Look Who's Popping Up

Hollywood Pop-Ups: Foraged Wild Food at Tiago This Weekend; BEP Vietnamese Kitchen Coming to Franco in April

Lardon-topped rice porridge at BEP Vietnamese Kitchen
Lardon-topped rice porridge at BEP Vietnamese Kitchen Photo: BEP Vietnamese Kitchen

As if keeping up with L.A.’s existing legends and endless new restaurant openings isn’t enough of a task to stay up on, two intriguing new pop-ups are hitting Hollywood. Through this Sunday, Pascal Baudard and Mia Wasilevic, the fantastic foragers behind Transitional Gastronomy and Urban Outdoor Skills, will be at “This Is Not a Pop-Up” at Tiago Espresso bar in Hollywood. Nightly dinners will find menus based on ingredients sourced in the wild or purchased at market, with dishes like wild spring greens with pistachio pistou, quail eggs and buttermilk foam, lamb shank slow-cooked in mugwort beer with peewee root vegetables, and wild sorrel bisque, followed by a black sage hot chocolate with sage lime beer sorbet for dessert. The menu is priced at $50, with reservations available online.

Every other Sunday starting April 21, Nha Trang-born, Little Saigon-raised chef Connie Tran (who opened Cafe D’Orient with her mother and later worked at Zov’s) is cooking home-style Vietnamese food as BEP Vietnamese Kitchen, building on the recognized repertoire of pho, banh mi, and goi cuon at Hollywood’s Franco on Melrose.

Tran will cook eight brunch-friendly courses including lardon-topped brown butter rice porridge with poached egg, betel leaf-wrapped beef with roasted peanuts and vermicelli cakes, and grilled honey prawns with jasmine rice and bird chili on a $37 prix-fixe menu. Tran will also sell homemade drinks and merchandise, including kids to make your own Vietnamese recipes at home. Reservations and more details are available by emailing the pop-up for the 11:30 A.M. seatings.

Hollywood Pop-Ups: Foraged Wild Food at Tiago This Weekend; BEP Vietnamese