roosevelt, has re-opened to offer an al fresco cocktail experience, The Spare Room…Somewhere Else. With help from their friends at Campari USA, The Spare Room…Somewhere Else is tucked behind the hotel’s famous David Hockney painted pool for a safely spaced spot for cocktails and playing bocce.
In addition to Spare Room classics to go like “Blessings in Disguise,” Bar Director Yael Vengroff is mixing up new concoctions on the patio like “Birds Aren’t Real” with Appleton Rum, cognac, Campari, pineapple, hazelnut and lime as well as the “Highway to Bell” with Aperol, red bell pepper, yellow chartreuse, lemon, black pepper and sparkling wine, alongside natural and organic wines by the glass and bottle and canned and bottled beer, wine and seltzer. Small plates like burrata with pomegranate agrodolce, mushroom sott’olio with truffled ricotta and ciabatta, as well as cacio e pepe beef tartare are also being served.
The Spare Room…Somewhere Else will be open Wednesday through Thursday from 5 – 11 p.m., and Friday through Sunday from 3 – 11 p.m. Reservations are recommended, and can be made via Resy.
The Spare Room Somewhere Else (Eugene Lee)
Chef Raphael Lunetta is celebrating Halloween Hawaiian-style with a Hulaween tasting menu now through Halloween with a Hawaiian luau at Lunetta. The staff will all be in Hawaiian shirts, and guests are encouraged to wear their favorite beachwear, Hawaiian shirts, or grass skirts. The three patios will be host to the outdoor luau with beachy decor and battery-powered candle lights throughout. Surfing chef Lunetta has created a menu featuring Hawaiian cuisine with starters like Kona Kampachi poke served on crispy lotus root chips, grilled pineapple and Spam spring rolls, and crispy Hawaiian chicken sliders topped with macaroni salad on Hawaiian sweet rolls. Main courses include wood-grilled Hawaiian snapper, Huli Huli BBQ pork ribs, and filet of beef kabobs. Plenty of tiki drinks at the bar and music. Reservations highly recommended.
Hulaween (Courtesy Lunetta)
With Halloween looking a little different this year and a sad lack of trick-or-treating, LeBron’s pizza chain, Blaze Pizza, and CRUNCH Bar have teamed up to give away a free full-size CRUNCH bar – no purchase required, starting at 4 p.m. on Halloween to every person who stops by and says, “trick or treat.”
Scare-Thru: Halloween by car is the trend this year. So, buckle up for an immersive Wendy’s “Scare-Thru” drive-thru staring today though Halloween at the Wendy’s in Southgate located at 8810 S. Garfield Ave. from 6:30 a.m. through 3 a.m. Prepare yourself for frightening clowns, terrifying Mad Kings and creepy jack-in-the-box o’lanterns. The first 5,000 drive-thru trick-or-treaters will take home a “Boo” Book (coupon books that feature five individual coupons for a free Jr. Frosty) or free Frosty coupon for surviving the spooky experience.
Throughout the drive-thru queue, families will experience creepy fog and moody lights. Vehicles will enter the “Scare Thru” drive thru via a giant bubbling cauldron. The immersive experience will have visitors crashing a dinner party scene hosted by the Mad King, encountering a creepy clown and escaping from the clutches of spooky scarecrows and haunting jack-o-lanterns.
You may not see the great pumpkin this Halloween, but keep your eyes open for the Sour Patch Kids Jack O’Lantern Mobile. Los Angeles was selected as the only city to receive a mischievous appearance from the kids themselves. On Halloween day, the kids will be rolling through the streets of L.A. in a larger-than-life jack-o’-lantern mobile, shaped like the classic candy bucket. Hopping off their candy carriage, the kids will personally bring Halloween tricks and treats to local families, dropping the deliveries off contact-free while maintaining proper safety measures.
Yield for the Sour Patch Kids pumpkin
L.A. fans can head to Twitter or Instagram between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Halloween to enter for a chance to win a special contactless delivery of Sour Patch Kids Halloween package. Deliveries will include a branded trick-or-treat bucket filled with Zombies candy and SOUR PATCH KIDS branded toilet paper, because nothing screams Halloween like TPing your living room and wreaking some safe Halloween havoc indoors.
To enter, tweet @sourpatchkids #SourThenSweetHalloween #Sweepstakes or head to SOUR PATCH KIDS Instagram to swipe up on the brand’s Instagram Story or click the link-in-bio. That same day, special contactless Halloween deliveries will be made within two hours of winning.
On November 1, the California Restaurant Association Foundation will kick off its inaugural “The Grateful Table® Dine Out,” a monthlong event to benefit California’s struggling restaurants and raise funds for Restaurants Care,® a program providing restaurant workers facing hardships with relief grants for basic living needs like groceries, diapers, utilities and rent.
The campaign encourages consumers to “dine out to help out” as much as possible in November to give the restaurant community some much-needed hope and stability leading into the holidays. As an added incentive, Restaurants Care will be giving away two $500 restaurant gift cards each week in November. Since the pandemic hit in March, Restaurants Care has awarded grants to nearly 1,200 of California’s restaurant workers also benefitting their nearly 1,700 dependents, with 79 percent of grants awarded to people of color.
Wendy’s Scare-Thru (Jordan Strauss/Wendy’s via AP Images)
Wendy’s Scare-Thru (Jordan Strauss/Wendy’s via AP Images)
Wendy’s Scare-Thru (Jordan Strauss/Wendy’s via AP Images)
And there are still plenty of voter freebies available on election day, like L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is offering one complimentary salted chocolate chip cookie per person with an “I Voted” sticker. Offer valid on Nov. 3 for dine-in only. At Theía on Nov. 3 only, there’s a free dessert of choice per person with an “I Voted” sticker. Dessert options include: Karithopita, Coffee Baklava, Pistachio Baklava or Le Café de la Place Ice Cream. Offer valid on dine-in or takeout with the order of an entrée.
What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the LA Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.
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