Best pop-up chefs and restaurants to try in Los Angeles - Los Angeles Times
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Sara's Market in Los Angeles is photographed on Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Some of L.A.’s most exciting dining experiences include pop ups that take place at wine bars, breweries, cocktail bars and neighborhood spots such as Sara’s Market in City Terrace.
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

Where to find the most exciting food pop-ups in L.A.

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There are endless ways to sample the rising talent in L.A.’s food scene. You could make reservations for a flashy new restaurant opening or scope out a taco stand before it goes viral. Pop-ups, often helmed by unknown chefs hoping to break into our city’s competitive dining arena, also serve as a fruitful way to discover new culinary concepts and switch up one’s restaurant routine.

The nature of pop-ups is unpredictable, with many chefs cycling through different locations on a weekly basis and concepts changing shape over time. The venues that play host to pop-ups — wine shops, breweries, neighborhood markets and cocktail bars — often use these mobile food concepts to support regular event schedules, including tastings and live DJ performances. With the increased cost of labor and ingredients, pop-ups can also take some financial pressure off of hosts.

“We excel as a wine bar and hosting,” says Nicole Dougherty, beverage director and co-owner of Thai Town wine bar Tabula Rasa. “Whether it’s a chef who eventually wants a brick and mortar, or whether it’s someone who wants to stay mobile, partnering with them just makes a little bit more sense for us long term.”

These pop-up partnerships often blossom into full-fledged restaurants, such as Ceci’s Gastronomia, a charming Italian marketplace in Silverlake from husband-and-wife Francesco Lucatorto and Francesca Pistorio, who originally started cooking together at Tabula Rasa’s pasta night pop-up in 2019.

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“I really try to partner with pop-ups that align with [our] ethos and have a similar emphasis on hospitality, fresh ingredients and that have strong culinary backgrounds and people who I think are rising stars on the scene,” Dougherty says.

For many pop-ups, the essential appeal is freedom to experiment, without many of the expenses and other responsibilities of running a bricks-and-mortar business, especially in an increasingly challenging environment for restaurants. They allow chefs space to hone in on new concepts, refine dishes and build a fan base for eventual restaurants.

Puin “Paul” Chuanchaisit grew up in Bangkok eating pasta dishes that blended Thai, Italian and Japanese flavors, but upon moving to Los Angeles in 2017, had a difficult time finding his favorite street snacks in the city’s expansive dining scene. He launched Dag as a tasting menu concept in his apartment before switching to a pop-up model a year ago.

“Dag is the word you say in Thai to your friends that basically means, ‘Let’s f— eat,’” Chuanchaisit says. “When I cook, I cook for my friends. I care about what I’m putting on my plate. So I was like, come on, dag!”

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The Thai-Italian pop-up recently secured an ongoing residency at Melody Wine Bar in Virgil Village, serving dishes such as udon carbonara and tom yum tortellini filled with roasted chile jam, cream cheese and spot prawns. Chuanchaisit says his goal is to eventually open a spot of his own. Still, he’s committed to keeping the project small enough to allow room for experimentation and the use of high-quality ingredients.

“For a restaurant, it’s hard because you have a lot of overhead and sometimes you just have to focus on making money,” says Chuanchaisit.

With no formal kitchen experience, Sam Oum launched his Cambodian barbecue pop-up Kreung Kitchen at the start of the year. He’d moved to L.A. with his partner after years of living in Long Beach and Orange County and, noticing that Cambodian cuisine was not as widespread here, was inspired to offer his take.

“People are embracing it,” says Oum. “They look for us and follow us to different locations. We have regulars that always come see us. They’ll bring friends and blast us out on their social media platforms.”

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For Oum, it’s the opportunity to connect directly with customers that makes the challenges worth it. “I love the fact that we’re out in the open so you can see us and I can interact with people,” he says. “With a brick and mortar, you’re kind of tucked in the back, or even in a food truck, there’s really not that face-to-face interaction that you can have with your people.

Because pop-ups tend to rotate through different venues, this guide pinpoints the various spaces that are frequent hosts to some of the city’s best mobile food concepts, including a bottle shop in Culver City where Oum has a Wednesday residency and a cider house in Lincoln Heights with an almost-daily lineup of pop-ups. Many of these spots don’t have permanent kitchen crews, so you can always count on a new dining experience to keep things fresh. Here’s where to find some of the best pop-ups in Los Angeles right now:

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A spread of dishes from Domenica Dinette pop up at Arroyo Club.
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)

