Get Your Fill of Crack Pie and Cereal Milk Soft Serve at Christina Tosi’s L.A. Pop-Ups

Andy Wang
Updated

Last December, sweets queen Christina Tosi was in Las Vegas getting ready for the New Year’s weekend opening of Milk Bar at The Cosmopolitan. Now she’s in L.A. working on the early 2018 opening of Milk Bar on Melrose Avenue. And in anticipation of a year where the cereal milk will flow freely in Los Angeles, Tosi will be selling her treats at two sugar-high-inducing events next weekend.

First up is a backyard bake sale at Jon & Vinny’s on Friday, December 15. The Milk Bar crew will be there from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. or until the last cake truffle is gone. Guests can also purchase slices of her signature "Crack Pie" and cookies, including Tosi’s famous compost cookie and confetti cookie. Be one of the first 50 people there and you’ll get a free Milk Bar tote. Bring your Milk Bar cookbook, and Tosi will happily sign it.

Then on Sunday, December 17, Tosi will team up with her friends and family (she’s married to The NoMad’s Will Guidara, who’s getting close to his own big L.A. opening) at The NoMad Truck for Smorgasburg L.A. This is your chance to try an exclusive cereal milk soft-serve sundae while also loading up on limited-edition holiday cookies, pie and assorted Milk Bar merchandise. Smorgasburg runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the first 50 Milk Bar customers will get a free treat.

Tosi’s weekend lovefest (Friday’s event is actually called "Backyard Besties") is a reminder that a lot of the national food scene is closely connected. Jon & Vinny’s Jon Shook and Vinny Dotolo deserve credit for their unwavering support of out-of-town operators who come to L.A.: Before opening in West Hollywood last year, Shake Shack popped up at Shook and Dotolo’s Son of a Gun. And Shook and Dotolo have hosted tremendous pop-ups at Animal with everybody from Austin’s Aaron Franklin to Philadelphia’s Michael Solomonov.

Smorgasburg started in Brooklyn, of course, and has been rocking it every Sunday in downtown L.A. with local stars as well as vendors that started in New York. Smorgasburg, by the way, is just a few miles from where Momofuku’s David Chang is preparing to open his first L.A. restaurant in the coming weeks. Milk Bar, you might remember, started as Momofuku Milk Bar in 2008. What a sweet decade it’s been.

Jon & Vinny’s, 412 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles, 323-334-3369

Smorgasburg L.A. at ROW DTLA, 777 S. Alameda St., Los Angeles