The first-ever Los Angeles French Fry Festival takes place on Saturday, July 11, at The Autry in Griffith Park. The one-day celebration will feature a stacked lineup of curated French fry food truck vendors serving everything from waffle fries and curly fries to tornado potatoes, potato wedges, pout ine, sweet potato fries, Cajun fries, beef tallow fries, and more.  Vendors include College Boy, The Chick Truck, Dave’s Hot Chicken, Fried Out, Frites Freak, Fry Day, Frylicious, La Mochila City, Marathon Burger, Proudly Serving, Sunset Smash. Happy Ice, Kobbler King, The Churro Man and  The Jolly Sheep Cotton Candy will be on hand for dessert. Tickets start at  $22 and are available at Bucket Listers. And speaking of fries, to celebrate the  250th Independence Day this July, Wienerschnitzel is offering deals to go with some classic chili fries. Around since 1961, Wienerschnitzel has launched a variety of meal deals and limited-edition merchandise collections available for purchase in-store and online, like coolers, 4-pack hot dog carriers, hats, and more.   They’re also rolling out a special All American Meal Deal offering two corn dogs and a small fry for $4.00 to help local families during the holiday festivities without breaking the bank, which is available throughout the summer.  Plus, for the first time,  funnel cakes are available in Oreo, Apple Pie, and Classic with strawberry, caramel, and chocolate. Chili Fries (Courtesy of Wienerschnitzel) In the spirit of family heritage and seasonal abundance, feast on a Cantonese-inflected California farmers market menu from A.O.C. Chef de Cuisine James Ho. Inspired by his personal memories and peak-of-the-season produce, the menu showcases a salad of Munak heirloom tomatoes with green mango followed by Pacific grouper with braised eggplant, long beans and XO sauce, and the final savory course of pork secreto char siu with hot mustard and Red Diamond nectarines.  Chinese shaved ice of red plum, Gaviota strawberries, almond jelly, and malted milk is for dessert. Part of the Sunday Suppers at Lucques series,  the dinner takes place on Sunday, June 28, and pricing is $95 per guest; menu only, exclusive of beverages, taxes and gratuity. Dinner reservations are from 5:00 – 8:30 p.m. and may be secured via OpenTable Experience. Raising Cane’s has officially opened its new Inglewood Flagship Restaurant just minutes away from SoFi Stadium.  The new location features stadium-inspired architecture and immersive technology, serving its signature hand-battered, cooked-to-order Chicken Fingers for before and after the game. The structure’s massive oval halo spans 106 by 108 feet,  larger than a professional basketball court, and hovers around the restaurant’s exterior, inspired by the surrounding modern sports venues. Built from steel and more than 200 perforated aluminum panels, the architectural feature integrates a 10-by-92 foot LED display into its design to light up Hollywood Park. Just inside the front doors, a 308-square-foot oval video display suspended overhead welcomes diners, visually connecting the restaurant’s first and second floors. At the back of the restaurant, a towering 19-by-22-foot digital display brings  3D visual effects to life. A Disco Dog sculpture made from more than 185,000 mirrored tiles, designed in collaboration with California-based artist Sofie Berarducci, welcomes customers on the first floor. An oversized Raising Cane’s cup measuring more than eight feet tall glows from the second floor, where it doubles as a high-top table and appears to float above the stairwell below. Courtesy of Raising Cane’s The Italian American Museum of Los Angeles will debut Mangia! The Evolution of Italian Food in the United States on Thursday, June 18,  a new exhibition examining the history of Italian food in America, from the largely unfamiliar foodways of a marginalized immigrant community to one of the nation’s most popular and influential cuisines. Through objects, images, and artifacts, the exhibition demonstrates how Italian Americans helped shape the nation’s culture, lifestyle, identity, and diet. Mangia! traces the transformation of Italian food from what was once considered a foreign and “exotic” cuisine into an essential part of American life, highlighting themes of immigration, adaptation, entrepreneurship, food production, and popular culture while illustrating the lasting influence of Italian American traditions on the American table. Organized into five chapters with a series of thematic subchapters, the exhibition explores how Italian American cuisine tells a story far larger than recipes. It’s a story of adaptation, resilience, and pride.  The exhibition’s five main chapters include: Scarcity / Introduction — Examining la miseria and the poverty that drove millions of Italians to immigrate to America between 1876 and 1914. Little Italy / Abundance / The Making of Italian American Food — Exploring how immigrant communities transformed traditional regional cooking into a new Italian American cuisine. Farm to Table — Highlighting Italian American influence on agriculture, viticulture, fishing, food production, and the American diet. American Foodscapes — Tracing the evolution of iconic Italian American dishes and their integration into mainstream American culture. Postmodern Era — Examining authenticity, globalization, media, restaurant culture, and the continuing evolution of Italian American cuisine today. Featured subchapters examine famous foods and traditions, including pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, pasta, mozzarella, espresso culture, tomatoes, cookbooks, religious feasts, and Italian American culinary innovations that became embedded in everyday American life. What’s Popping Up is a column in the L.A. Weekly that explores everything new in food and drink The post A French Fry Festival, Plus The Raising Cane’s Mothership Lands In Inglewood – Here’s What’s Popping Up appeared first on LA Weekly. ...read more read less