The Arroyo Club

Highland Park Bar/Nightclub $$
Rebranded as Arroyo Club from Cafe Birdie at the start of the year, this Highland Park cocktail lounge retains the moodiness of its bistro predecessor, with a new glitzy interior: customers can sink themselves into deep-sea green leather booths or suede barrel chairs under hanging plants and clean, warm-lighted lamps. Domenica Dinette nestled itself into its kitchen in mid-June for the cocktail lounge’s first pop-up residency, serving Greek-Italian dishes — a detour from the usual, straightedge smashburger and fries fare on the menu. According to Andrew Corbett, co-owner of Arroyo Club, the change was an effort to give pop-up chefs more space, and more freedom than usually afforded to typical single-date, pitch-a-tent pop-up restaurants. The chef-in-residence changes each month, serving Mondays and Tuesdays — so pair Arroyo Club’s tongue-in-cheek cocktails with whoever is at the kitchen window. This September it’s Teotl, a Mexican-inspired, farmers-market-focused concept from chef Carlos Jaquez.
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A tasting flight of four ciders on an outdoor table, with umbrella-shaded tables in the background
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Benny Boy Brewing

Lincoln Heights Pub $$
Benny Boy Brewery — which also lodges a cider house and beer garden — is sequestered between the I-5 and the Daly Street bridge, which overlooks wide, industrial parks and the historic homes of Lincoln Heights. Co-founded by Benny Farber and Chelsey Rosetter in 2022, the brewery has become a community staple. The 3,200-square foot outdoor-indoor, barnyard space allows it to host plenty of events (Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest, night markets, live-band karaoke, chicken s— bingo!) with plenty of food from ever-rotating pop-up vendors.

“We’ve only gone a handful of days since we opened without popping up,” says Rosetter. The pop-ups at Benny Boy are a prized spot, and feature eclectic guests from amateur chefs to award-winning television chefs. “We try to be open to people with not just one-hundred-thousand followers, but to people with great food and great personalities.”

Its main attraction, the beer garden, is aptly named: wooden chairs are scattered throughout its outdoor seating, tree stumps act as tables in gravel pits, and there are long benches and firepits, all of which — when equipped with a pop-up bite and a glass of cold lager served straight from the hulking, steel brewery tanks — feels an adequate refuge from the Los Angeles summer.
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A plate of Cambodian barbecue
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)

Hi Lo Liquor

Culver City Bottle Shop $$
This locally minded bottle shop with locations in Culver City, Long Beach and Costa Mesa is a great place to grab picnic provisions or stick around for beverage tastings and rotating food pop ups. On a walkable section of Washington Boulevard next to Lei’d Cookies, Sam Oum can be spotted in front of Hi Lo’s brick-red storefront most Wednesdays, standing over his grill, smiling and making conversation with customers as he flips lemongrass-marinated chicken thigh, slow-roasted pork belly and short rib. A Cambodian refugee whose family first landed in North Carolina in 1983 and bounced around to Cleveland and Arizona before finding Long Beach’s thriving Cambodian community in 2011, Oum launched Kreung Kitchen at the beginning of the year with no former kitchen experience but a drive to share his culinary heritage with L.A. where Cambodian cuisine is less prevalent. There are a handful of stools outside for enjoying your barbecue right away, as well as a few high-top tables inside the shop. Chef Brandon Gray of Brandoni Pepperoni, whose farmers-market-driven pies landed on our critic’s list of favorite pizzas in L.A., has a standing Thursday evening residency at Hi Lo. Pop up and tasting schedules for all three locations can be found online.
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A zucchini pizza from Mieve
(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)

Kiff Kafe

Sawtelle Wine Bars $$
This coffee and wine shop has a simple cafe menu with tartines, salads, sandwiches and French lentil soup, but spices it up by hosting pop-up residencies on its string-lighted, tree-shaded back patio. Lately it’s Mievé, a maximalist, farmers-market-driven pan pizza concept from Amirali Ghasemipour, where weekly rotating slices might get topped with summer lady peaches and toasted hazelnuts or spicy lamb merguez sausage and harissa-roasted carrots. For the purists, a pepperoni pizza with charred shishitos, chipotle honey, garlic ricotta and grana is always on the menu — add burrata to take it to the next level. I recommend going with a friend and getting at least one of each slice, but you can also order whole pies if you’re prepared to commit. Head inside the shop for wine recommendations or to grab a quiet seat with a window view of Pico Blvd. The Mievé residency is ongoing every Wednesday to Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m.
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 A bowl of tom yum tortellini
(Puin Chuanchaisit)

Melody

East Hollywood Wine Bar
In a charming Craftsman bungalow off Virgil Avenue, Melody is where to scope out L.A.’s rising chefs as they research and develop menus for eventual bricks-and-mortar restaurants. Grab a seat at the candlelit bar inside or on the patio with warm lantern lighting, communal benches and a firepit. Charcuterie and oysters are always available to pair with the global wine list, in addition to a handful of refreshing wine and sake cocktails.

