According to LAist, three establishments in Los Angeles and Orange County let customers grill their own food for Labor Day, managing the shopping, setup, and cleanup while diners focus on the cooking.
The Venice Room, which opened in 1955, functions as an Italian-themed dive bar and steakhouse in the San Gabriel Valley and East Los Angeles area. Guests choose a New York strip or ribeye steak and are given the raw meat along with a potato and garlic bread to cook on gas grills located at the back of the property, with access to a seasoning station beforehand.
The interior features dim lighting, red leatherette booths, and weekend karaoke sessions that attract a variety of regulars such as ex-bikers and retired police officers who perform songs including War's "Slippin’ Into Darkness".
Prices for a steak dinner range from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars, while a special for two including house wine costs about seventy-five to seventy-nine dollars.
At Thien An Bo 7 Mon in Little Saigon, the seven-course beef tasting menu stands out because it includes a vinegar hot pot for cooking thin beef slices and a lemongrass-marinated beef dish grilled on a cast-iron grill at the table. The restaurant, family-owned since 1989, accommodates large groups in its lively dining room with helpful staff.
The menu price is around twenty-one dollars and ninety-nine cents per person for the beef courses, with a typical total near thirty dollars including extras, and an optional baked catfish available for larger sums.
A Filipino spot operating since 2013 in downtown Los Angeles allows selection of skewers such as pork, chicken, offal, kwek-kwek, and longaniza for one dollar and fifty cents apiece, which are then grilled by customers on charcoal setups in the parking lot.
The casual atmosphere includes long communal tables with red plastic stools, and it is possible to dine for ten to fifteen dollars per person or less with lunch options available before two o'clock.
This report is based on coverage by LAist: https://laist.com/news/food/three-spots-serving-up-diy-grilling-this-labor-day-without-the-host-duties