I Went To The Bear Season 3’s Foodie Experience In LA
Psst, a themed pop-up window is coming to NYC and Chicago reallyyy soon.
The Bear is back, and so is everyone’s appetites. With all 10 episodes of Season 3 now streaming on Hulu, fans have a new selection of tasty meals on their small screens to drool over but not get to taste.
As any fan who has googled “Is The Bear restaurant real?” knows, it does not exist IRL. But prior to the premiere on Thursday, June 27, I got to pretend I was one of the patrons of Carmy and Sydney’s eatery at a pop-up experience in Los Angeles, California. My overall review? An enthusiastic “YASSS, chef.”
Though The Bear Tasting Kitchen Experience, a joint collab with American Express and FX, was a one-night-only event, there are two other pop-ups inspired by the hit FX series heading to New York City and Chicago, Illinois, in the coming days — and they’re free.
Below, I’ll give you a small sampling of what it was like at the first of the three The Bear-themed experiences, along with what to expect from the remaining pair.
Something I Didn’t Know I Needed: The Bear-Themed Cocktails
The night kicked off with a cocktail hour, where attendees could enter the famous walk-in fridge that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) gets trapped in at the end of Season 2. In the fridge, there were different ingredients you could choose from for your drink of choice in clear tubes, like jalapeños, lemon, honey, blackberry, and mint.
Once we picked our cocktail’s main ingredients (I picked ginger; my friend picked grapefruit), we brought our tubes over to the bar for a Chef’s Creation drink. After handing over the ginger, my bartender asked me my beverage preferences (e.g. spicy, sweet, citrusy) and created something unique just for me.
It was a delicious ginger-forward concoction with a bit of a fruity spritz and fresh mint on top. So delicious, in fact, that I will be trying to recreate it at home ASAP.
There was also a set menu of cocktails inspired by The Bear. I tried the Centurion Cooler with tequila, cucumber, coconut orgeat, and lime, which was divine.
There was also a Honey Bear mocktail with lemon verbena, black currant leaves, chamomile, wild honey, black currant simple syrup, and fresh berries that was created by Matty Matheson, who plays Neil on the show.
The Pièce de Résistance? Dinner
Post-drinks, we got ready for what we knew would be a meal to end all meals. The Filipino-inspired menu was created by Resy restaurant Kasama’s Tim Flores and Genie Kwon. The two were featured in Season 2 of The Bear when Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) went on a food tour around Chicago.
Pork belly and maitake mushrooms, short ribs, beignets — each dish was SO good that if I could, I would give them all Michelin stars.
After we got our fill, the crowd got to watch the first two episodes of The Bear Season 3 with popcorn and our choice of soda.
As someone who always wants to eat what I see on TV, this was a chance for me to finally fulfill my foodie dreams. Like, I got to try dishes that Sydney enjoyed — how cool is that?
And more fans will get their chance soon.
The Bear Pop-Up Foodie Windows Are Coming
If you’re also someone who always wants to eat they see on screen, Amex and FX are opening up two pop-up windows in New York and Chicago.
The first up is a pop-up window at Resy restaurant The Wooly (390 Broome Street) in NYC’s Nolita neighborhood on Friday, June 28. From 1 p.m. to 6 p.m., anyone can grab pistachio and rosewater sticky cinnamon buns and specialty lemonade.
The second pop-up window will be at Resy restaurant Parsons Logan Square (2952 W Armitage Avenue) in Chicago on Monday, July 1. From 3 p.m. to 8 p.m., fans can grab a banana pudding and Parsons x Appel’s local soda with either blueberry lavender or pineapple.
These to-go windows will be open to the public and serving free dishes while supplies last. If these aren’t the best ways to celebrate a new season of The Bear, I don’t know what is.