Melody has a year-round pop-up format, with concepts rotating with the seasons and as roving chefs find new opportunities. The latest indefinite chef residencies include Dag, a pasta pop-up from Puin “Paul” Chuanchaisit, who homes in on Thai flavors, and Say Less Burgers, a smashburger concept from Garry Tam that’s become a favorite for its house-made sauces. The dedicated kitchen space also allows more room for experimentation — Chuanchaisit will now offer ice cream, including a Thai tea option with miso caramel during the month of September. Find Dag and Say Less Burgers at Melody every Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m., or stop by for newly introduced coffee service from Read the Room Coffee every Tuesday through Sunday from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. You can also catch Dining at Momo’s from sisters Ines and Ximena Vagu whipping up health-minded Latin dishes on Sundays and Mondays.
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A pizza on a picnic table
(Martin Fuerte)

Offhand Wine Bar

Santa Monica Wine Bars $$
From Khalil Kinsey, Teron Stevenson and Justin Leathers, Offhand Wine Bar brings a fun and artsy edge to the sometimes stuffy world of wine. The wine bar exclusively serves organically farmed wines from the West Coast, and hosts a rotating cast of DJs playing everything from vinyl records to yacht rock, as well as food pop ups that keep guests thoroughly entertained. Here, you can catch mobile concepts such as Boy Blue, a pizza pop-up that blends Mediterranean, Southeast Asian and Central American influences, and Quesadilla Mia, with huge quesadillas that can get stuffed with chipotle-marinated shrimp, jerk chicken or Cajun candied bacon for a breakfast-appropriate take. A selection of meat and cheese, conservas and a grilled cheese sandwich with Gruyere and pickled red onion round out the permanent food menu. Happy hour is Monday to Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., with select glasses discounted to $10 and beer slashed to just $5. Check Instagram for this week’s pop ups and DJ schedules.
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Koreatown corner store Open Market has shifted its focus to become half wine shop, with a monthly wine club and tasting events on the way.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles T)

Open Market

Koreatown Sandwich Shop Wine Bars
This Koreatown corner store is a favorite for its lineup of sandwiches that celebrate the city’s diverse dining cultures and are named after neighborhood thoroughfares. The Kenmore is a Korean-style tuna salad with pickled radish, burdock root and perilla on pain de mie; Mariposa is a vegan sandwich with al pastor oyster mushrooms and pickled pineapple. Every Friday, the market releases a one-off sandwich special, often paying homage to L.A. or in collaboration with local brands and restaurants, including a recent malai chicken parm with Pijja Palace, the Silver Lake sports bar that straddles Indian and Italian flavors.

Open Market hosts monthly wine tastings with its Koreatown Wine Club and on the first Friday of every month, hosts a food pop-up and themed art show. Monochrome was September’s theme, with Boy Blue, from partners Kara Vorabutr and Zack Lopez, serving up creative pizzas that weave in Mediterranean and Southeast Asian flavors, including a pie topped with braised lamb tongue, feta cream and green garlic mint sauce and another with comté, summer squash and cured egg yolk. Watch Open Market’s Instagram page for future pop-ups.
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Sara and Steven Valdes, owners of Sara's Market, greet a customer
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)

Sara’s Market

East Los Angeles Mini Market
Sara’s Market is one of the many mini-markets serving everyday groceries among the slanted, residential sprawl of City Terrace in East Los Angeles — but its storefront stands out to locals with its pink stucco, and 60-year-old commitment to the neighborhood. When Sara Valdes, co-owner of Sara’s Market, inherited the store from her parents in 2014, she planned to only add products, not remove them; so when the community asked Valdes if she could serve hot food at the market, she decided to host pop-up restaurants on the sidewalk every Friday and Saturday.

The market hosts tenured, notably named food stands to off-the-gig caterers looking to kill product and cook for the community. Unlike swankier bars and lounges that require applications for pop-up chefs, what Sara’s Market requires is, for the most part, a date.

“All we ask for food vendors is to send us a message, shoot the details, and if we both align and agree then that’s all it is,” says Valdes. Grab a Modelo, or a natural wine, a burger, sit on the folding chairs facing the sidewalk pop-up, and meet the neighborhood regulars.
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Los Angeles, CA - November 03: Tabula Rasa Bar in Thai Town on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023 in Los Angeles, CA. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Tabula Rasa

Los Feliz Wine Bars $$
This Thai Town wine bar features a lengthy list with vintage wines and by-the-glass options that rotate weekly, with an emphasis on natural wines, women winemakers and highlighting underrepresented grape-growing regions. From owners Zach Negin and Nicole Dougherty, Tabula Rasa makes it easy to sample quality wines and beers on a bargain, including a daily happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m. with $9 house wines and discounts on by the glass options, Grand Cru Mondays with deals on wines from select regions and a monthly rent-day special on the first of every month with a can of Open Beer and a Cuban sandwich offered for $18 all day and night. The bar also nurtures rising chef talent with regular pop-up partnerships, including Glad, a Sunday Smorgasburg L.A. vendor specializing in focaccia di Recco; Boy Blue, an inventive pizza parlor on the go; and Giron, a mariscos-driven pop up from Tiana Giron that celebrates Mexican, Salvadoran and Peruvian cuisines. From Sept. 16 to 22, Tabula Rasa is celebrating its eight-year anniversary with special events all week long, including discounts on bottles and pop ups galore.
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