The Art of Food in the Streets: Levi's Big Night Celebrates LA Food Culture

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The Levi's Workshop at MOCA's Art in the Streets Exhibit is a gift that keeps on giving: besides being one of the funnest parts of what's unquestionably one of the most exciting art happenings to hit LA in a really long time, the Workshop threw a party last Thursday. The Big Night was an artsy look at the local locavore movement and LA's food truck culture. What made the night exceptionally festive was the cross-pollination from the LA Art Walk and Little Tokyo Design Week. So many interesting, fashionable people -- which explains why couldn't find any parking closer than half a mile away and had to sprint in a pair of Loubs to meet someone before the event.

The night's attractions were a trio of short films that examined certain aspects of the local food scene, and the actual food itself. The Kogi and Ludo Bites trucks were on hand, serving up an abridged menu of their greatest hits. From the way the lines snaked around and around and around, you'd think that these two trucks weren't already staples of LA food truck culture. Guess there's a reason these are two of the titans of the curb.

Can we interject at this point and state the obvious -- that we are not foodies, but any stretch of the imagination? Still, we were charmed by the three films. The first, by arthouse darling Aaron Rose, was a quaint and stylized short about farming in Silverlake. The Sound of Heat went up-close with Ludo Lefebvre as he spoke almost unintelligible French while preparing a meal from scratch. The third film, a wildly fictional account of how the Kogi truck keeps its dominance in LA was in the spirit of an old-skool martial arts film, with bad dubbing and subtitles, and herky jerky fight sequences.

The real highlight of the night? The totally docile, well-behaved chicken in the photo gallery. The chicken was the guest of Silver Lake Farms, a group dedicated to teaching, by example, how sustainable growing practices can be used by even the most city-fied among us. We hope the chicken was there as a pet, not as an entree-to-be.

Art in the Streets and the Levi's Workhop continue through August 8.
· Levi's Film Workshop [Official Site]