Mercado Hollywood to open, Ment’or at Bouchon, Fair Game food truck rolls into L.A.

Mercado Hollywood, Jesse Gomez’s third outlet of his modern Mexican restaurant Mercado is slated to open Wednesday on Cahuenga Boulevard. The 2,048-square-foot restaurant will feature a new tequila program with more than 40 varieties as well as new dishes by chef and co-owner Jose Acevedo. The menu includes crispy Mexican sweet shrimp, jumbo deep sea scallops encrusted in pumpkin seeds and more. The space, designed by Ana Henton, features a mural by Carlos Nieto. Mercado Hollywood will be open Monday to Wednesday 5 to 10 p.m., Thursday and Friday 5 to 11 p.m., Saturday 4 to 11 p.m. and Sunday 4 to 10 p.m. 3413 Cahuenga Blvd., Los Angeles, (323) 512-2500 www.mercadorestaurant.com.

Some of California’s leading chefs will join Thomas Keller at Bouchon Beverly Hills Oct. 30 to help judge the Ment’or Young Chef Competition and you can join them. They’ll even feed you. Joining Keller will be Josiah Citrin from Santa Monica’s Melisse, and French Laundry alum Timothy Hollingsworth from the restaurant at the Broad Museum downtown, which is still in development. Also judging will be Roland Passot of San Francisco’s La Folie, William Bradley of San Diego’s Addison, and certified master chef Richard Rosendale. Regular tickets are $75 and VIP tickets are $100, with all of the proceeds going to benefit the program, which is designed to encourage young chefs.

Jean-Paul Peluffo has launched his Fair Game gourmet food truck in SoCal. The concept for the truck involves choosing your own game, including BBQ pulled pork, braised short ribs, Cajun-style alligator, Maine lobster and more. You can have the protein served on a salad, in two sliders or three tacos. The truck will donate 5% of the net profits for each year to benefit local veteran and foster youth programs. For locations, fairgamegft.com.

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