Michele StuevenBeachLife Festival, the largest beach party and premier music experience in Southern California, is joining forces with the 2nd Annual Manhattan Beach Food & Wine on Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 13. For a world-class culinary festival.
For the first time, BeachLife will bring its signature energy, turntables, and coastal vibes into the heart of Manhattan Beach Food & Wine with the debut of the dedicated BeachLife DJ Music Stage, a full-sensory takeover where 46 All-Star Chefs will be preparing world-class cuisine along with premier wines, spirits, handcrafted cocktails, and craft beer.
The chef lineup includes Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, Cathy and Vanda Asapahu, Neal Fraser, Ray Garcia, Raphael Lunetta, Michael Reed, David Lefevre, and Chris Cosentino. Tickets for the 21+ event are now on sale here.
Courtesy of Manhattan Beach Food & Wine
The 7th annual OFF THE HOOK Santa Monica Seafood Festival returns to the Santa Monica Pier on Sunday, Oct. 19, for National Seafood Month and the city’s 150th Anniversary. The seafood-inspired tasting event features the city’s top chefs and restaurants showcasing their favorite underwater ingredients and all-you-can-eat and drink tastings. There will be live music, oyster shucking competitions, games, and it is 100% free of single-use plastics, raising funds and awareness for Heal the Bay.
Westside favorite participants include Santa Monica Seafood, Fitoor Santa Monica, Blue Plate Oysterette, Michael’s Santa Monica, Sushi Roku, The Lobster, The Albright, Santa Monica Whaler, Al Dente Pasta Shop, Soko Sushi, The Surfing Fox, Cityclub LA, Emporium Thai, Sweetfin Poké, Feisty Fish Poke, and The Butter End.
The Guest List returns to Marelle with a culinary collaboration between Chef Raphael Lunetta and special guest Chef Neal Fraser of Redbird | Vibiana. The one-night-only experience brings two Los Angeles chefs together for a five-course tasting menu that celebrates bold California flavors, creative technique, and coastal spirit. Hosted inside Marelle at the Sandbourne Hotel, the price is $160 per person and includes a first course of Maine Lobster and rock shrimp with brioche, sweet onion, celery, cornichon, and an Ossetra caviar potato chip, followed by a late harvest stone fruit salad with green olives and feta in a toasted black pepper Banyuls wine vinaigrette. The lineup goes on with honey squash agnolotti truffle fondue, sauteed John Dory with chanterelle mushrooms, glazed filet of beef, and cured ham brochette with a summer corn pudding and honey cookie crumble for dessert.
Get tickets for the dinner on Thursday, Sept. 25, here.
Courtesy Off The Hook
From the creators of the sold-out hit Crimson and Clover, Tableau Productions has opened Down the Rabbit Hole, a provocative, immersive burlesque experience at the historic Cinegrill Theater, hidden behind a bookcase in the lower lobby of The Hollywood Roosevelt.
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland and reimagined through a lens of cinematic glamour and surreal excess, the show invites guests into a dreamlike underworld of hypnotic burlesque, avant-garde fashion, and hallucinatory visuals. Directed by Tracy Phillips and led by a majority-female cast, Down the Rabbit Hole is described as equal parts spectacle and seduction, a fever dream that unravels across secret vignettes and shadowy corners of the hotel. Eventbrite link here.
What’s Popping Up is a column in the L.A. Weekly that explores everything new in food and drink.
Venture Down the Rabbit Hole (Courtesy Cinegrill Theater)