Two new pop-up dinners you should know about: Ricardo Zarate returns and GoldenBoys at Unit 120

Eating a nine-course meal made by an up-and-coming chef surrounded by strangers in someone’s downtown basement is fast becoming just another Thursday night in Los Angeles. It’s now easier than ever to find a cool pop-up dinner. Here are two you should know about.

Ricardo Zarate, the Peruvian chef you may remember from the now-closed Mo-Chica in downtown and the now-closed Paiche in Marina Del Rey, is getting ready to open his new restaurant Rosaliné in the former Comme Ça space on Melrose Avenue. But before he does, he’s hosting a pop-up dinner to preview the restaurant menu with the Feastly dinner crew.

Feastly takes over spaces in the downtown L.A. Arts District and converts them into working kitchens to provide chefs with areas to stage pop-up dinners. Other Feastly chefs who have come before Zarate include Luke Reyes (formerly of Butchers and Barbers), Jason Fullilove (formerly of Malibu Pier and Clifton’s) and Kyle Schutte (formerly of the Beachside Restaurant at the Jamaica Bay Inn in Marina del Rey).

Zarate’s Feastly pop-up is happening July 22 at a private residence in downtown L.A. The five-course dinner will include crostini with beef, sea urchin, Pecorino and popped quinoa; Scottish ocean trout with gochujang, beets, tiger’s milk and garlic horseradish cream; a lamb ragu with dumplings, Sichuan peppers and chile garlic tomato sauce; pork belly chicharonnes; and purple corn bombon for dessert. Dinner is $75 per person or $115 if you want wine pairings. Tickets are available online.

The GoldenBoys, also known as chefs Hunter Pritchett and Adam Midkiff, are bringing their Chinese pop-up restaurant to Alvin Cailan’s Unit 120 culinary incubator in the Far East Plaza in Chinatown. The Thursday night residency starts tonight, and Cailan plans to have them stay indefinitely.

The GoldenBoys were both sous chefs at Son of a Gun before Midkiff worked at the now-closed Red Medicine and Sambar, and Pritchett worked at the now-closed Waterloo and City.

The GoldenBoys at Unit 120 dinners are $45 per person and include Tsingtao-braised peanuts; burned five spice and Pu-erh tea; Peking duck ciccioli; kumquat duck sauce, prawn crackers and radishes; matzo ball xiao long bao; kung pao mock “eel”; crispy twice-cooked shiitake mushrooms, smashed cucumbers, chile and coriander; and Ma Po cauliflower. Tickets can be purchased online. 727 N. Broadway Unit 120, Los Angeles, (213) 537-0053, www.unit120.com.

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