Spicy L.A. Sriracha Festival set for Chinatown’s Central Plaza

Let the Sriracha flow. The second annual L.A. Sriracha Festival, presented by Food GPS and “The Sriracha Cookbook,” is scheduled to take place Oct. 19 at Chinatown’s historic Central Plaza.

The iconic hot sauce with the rooster label is to be celebrated at the festival with tastings of Sriracha-inspired dishes and desserts. To help the fiery stuff go down, local craft beer, cocktails, sodas, iced coffee and iced tea are to be available.

Some of Los Angeles’ participating chefs and restaurants include: Beachwood BBQ’s Gabe Gordon, Eagle Rock Brewery Public House’s Jerry Su, Eastside Market Italian Deli’s Vito Angiuli, Eggslut’s Alvin Cailan and Johnny Lee, The Gardene Swine and Scratch Bar’s Phillip Frankland Lee, Eric Greenspan of Greenspan’s Grilled Cheese, Tui Sungkamee and Jazz Singsanong of Jitlada, Komodo’s Erwin Tjahyadi, Marcus Christiana-Beniger of Little Jewel of New Orleans, Mei Lin of “Top Chef” Season 12, Mendocino Farms’ Judy Han, Kajsa Alger of Mud Hen Tavern, Nate Appleman of Shophouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, Sqirl’s Jessica Koslow and Willy B’s Christian Page. Whew. Some list.

Creme Caramel L.A., McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams and Red Bread are to be serving desserts. Bartenders Jason Bran and Damian Windsor are lined up to make cocktails, and Eagle Rock Brewery, Beachwood BBQ & Brewing and Golden Road Brewing are scheduled to pour their beers. Non-alcoholic options include craft sodas from Los Angeles Ale Works, coffee from Portola Coffee Lab, tea from Seventh Tea Bar and purified water from Pure Water of Los Angeles.

General-admission tickets are $59 in advance, $69 at the door (if still available). VIP tickets for the event are $90 in advance and $100 per person at the door, if available. They include reserved seating and one-hour early admission from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Part of the proceeds will go to Food Forward, a Los Angeles nonprofit with a mission to rescue fresh local produce that would otherwise go to waste and getting it to people in need.

Also, the first San Diego Sriracha Festival is set for Saturday from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at Liberty Station. A limited number of tickets to both fests are available for a bundle price of $160. Tickets are only available to those 21 and over and are for sale at sriracha.nightout.com.

L.A. Sriracha Festival, Chinatown’s Central Plaza, 943-951 N. Broadway, Los Angeles