Michele StuevenIn honor of the Christmas season, The Proud Bird will host a holiday pop-up for families at the hybrid food bazaar and historical aviation hub at LAX. The mixed-use space is home to eight different culinary concepts and offers an immersive educational experience into the history of American aviation. Alongside its daily food and beverage offerings, The Proud Bird will spread the holiday cheer and offer photos with Santa, as well as a holiday craft and hot chocolate stations, and more. Festivities take place on Sunday, Dec.18; Friday, Dec. 23; and Saturday, Dec. 24 from noon to 4 p.m.
Tastemade and Disney+ will team up for a custom Disney-themed food crawl where Los Angeles-area dining and Disney enthusiasts will be encouraged to check out local restaurant partners who will offer Disney-inspired menu items.
Dig into an I am Merry Mushroom tartine inspired by the Disney+ Original series The Santa Clauses at Café Gratitude, a Christmas tree-shaped shaved ice inspired by the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special at Oakobing, or the Midnight Storm drink inspired by the Original movie Disenchanted at Monty’s Good Burger. The crawl starts Friday, Dec. 9 through Friday, Dec. 23, and the first 100 guests at each restaurant will receive the featured menu item for free on Friday, Dec. 9, with a promo code HERE. All remaining guests will receive 25% off the featured item for the duration of the event with the promo code. Participating locations are Monty’s Good Burger Culver City, Oakobing in Koreatown, and the Larchmont Cafe Gratitude.
And, speaking of Monty’s Good Burger, singer Role Model (aka Tucker Pillsbury) will take over the register at the Echo Park location on Saturday, Dec. 10 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., to sling burgers and meet fans face-to-face after the final show in his North American Fall tour, “TOURx FINALÉ,” which will take place at the Hollywood Palladium on Friday, Dec. 9. Fans will be able to order a collaborative vegan shake and buy Monty’s x Role Model limited-edition merchandise, including a limited-edition crewneck sweatshirt and a collaborative shake that will be available for one day only on Dec. 10. Role Model’s Booty Shake is a vegan almond croissant flavored shake, made with Monty’s classic vanilla soft serve base blended with marzipan flavoring. A special mini croissant from local bakery Bakers Bench made just for this collaboration tops it off, alongside whipped cream and salted caramel drizzle.
Valerie Confections Eggnog Cake (Kristina Fredericks)
Valerie Confections. Holiday Menu is available now for preorder and pickup. Decadent delights from the nationally acclaimed boutique chocolatier and baker include everything from petits fours to classic desserts like the Winter Wonderland Cake (devil’s food cake with smooth peppermint buttercream) and Apple & Salted Caramel Pie. Or, go all out with the new-for-2022 Eggnog Cake, a boozy combination of nutmeg cake layered with bourbon ganache and finished off with elegant 23k gold.
Stocking Stuffers include packaged toffees, truffles, petits fours, a newly redesigned line of chocolate bars in now-iconic flavors like Durango and Blushing Berry, and can be ordered up until Dec. 19 to guarantee delivery by Christmas. Pre-orders are open now for pickup through Dec. 31, at Valerie Confections’s new Glendale chocolate shop and bakery. To accommodate holiday shoppers, the Glendale chocolate shop and bakery will stay open longer through the holidays, including some new Sunday hours.
The 14th Annual SANTA Monica Pub Crawl takes place on Saturday, Dec. 17, at 5 p.m. Featuring more than 25 of the city’s best bars and restaurants, three routes, and thousands of crawlers, the annual charity crawl brings the community together to raise money for those in need through the Westside Food Bank.
Don your holiday apparel and get discounted food and drink specials at bars like The Victorian, Red O, The Viceroy, Circle Bar, Santa Monica Whaler, Ashland Hill, Library Alehouse, Barney’s Beanery, and Ye Olde King’s Head.
The food bank is looking for people 21+ years old to volunteer and help at the crawl, and work three different routes located throughout Santa Monica. Shifts run from 3:45 p.m. to midnight. Responsibilities include checking-in pub crawlers, distributing wristbands, handing out route information, selling Santa hats and collecting donations for the Westside Food Bank. All volunteers get a free wristband to participate in the crawl at the end of their shift.
Courtesy Grand Central Market
On Sunday, Dec. 11, Councilmember Curren Price and Everytable, will spread holiday cheer to South Central with holiday events benefiting more than 1,000 local families. The holiday event will be held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., at Vermont Square Park (1248 W. 47th St., Los Angeles 90037) with family friendly activities, including pony rides, photos with Santa, face painting, and dozens of bicycles to be raffled off to local youth. In addition to the event, Everytable has pledged to donate more than 600 health-forward, nutritious meals to help families who may be experiencing hunger insecurity. The meal donation is made possible by Everytable’s Pay It Forward program where customers can purchase PIF meals at Everytable stores or at Everytable.com.
Grand Central Market in DTLA is alive with holiday cheer, and will offer activities for the whole family, including a meet-and-greet with Santa, family photo sessions, holiday shopping and workshops like wreath-making, cookie-decorating and live music. GCM vendor activations include a Get Caked LA pancake breakfast,on Sunday, Dec. 18; The Very Best Cookie cookie-decorating on Friday, Dec. 23; Millennial Loteria tradicional loteria/bingo event hosted by founder Mike Alfaro on Saturday, Dec. 10; and a Charcutier LA board workshop on Thursday, Dec, 15 and 21.. Santa Claus meet-and-greets take place on Sunday, Dec. 11 and Dec. 18.
What’s Popping Up is a weekly column in the L.A. Weekly that explores all that’s new in food and drink.
Courtesy Santa Monica Pub Crawl
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