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Not-real news site the Onion thoroughly dragged Los Angeles’s ongoing LA al fresco dining program this week. In a now-viral post and subsequent tweet, the comedy publication led with the fake headline: L.A. Designates Open-Air Dining Areas Along 101 Freeway Median, simultaneously throwing shade at the city’s enduring car culture, the stilted handling of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti’s al fresco program rollout, and those sorta sad new dining tables inside the Glendale Galleria parking structure. And then there’s this closing sentence, naturally: “At press time, Garcetti had placed the initiative on a temporary pause after a 10-car pileup caused widespread delays to brunch orders.“
And in other news:
- Rush Street returns to Culver City tomorrow, just in time for the return of the Lakers. The restaurant is also celebrating its 12th year in business with a menu of all-$12 items.
- Cafe Gratitude has reopened across LA for outdoor, distanced dining. So too has Drago Centro, the popular Downtown Italian restaurant.
- Eataly’s rooftop restaurant Terra is hosting a series of cocktail collaborations, with a portion of proceeds going to restaurant workers in need.
- Honey Hi in Echo Park is talking community fridges, and asking out to local restaurants to help stock one nearby with unused food.
- Faith & Flower chef Michael Hung is the next in line to do a delivery-only pizza concept, this one called DTLA Pizza. Don’t worry, there are vegan options as well as salads and sandwiches, too.
- A new opinion piece up on the Long Beach Post, saying plainly that — despite the desire by some to keep food apolitical — restaurants and the items they serve cannot be removed from the histories of the world. That means not only where food originated and where it has led us now, but also the labor practices and shaky commercial underpinnings of much of the restaurant industry at large.
- A bunch of pop-up folks like May Provisions, Radburg and Perilla LA are selling food at Cafe Tropical in Silver Lake this weekend, with a portion of proceeds going to the undocumented restaurant worker non-profit No Us Without You. Drinks will come from Silver Lake Lounge and Sunset Cultures.
