ACCLAIMED LA PITMASTER KEVIN BLUDSO IS HOSTING A HUGE BARBECUE FESTIVAL IN COMPTON
Compton native Kevin Bludso, a James Beard award-winning cookbook author and owner of Bludso’s BBQs (which just opened a takeout and delivery location in Van Nuys on June 15), will host his first barbecue festival on July 26 and 27. Called Smoking Out The Hub, the festival will be held at Compton Airport with a national lineup of pitmasters, food vendors, and a competition featuring local barbecue contenders.
Demonstrations from Zef BBQ’s Logan Sandoval, Netflix American Barbecue Showdown contestant Rasheed Philips, and more will take place, along with food from Moos Craft Barbecue, Austin’s Distant Relatives, Dulan’s Soul Food, and the Goat Mafia. After the first Smoking Out The Hub this month, the traveling festival will also stop in Northern California and Las Vegas (those dates haven’t been announced yet.) A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the 5 Eleven Hoops organization, which provides scholarships to students in Compton Unified School District. Smoking Out The Hub tickets start at $25 for general admission and from $150 to $200 for a VIP seated dinner with a complimentary food pass and drinks, plus a gift bag.
Beverly Hills’s latest membership-based restaurant
The 28,000-square-foot, multi-level members-only club Gravitas from co-founders Brandon Steven and Seth Glassman is slated to open later this year in Beverly Hills with an open-air garden bar, large dining area, podcast recording studio, live entertainment, private dining booths, and temperature-controlled wine lockers for members to store their private bottles on-site. New York chef Preston Madson will preside over the food menu, while member levels vary according to service and range from initiation fees starting at $2,500, with annual dues ranging from $4,000 to $7,500. Prospective members can apply here.
Muraya switcheroo in Larchmont
After 18 years, Larchmont Village’s longtime Japanese restaurant Muraya switched gears into a full-fledged Vietnamese spot called Pho La Vache in early May. Owner Jane Kwak adapted a long bone broth process for the pho while serving banh mi, rice noodle salads, summer rolls, and a handful of Muraya dishes that stay on the menu.
Ubuntu now offering takeout
Since opening her Melrose restaurant in mid-2023, Chef Shenarri Freeman’s plant-based restaurant Ubuntu is offering takeout through Grubhub for the first time.
Why and how do some LA restaurants get liquor licenses
Los Angeles food writer Emily Wilson writes a thoughtful story in her newsletter that explores the bureaucratic and monetary divide between restaurants that end up securing a liquor license from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and those that don’t.
One more Sweet Red Peach location for SoCal
Inglewood’s Sweet Red Peach announced that another Los Angeles location will open in 2024. SRP Pasadena is set to open by September, while new construction is underway at Olympic and Bundy Drive in the former Happy Sushi & Izakaya space in Sawtelle Japantown. Once open, the West LA location brings her Southern California shops up to five.
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