Foodie Life

Post-Lock Down Culinary Festivals on the Rebound

Over the past several years, the Queen Mary Events Park was the go-to location for a number of different food festivals and competitions, including the Delicious Chili & Brewfest, which featured a chili cookoff and Southern California’s best brewed beer and the West Coast BBQ Classic, which also featured the best brews in Southern California. The pandemic,with the enforcement of preventive lockdown measures, changed all of it, and for other longtime food and beverage events to bounce back may take awhile. 

But a few of them will be happening this summer and into the fall. Coffee World, a pop-up museum about coffee that opened in January 2019, at the Del Amo Shopping Center in Torrance will reopen on July 17.

It was only supposed to stick around for six months to test its viability, but managed to survive the COVID lockdown. The pop-up museum has a Japanese kawaii culture celebrating coffee. The exhibit takes the visitor on a journey of coffee from farm to cup with 10 interactive and jaw-dropping installations.

Details: www.coffeeworld.co/

During the first week of August, Long Beach Food & Beverage, a California registered 501(c)3 non-profit, will spend the first week in August paying homage to America’s original culinary sweetheart: the hamburger. The offerings are going to be wide and diverse, from house made sauces to traditional sesame seed buns and American cheese, hearty veggie and vegan renditions and even burgers topped with Hot Cheetos, Fritos, mac ‘n cheese, truffles and even gold leaf.

Long Beach Burger Week will feature $5, $10, $15 and $20 one-of-a-kind burgers at 34 participating restaurants (as of this publication) across the city. More could be added to the list. It’s an  opportunity to support restaurants in Long Beach during this critical time while you get to eat, drink, and try new places. Featured eateries will offer a Long Beach Burger Week special with dine-in, to-go and delivery options available depending on the restaurant. This should be a hint to other cities looking to give restaurateurs a boost. 

Details: www.burgerweeklb.com

Later this summer, Aug. 21, is the 10th Annual Taste of Brews LB, which will be returning to the  Lighthouse Park. This event infuses dozens of craft beers and select hard ciders, seltzers and kombucha along with SoCal’s premier mobile restaurants, all at an amazing ocean-front venue.

Details: http://tasteofbrews.com