The Westside Food, Wine & Spirits Festival to benefit the Westside Food Bank returns on Sunday, Oct. 23, at The Zimmerman Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo.

Festivities will take place both outdoors and inside the museum, which features classic and antique cars. There will be live music outside by the US99 Cover Band and DJ music inside, including dancing, strolling magic by Paul the Psychic Magician (a semifinalist on America’s Got Talent), a free photo booth, and caricature drawings.

This year’s vendors include Raising Canes, LaRocco’s Pizza, Melody Bar and Grill, Down South and Nature’s Fynd, as well as Smoke Lab Vodka, Entourage Wines, Passion Tree Seltzer, Zyr Vodka and Whitley Neil Gins. Use promo code laweekly  for a discount.

Westside Food Bank already was seeing record-high levels of need before the pandemic, but  food distribution has more than doubled over the past two and a half years.

On Saturday, Oct. 22 and Sunday, Oct. 23, the annual Fall Festival returns to The Original Farmers Market. The weekend will include live music, a petting zoo, pig races and the Mr. Jack o’Lanterns Pumpkin Patch. Face-painting and pumpkin-carving, leather-carving and basket-weaving demos using recycled materials can be found at “Artisan Alley,” just west of the gas station. A rotation of bluegrass, folk and country bands will perform live music throughout the market. 

westside food bank

 The fall-themed games on Gilmore Lane are free, while the games at the Plaza Pumpkin Patch will be available for a nominal fee. Featured musical acts include The Lucky Stars, Jimi Nelson Band with Mark Christian, and the Dickens CowGirl Band.  

Pollo Campero, the Guatemalan-born fast-service restaurant, will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony and community grand opening celebration on Wednesday, Oct. 26, in Covina. Guatemala-born Pollo Campero opens its Covina restaurant on Wednesday, Oct. 26. The  citrus-marinated grilled chicken, a new spicy chicken sandwich and sides like yuca fries, Campero beans and corn salad are on the menu. 

The grand opening celebration will feature an appearance from Pollito, a variety of on-site activities including a spinning wheel for giveaways, free samples of Pollo Campero’s  chicken, drinks and desserts.

Since 1982, The Cat & Fiddle has been serving traditional, British pub fare and refreshments to locals, and has been a favorite watering hole for the entertainment community. The 40th anniversary celebrations from Thursday, Oct. 20 through Saturday, Oct. 22 includes: 

Shepherd’s Pie $12

Fish & Chips w/ Peas $16

Harp Lager & Guinness Stout $6

THURSDAY, OCT. 20

DJ Dandy Randy – 8 p.m.

Your Photo on a Pint of Guinness

Photo Booth

FRIDAY, OCT. 21

Live Music – Miranda Lee Richards – 8 p.m.

Miss Marquez Burlesque

SATURDAY, OCT. 22

Live Music – The Hailers – 8 p.m.

The Cat’s Afternoon Tea – noon to 4 p.m. (reservations required)

Westside food bank

Pink Eclairs (Courtesy Lady M)

The  San Pedro Market’s seafood extravaganza, SHRIMPFEST22, takes place on Saturday,  Oct. 22, from noon to 6 p.m. The celebration will feature a shrimp-eating contest with competitive eater Raina Huang and contenders vying for the title of SHRIMPFEST22 Shrimp Eating Champion, and an afternoon of entertainment, gifts and prizes, and all-day happy hour food and drink specials.

Atrium in Los Feliz will offer a new Greek Theater BBQ menu available every show night from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. The menu includes a half BBQ glazed cornish chicken, along with a choice of two sides with options like elote salad with charred corn, lime crema, cotija, espelette, herbs; potato salad with aioli, Dijon, dill, celery seed; or baked beans with charred onion, BBQ sauce, pickled chilies. The menu is $25 per person and runs through Nov. 12 for the final show of the season. This is in addition to Atrium’s happy hour offered daily from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Lady M Confections, creator of Mille Crêpes, will be donating 100% of proceeds from its Pink Éclairs sales throughout the month of October to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for Breast Cancer Research. Lady M’s Pink Éclairs ($6 each) are a classic choux pastry filled with strawberry custard cream and topped with baby pink chocolate.

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