Where to find shawarma pita and Vietnamese butter wings at my favorite pop-ups
Even before the pandemic, Los Angeles was a city rich with pop-up restaurants. There was no shortage of innovative, entrepreneurial spirit with the drive to start slinging pizzas, burgers and cakes, but maybe not the cash flow for rent and a traditional business plan.
These pop-up operations contribute to the diversity of the city and its vibrant, evolving food scene. And sometimes, they’re the creative spark for full-blown trends. What started the citywide (and now one could argue nationwide) invasion of the smash burger? You can trace its origins to the Burgers Never Say Die pop-up in Shawn Nee’s East Hollywood backyard.
Since the pandemic, out-of-work chefs and other hospitality workers continue to fuel a thriving pop-up community. For many, it’s a stepping stone to opening a bricks-and-mortar restaurant. For others, it’s just a way to keep sane.
I’m partial to the ones born from hobbies. Or even better, a longing and a deeper connection to home, wherever that may be. The guy who left his job in cybersecurity sales to create an entirely new style of pizza out of his downtown loft. The restaurant manager and the art gallery director who together started a Persian pop-up with an emphasis on regional and seasonal Persian cuisine.
The stories behind these operations are often just as satisfying to devour as the dishes they create.
Wagyu shawarma and arayes from Avi Cue
Aviad Yalin was in the middle of an identity crisis when he started his Avi Cue pop-up. It was about 15 years after he moved to Los Angeles from Israel to start a construction company. He was nearing 40, making kitchen cabinets for a living, and finding that the only thing that brought him real joy was grilling for friends.
He was also missing the food he loved in Israel.
“As much as I grilled nice steaks, me and my friends really missed the shawarma from home,†he said. “When we go back to Israel, we eat it almost every day. We thought, why don’t we do that?â€
Yalin found a vertical rotisserie on Craigslist and started experimenting.
“Normally, with shawarma, you take the cheapest cut of meat and rely on your seasoning and grilling,†he said. “Some people brine the meat or do other things to make it more tender. I don’t like this technique.â€
He wanted to use a cut of meat that he enjoyed grilling, turning to the heavily marbled and expensive A5 Japanese Wagyu. While it ended up being too rich for his shawarma, Yalin settled on the beefier, slightly less fatty Australian Wagyu instead.
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He held his first pop-up at Slab restaurant on 3rd Street in 2019. People waited in line for more than two hours for a taste of his shawarma-stuffed pitas. One customer offered to give him a space for his next pop-up and Yalin accepted. He was still working in construction, with little time to devote to the pop-up and no staff. But the offers kept coming, with fans from one pop-up offering locations for the next.
He accepted them all, ramping up his pop-ups with stints at Yamashiro, Animal and a host of other locations around town.
Earlier this summer, the owners of Tacos 1986 approached Yalin with an offer to take over their closed Studio City restaurant temporarily, with an option to to stay if he liked the location. He started serving a short menu of shawarma pitas, arayes and fries out of the space in mid June.
There was a steady line shortly after noon on a recent Tuesday. A mix of construction workers and a few TikTok influencers lined the room.
I ordered my pita and watched as a man behind the counter carefully constructed the sandwich on its side, layering the slivers of raw onion, sliced tomato and chopped parsley, then a pile of meat from the nearby spit and a squirt of both tahini and amba.
The sandwiches are assembled on their sides to ensure that each bite is balanced with both meat and vegetables.
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The pita was toasty but soft, arriving half-baked and frozen from Angel’s Bakery in Israel and finished fresh in the oven at the restaurant. The stuffed pita ate more like an excellent steak sandwich, with buttery, tender, simply seasoned meat cooked just shy of medium, and cut away into sizeable chunks. There were none of the crisp edges I’m used to on thinner cuts of shawarma, but they weren’t missed. The tahini and the tang of the pickled mango in the amba bound all the components together.
The arayes is just as decadent, with roughly ground wagyu that Yalin prepares himself, stuffed into a half pocket of pita then cooked on the plancha. Think of it as a compact, folded burger. The bread browns on the outside, concentrated and saturated with the juices from the meat. The wagyu cooks on the inside, ready when the bread is toasty.
The best part of the experience may be the bottles of tahini and amba on the tables. I squeezed a bit of the sesame paste and the pickled mango condiment onto every bite.
“I was fairly surprised with the response when I opened the doors,†Yalin said. “I expected my pop-up crowd but saw so many new customers.â€
“That’s it,†he said. “I’m staying. Permanent location.â€
Chicken from Mama Hieu’s
Nho Thi Le’s Vietnamese garlic butter wings are the most requested dish at her family gatherings. They’re on the table at birthday parties, graduation celebrations and holiday meals.
“It’s a family favorite ever since growing up,†Jimmy Le, her son said on a recent call.
Before the pandemic, Nho Thi was head chef at Pho 88 in Fullerton and had spent more than 35 years working as a cook. Jimmy was also working as a cook at Ballast Point in Anaheim. Both lost their restaurant jobs as a result of the pandemic in 2020.
Near the end of the year, Nho Thi and Jimmy started a small catering operation out of their backyard, making the Vietnamese butter wings for mostly family and friends. Not long after, a neighbor spied the smoke behind the house and smelled the chicken. He stopped by to ask what the family was cooking, and placed an order.
“From then on, the neighbors found out and pretty much started ordering from us,†Jimmy said. “We started an Instagram and word spread pretty quickly.â€
Now, the wings are a full-time business, operating under the name Mama Hieu’s.
“Hieu means respected and pious,†Jimmy explained. “Hieu suits an honorable baby who already carries themselves with a dignified air. My mom is the youngest out of her siblings. Our aunts, uncles and other family members call her by that name.â€
The mother-and-son team still fry the wings in the family’s backyard in Garden Grove. Customers can place orders daily via phone, Instagram or Facebook for pickup at their home.
Food blogger Jeffrey Woo (@foodmento on Instagram), introduced me to Mama Hieu’s when I accompanied him on a recent food crawl of the neighborhood. He sent me the address to meet him, with little information about where we were going.
I pulled up to a modest home near the end of a cul-de-sac. Woo was there waiting, with stools set up as makeshift seating behind the open trunk of his car.
Jimmy emerged from the front door of the house with a tray of chicken wings, fresh out of the fryer.
They were hot enough to singe our fingertips and slick with melted butter, littered in heaps of chopped garlic and green onion. The garlic was sauteed, but only slightly, ensuring the fragrance stuck around for much of the afternoon.
The chicken was lightly battered in a coating of cornstarch, rice flour and egg, with a crunch that was audible and satisfying.
Underneath, the meat dripped with juice. It had a mild but addictive salty funk to it that reminded me of fish sauce. I later learned it was oyster sauce, a main ingredient in Nho Thi’s secret eight-hour marinade.
While we sat on the stools and ate our wings, multiple cars pulled up in the driveway to pick up orders.
Last week, Jimmy estimates they fried more than 11,000 wings.
Business is steady, and he and his mom are looking for a permanent restaurant space for Mama Hieu’s.
“It has to be nearby,†he said. “Hopefully we’ll be open by the end of the year.â€
Pop-ups to try now
Mama Hieu’s, (714) 261-6110, instagram.com/mamahieus
Avi Cue, 11288 Ventura Blvd., instagram.com/avi_cue
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