Meet Smorgasburg's new vendors for 2025. Come for the desi boba, stay for the Filipino barbecue

Los Angeles Times

12-02-2025

One of L.A.'s favorite food festivals is back in action, and with more than a dozen new culinary vendors in its 2025 roster.
Nearly every Sunday of the year Smorgasburg fills the Row DTLA complex with more than 70 stalls for dining and shopping. In late January the Arts District event returned from its annual holiday break with past favorites such as shawarma stand Miya Miya and Macheen, one of The Times' 101 Best Restaurants in the city, along with a handful of new faces.
For Band Baaja Boba co-owner Sanjay Chandra, bringing his desi boba operation to Smorgasburg feels like a full-circle moment.
'I attended one of the first Smorgasburgs and I walked around and had so much excitement in my eyes because I was like, 'Wow, this place is so cool — I'd love to be here one day,'' he said. 'At that time, in 2016, I kind of knew that if television didn't work out, one day if I had a food business, I'd want to be here.'
Chandra worked in television for decades but when he and his wife, Helly, moved to the Inland Empire his focus took a turn. Newly surrounded by more Asian American peers from a mix of cultures, their neighborhood potlucks and other parties blended cuisines and flavors. Chandra, a lifelong boba fan, decided to blend Taiwanese and Chinese bubble tea with Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indo-Fijian ingredients and they became such a hit with partygoers that last year he began Band Baaja Boba, a pop-up that they hope feels as celebratory and sprawling as desi weddings.
Now they're serving dozens of drinks, some with house-made chai as the base, others laced with saffron, pistachio, green mango juice, toasted jeera and more. Add-ons include boba-traditional items such as brown sugar boba, jelly and popping pearls.
'We're both tea cultures,' Chandra said. 'We are essentially brothers when it comes to treating tea both ceremoniously on such a high platform but also a daily, everyday tea. And then the flavors being playful and unique, we have a lot of flavors that overlap with the Taiwanese style.'
Some stalls yield familiar faces from pop-ups and restaurants already found around L.A.
Breakfast Dreams, chef-owner Joshua Ross Haskal's years-long pop-up, now has a Smorgasburg stand where burritos and sandwiches come packed with sous-vide eggs, grilled vegetables, smoked pastrami brisket, chorizo, bacon and more — and can be customized with hash browns, Calabrian-chile hot sauce and beyond. Nearby is chef Rami Aljishi's Lebanese stand Teta, which previously operated under the name Grandma's Kitchen; his recipes are inspired by those made by his grandmother, including falafel, chicken rolls and kafta plates.
Back Yard Jerk popped up at Smorgasburg's Carribean-themed Christmas event toward the end of 2024, and now its 'taste of Jamaica' is a permanent fixture with plantains, patties, rice and peas, and combo plates of oxtails, jerk chicken, coconut curry chickpeas or jerk pork, plus ginger beer, fruit punch, pineapple guava juice and other refreshments. For another taste of the Caribbean head to withBee, where chef-founder Binta Diallo offers attiék0Θ, dibi, jollof and other dishes that draw from West Africa, the Caribbean and the Southern U.S. She also sells her proprietary spice blends.
Full Send BBQ is already drawing some of the longest lines at Smorgasburg this year, and with good cause: The menu for the Filipino barbecue venture from pitmaster and Army vet Dominic Cagliero includes succulent smoky beef ribs, longanisa, pork skewers and burnt ends. Cagliero's blending Texas-style barbecue with Pinoy flavor for brisket sinigang, pork belly kare kare and kalamansi-laced chimichurri, with dishes available a la carte or as trays heaped high with garlic rice and macaroni salad.
Another meaty newcomer is Yatai Neighborhood, the karaage stall from fried-chicken specialist Taisei Yamada (formerly of Marugame Udon). The Smorgasburg stall offers new sauce flavors for Yamada's chicken, such as wasabi cream. Order traditional karaage as well as sliders with the chicken coated in crunchy ramen. Nearby find Royal Box, where founder Robert Chong whips up Korean dosirak with a rotation of seasonal banchan, an ode to his late parents' restaurant.
Menchita's Grill, which operates a Mid-City restaurant of the same name, is now a fixture at Smorgasburg with its Salvadoran specialties such as empanadas, fried yuca, pastelitos, and pupusas stuffed with shrimp, garlic, chicharrónes, beans and beyond. Meanwhile, as owners simultaneously launch their new restaurant in Sawtelle, Bangkok BBQ Bowl is serving a range of Thai night-market specialties such as khao soi, Thai tea and a bevy of roti both sweet and savory.
Be Bright Coffee left Smorgasburg this year to focus on its Melrose cafe, but Chris Corrales, a former Be Bright employee, is carrying on the tradition with Whole & Oat. Corrales' new coffee stand serves options such as a Mexican mocha made with Abuelita or the Maria-cookie-adorned Spanish latte, all using coffee beans roasted by Be Bright.
