Stella Artois’ fun and exciting Let’s Do Dinner Summer Series arrived in Los Angeles with a bang. The special pop-up dining event was held at Smog Shoppe on Thursday evening, June 20, and was truly an immersive experience that celebrated food, music, entertainment, culture and the hit FX show The Bear. Stella Artois brilliantly collaborated with the award-winning drama series to treat guests with a chaos menu, inspired by The Bear’s main characters Carmy and Sydney. To bring their innovative style to real-life, James Beard Award winning chefs Chris Bianco and Justin Pichetrungsi teamed up to create an incredible five course meal for this culinary extravaganza. To top that off, actor Corey Hendrix, who plays Sweeps in The Bear, hosted the dinner.
Courtesy of Stella Artois
The Los Angeles party kicked off with cocktail hour. The lucky guests arrived and immediately flocked to the inviting bar where bottles of Stella Artois were served or poured into beautiful chalices. “The bar with this lush greenery is so chic,” said a guest. “This is going to be a fun night.”
Courtesy of Stella Artois
Across the bar, guests started to line up at the Stella Artois chalice station. As a souvenir to take home, attendees were treated with a personalized Stella Artois chalice. People could choose to engrave the footed cup with their name or fun expressions like “Cheers!” or “Yes, Chef!” from The Bear, which new episodes of Season 3 premiere June 27 on Hulu.
Adjacent to the chalice station was a large Stella Artois installation featuring about 50 Stella Artois cups. It was a huge hit with the guests. Many posed for photos with their friends or snapped a selfie. Partygoers also enjoyed meeting a highly talented cartoon artist named Napkin Killa, who drew caricatures of the guests on small napkins.
Courtesy of Stella Artois
When it was dinnertime, Hendrix made a grand appearance to officially welcome guests to the party. “I’m super excited because I’m a foodie,” he declared to guests. “The Bear and Stella Artois—this is the perfect pairing of two brands.” Hendrix then introduced Bianco and Pichetrungsi, calling them “two culinary masterminds.”
For course 1, Bianco and Pichetrungsi served a Thai-Italian crispy taco with anajak stir-fried beef and Bianco giardiniera (a medley of chopped vegetables) in a crispy taco shell. Then for course 2, a Chinese sausage Sicilian pizza with mozzarella, Chinese sausage and Thai basil was passed around. Course three consisted of surf skewers consisting of grilled lobster, shrimp, scallop and turf skewers featuring beef, pork, and chicken. Course 4 was curried arancini and course 5 was savory cannoli and vanilla ice cream with fried sweet potato.
Stella Artois is the beer brand known for bringing people together over a shared love of food and entertainment and that’s exactly what the brand accomplished at the Los Angeles dinner. Next stop in Stella Artois’ Summer Series is Atlanta, Chicago and New York City. Be sure to enter for a chance to win and join Stella Artois at one of these summer events for an unforgettable experience. Fans can visit www.stellaartois.com/letsdodinner.