For Kym Estrada, owner of San & Wolves Bakeshop in Long Beach, family-style means an excuse to gather with loved ones.
“I’m Filipino and I grew up in a big family, which extends to our cousins, and we would always just get together on some random Monday, Tuesday or for any holiday to hang out, and we’d have so much food,” Estrada said during a recent phone interview. “It was always just a bunch of titos and titas being loud, kids running around and chaos, where you could get food once you’ve done your tsismising (gossiping) with an auntie.”
Estrada’s bakeshop specializes in vegan Filipino treats that pay homage to some of her favorite sweets with a plant-based approach. Some of the items include pan de coco, buko pie, pandesal, bitsu-bitsu, and ensaymada, as well as remixes of Filipino flavors such as ube Pop-Tarts and pandan cinnamon buns.
This year, family style is taking on a whole new meaning for Estrada as she joins the Family Style Food Festival. The one day event happening at Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday, Sept. 13 will host more than 60 eateries from around the world including Curry UP (Shibuya, Japan), Gold Pig (Seoul, South Korea), Paperboy (Paris), The Wiener Circle (Chicago), Potluck Club (New York City) and Los Angeles favorites like Kato, Marathon Burger and Thunderbolt.
“This is our first time at Family Style Food Festival and we’re honored to be part of it,” Estrada said. “We’re excited to meet new people who have never been to our bakery or have never heard of us, so it’s exciting to be able to put people onto our treats.”
Founded in 2019 by Ben Shenassafar and Bobby Kim of the streetwear company The Hundreds, along with producer Miles Canares, the Family Style Food Festival’s mission was to craft an event where food was at the heart, but with a streetwear fashion edge. Last year, it drew the attention of the digital media company Complex, which acquired it as part of a new venture that will include a food publication and events arm.
The festival has learned to be innovative over the years, especially during the challenging times of the coronavirus pandemic, which disrupted its momentum. However, much like the restaurants that adapted to delivery or patio seating, Family Style Fest also found a way to pivot.
While large festivals were out of the question during the time of social distancing, drive-in theaters were one of the few places where people could gather safely. Canares and his team had the idea to partner with a delivery service app and host drive-in movie events at locations such as SoFi Stadium, where they showed films like “Back to the Future” and “Jurassic Park.” The restaurants set up shop and cooked meals, which were then delivered to customers in their cars by runners and others on golf carts.
“When we came back from our pandemic iterations of the event, we were met with a great reception,” Canares said during a phone interview. “Our ability to curate restaurants just continued to get stronger, and our name became more recognizable. People liked that we had a different approach to food, where it felt like there was another way for a food festival and brand to feel fresh and focused on youth culture. We were well attended and were able to work with more out-of-state vendors, and that’s when it really ramped up for us.”
Canares said that curating the food lineup for the festival is the best part of his job, but also a stressful one. Several factors determine which restaurants make the cut, including awards, community recognition, branding, and identifying which restaurants could benefit from gaining steam.
“It’s tough to choose, but as long as we feel like there is a shared energy with us and the restaurant, then it is good on our lineup,” he said.
New York’s Chopped Cheese, a restaurant inspired by sandwiches served out of Harlem’s bodegas, is among the eateries being featured at this year’s festival. The East Coast sandwich is crafted with chopped ground beef, grilled onions, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, and mayonnaise, all between a long, soft hero roll, and gives Californians a chance to taste its full glory.
The restaurant opened a Hollywood location in May 2023, following co-founder and New York native Anthony Arias’ observation that the West Coast was missing out. Before it became Los Angeles’ first chopped cheese-serving restaurant and opened a second location in Mid-City, Arias operated a food truck for 11 months. However, it was damaged in an accident on the 101 highway.
“The community came together, and we raised $40,000 in two days,” Arias said in a phone interview. “With that money, we were able to lease a truck, which helped us expand the brand even more, and the year after that, we signed our first lease.”
Arias said that aside from the residents and customers who support the restaurants, he feels grateful to be part of Los Angeles’ food scene, whose chefs are often open to collaborating and supporting one another. He added that the communal support would also be present at the Family Style Food Festival.
“We are collaborating with the Truffle Boys, who have the best truffles in all of Los Angeles, and we’ve got some fun sandwich items like a classic chopped cheese where we’ll shave some fresh truffles on top. We also have other friends from Branch Patty, a Jamaican Patty company that just moved from Brooklyn to LA, and we’re going to collab with them on a special oxtail beef patty chopped cheese. We have something for everybody and some new things that are only going to be available at Family Style Fest.”
Eve Ramasoot, who founded Heng Heng Chicken Rice, which has two locations in Hawthorne and another in Los Angeles, is also making her first appearance at the event after the inaugural Belly Laughs Comedy and Food Festival in July. Ramasoot is a former vegan who switched back to chicken and created a poultry-focused menu that centers on Hainan chicken and rice, one of her favorite childhood comfort foods she grew up eating in Phitsanulok, a small city in Thailand.
One of the restaurant’s most popular menu items, which will also be served at the Family Style Festival, includes zaab crispy pork belly and zaab fried chicken. Zaab, Ramasoot said, roughly translates to “bold and delicious flavors,” and hopes people at the festival will enjoy it just as much as her patrons do.
“I expect to see a lot of people attend and enjoy the food together, see the kids running around with their parents, and maybe they can bring their grandma and grandpa too,” she said. “I am also excited that I have a chance to collaborate with a designer to make merchandise for my restaurant.”
In the spirit of food meets streetwear, the festival is teaming up with artist and designer Verdy, who will serve as the event’s creative director this year. Verdy will bring limited-edition merchandise, create visual storytelling, and other immersive moments. Some of the past creative directors and brands that have collaborated with Family Style Food Festival include Angelo Baque, Keith Lee, Pokémon, and Kerwin Frost.
“It’s a fun strategy of ours to welcome an artistic director to the food festival,” Canares said. “It carries our theme of being this bridge and a cross-cultural event where we have incredible restaurants, but also has a creative that leads the events in a visual direction. Our artistic director sets our tone, visually with our marketing assets and our on-site experience, and they also create some incredible merch with us.”
For visitors planning to spend the whole day at the festival, taking breaks in between and eating, there will also be programming to keep everyone in the family entertained. Guests can enjoy a kids’ section filled with carnival games, caricature artists, face painting, a Nike soccer-focused activation, and live DJ sets from Sango, Noodles, Hunny Bee, and more.
“We just want people to have a good time and to try new things, taste new food, meet new friends and discover artists and restaurants,” Canares said. “That would be the dream.”
Family Style Food Festival
Where: Los Angeles State Historic Park, 1245 N Spring St., Los Angeles.
When: Noon-8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13.
Tickets: General admission starts at $47 and VIP tickets are $225 via familystylefest.com.