For dessert, there are two new options. A longtime guest at the event just went permanent: Sad Girl Creamery serves frozen sweets inspired by nostalgic Latin flavors and uses its platform to promote mental health wellness and causes. Owner SueEllen Mancini had popped up at Smorgasburg multiple times during the summer Ice Cream Alley series, but now she's there every Sunday. Entirely new to the scene is Bernie's, a haute-granita stall from chef Jon Berne (formerly of Gramercy Tavern), who crafts cups of frosty, seasonal-fruit ice made with fresh juice and cane sugar, then tops it with a hand-torched cloud of marshmallow cream.
In addition to the new food and drink vendors, look for hot-sauce stalls such as ZinDrew chili crisp in the retail rows, plus events such as the March 2 benefit day for the Los Angeles Fire Department in the wake of the city's fires. Smorgasburg is open every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Row DTLA. Entrance is free.
777 S Alameda St., Los Angeles, la.smorgasburg.com
A New York City restaurant known for its coastal-Italian cuisine just debuted in Beverly Hills with caviar-topped gougères, an ample selection of thinly shaved crudi, a spin on arancini crowned with raw langoustine and other seafood delights. Marea first opened in Manhattan in 2009 and went on to win a range of awards such as the James Beard title of best new restaurant. Executive chef PJ Calapa (formerly of Eleven Madison Park) is helming the kitchens of both locations and has introduced a few new items unique to Beverly Hills, such as an avocado salad that fills a hand-torched whole avocado with spot prawn tartare, fennel, Calabrian chiles and tarragon, and the pappardelle tangled with Dungeness crab, scallions and tarragon.
Many of the New York restaurant's signature dishes can be found here too, including the iconic fusilli with bone marrow and tender red-wine-braised octopus (which one Bon Appétit writer named 'the best bowl of pasta ever') and the sogliola, seared wild Dover sole with a choice of sauces — including one that spoons kaluga caviar, butter and chives over the fish. The expansive space features one large dining room, a separate bar area with a long onyx bar that practically glows, a lounge and two semiprivate dining rooms. Marea is open daily from noon to 2:45 p.m. for lunch, and from 5 to 11 p.m. for dinner.
430 N. Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, [phone], marearestaurant.com/beverly-hills
A new food hall and market in Westlake Village houses some of the city's best restaurants and culinary shops under one roof. Neighborly is located at a corner of the Promenade at Westlake Village shopping center and features a casual walk-up format with a kiosk ordering system and a patio for dining. The new food hall allows diners to mix and match items from across its handful of vendors, including Glendale's lauded Mini Kabob, one of the L.A. Times' 101 Best Restaurants. Here, the Martirosyan family serves some of its signature Armenian kebabs as mezze plates and bowls, along with new pan-Mediterranean items such as Katya's Greek salad, kale-and-spinach falafel sticks and Armen's cheeseburger wraps, which load a beef patty, cheddar, peppers, roasted tomatoes, pickles, toum and tzatziki into lavash.
Cookbook author and culinary entrepreneur Gaby Dalkin — a.k.a. @whatsgabycookin — offers 'everyday California fare' such as sandwiches, hearty salads and rice bowls, while baker Amirah Kassem's Flour Shop sells fresh cookies in options such as white chocolate corn crunch and Social Monk serves stir-fries, wontons, pan-fried noodles and other pan-Asian dishes. Two of L.A.'s best cheese shops can be found here too: Cafe Joan's on Third offers grab-and-go items such as soups, sauces, salad dressings and take-and-bake lasagna, mac and cheese, chickpea curry and more. The Cheese Store of Beverly Hills — in addition to selling cheese boards, fresh pasta and caviar — offers a new menu of made-to-order Sicilian-style pizzas and pasta dishes. Neighborly is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
4000 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Space C1, Westlake Village, beneighborly.com
One of L.A.'s top bakeries recently expanded to Beverly Hills with sweets, shelves of freshly baked bread loaves, a full coffee program and a few new dishes that are exclusive to the latest location. Zack Hall began Clark Street more than a decade ago with a stall in Grand Central Market; he's since grown the brand to multiple cafes across the city and the Clark Street Diner in Hollywood. Now he's heading back to his roots, opening up shop in his hometown of Beverly Hills with an outpost in the Doheny Village shopping center. The newest Clark Street cafe offers limited seating and an all-day menu of breakfast, sandwiches and salads, plus pastries like monkey bread, danishes, cardamom buns, cookies and croissants, and a small retail selection of house-made granola, jams and more. Find Beverly Hills-only dishes such as shakshuka and a breakfast plate heaped with feta, zhoug, soft-boiled eggs and olives. Clark Street is open daily in Beverly Hills from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
9123 W. Olympic Blvd., Beverly Hills, [phone], clarkstreetbakery.com