No matter your pleasure -- from major music events to nerdy game gatherings and beer extravaganzas -- LA’s got you covered this week. More importantly, we’ve got you covered, because we’ve laid all that great stuff out for you to peruse at your leisure:
The LACMA-adjacent restaurant’s got dinner from a Brazilian chef, which means Brazilian booze pairings for a three-course menu, featuring shrimp tartare with hearts of palm and pork belly with yucca, as well as Avua cachaça.
If you’ve never taken a food-tour walk down Olvera St, A) what’s wrong with you, and b) correct that at this food crawl from Secret LA. It promises “you’ll leave full” of classic Mexican bites from one of LA’s most historic streets.
West Hollywood
Remember Peruvian chef Ricardo Zarate from Mo-Chica and Picca? He’s been quiet for the past few years, but he’s back with this new upscale take on his home country’s food, including a 28-day dry-aged ribeye steak with sesame huacatay sauce and seafood-laden Arroz con Mariscos.
Cosplaying is encouraged (but not essential) at this nerd-friendly takeover of Dave & Busters (isn’t every night a nerd-friendly takeover of Dave & Busters? I digress). Anyways, there’ll be a Potter fan-fic film, as well as a nerd band, and $10 all-you-can-play games.
Culver City
This new 18-course prix fixe from Red Medicine’s Jordan Kahn is one of the most buzzed-about openings of the year. All we know is, you’re gonna want to talk about it when it opens, and the reservation line is open now.
This new festival from Goldenvoice clearly skews a bit older than Coachella, with Tom Petty and Mumford & Sons headlining and no EDM anywhere on the lineup. Food wise, of course, it’s been knocked out of the park: options include order-ahead picnic baskets from Kogi, Fat Dragon, and Sweetfin, as well as in-park food from Neal Fraser and Walter Manzke.
Downtown
This new tapas-and-more restaurant is serving up dishes like malfatti pasta, burrata, egg yolk, and truffles in a tiny new 15-room, impeccably designed hotel, so if dinner goes super well, you can finish the date off upstairs. Or not.
Organizers call this the largest Caribbean-style music event in LA, which means soca beats and sexy people breaking it down. In addition to the fest proper, there are side events all over LA if your butt needs even more excuses to shake.
OK, it’s less a camp than a big beer festival, so don’t expect any Color Wars. But, you definitely may establish a crush on someone if you follow them around while they’re tasting craft beers, checking out reggae from The Expanders, and eating Downtown Dogs. Maybe they’ll even make you a friendship bracelet!
Costa Mesa
The new OC Mexican-meets-German concept (it’s a thing!!) has events all week for its opening, including free t-shirts and raffles for free food.
The beautiful Beverly Hills hotel’s rooftop is once again open for weekend BBQs through Labor Day, with a menu that includes beer-can chicken and pulled-pork biscuits.
Suzanne Goin’s bringing the Low Country Boil back for one night only -- get reservations now for a night of Southern specialties ranging from country ham to andouille sausage.
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