Stop by the NoMad Hotel’s coffee bar on a given day and you’ll spot banana-cream–stuffed croissants, chia-seed puddings and salted vanilla lattes, and at night, espresso martinis and other coffee-tinged cocktails. But stop by in April and you’ll come face to face with… a limoncello fountain? Cannoli? Chicken parm sliders? Stromboli served on red-and-white checkered paper? Before you look for the next ride out of Jersey, just know you’re still in DTLA and not an episode of The Sopranos—you’re just in the first of the NoMad’s new pop-ups, For A Limited Time Only.
Every Friday and Saturday night, the NoMad is flipping its cozy coffee bar into a pop-up with a new theme each month, where you’ll find specialty cocktails and bites to match whatever the setting may be.
“The best word to describe the thought behind these menus is ‘whimsy,’” says bar manager Adam George Fournier. “We are, of course, still making sure that the drinks are delicious, deliberate and thoughtful, but there is a sense of playfulness that goes into these.”
The series kicks off on April 5 with an homage to the Mamma Guidara’s dinner series, a fixture at the New York City NoMad, where the bar frequently offers Sunday-night, Italian family-style dinners—a nod to NoMad owner Will Guidara’s mother, and NYC’s classic red-sauce joints. While L.A. won’t get the full prix-fixe menu, the coffee bar will flip to its own ode to red sauce, complete with Italian-inspired drinks such as house-made limoncello (served from a limoncello fountain, naturally), and a sno-cone negroni that’s made with rye, Campari, a strawberry-infused white vermouth, Foro Amaro and St. Germain.
While cocktails are certainly the focus of these new pop-ups, don’t expect to walk away hungry. At the first iteration, look for à la carte snacks like rosemary-and-orange–marinated olives; mini stromboli filled with with ricotta and basil; arancini with truffle and fontina; chicken parm “sliders” on chive buns; and—you know it—cannoli.
“For Mamma G’s, I’m very excited for our homemade-limoncello fountain, and I know Dave [Purcell, also bar manager] is positively giddy over the shaved-ice machine,” says Fournier. “Dave and I are already spiraling out of control with ideas for the Derby Day julep bar.”
We’re curious to see what the team thinks up for May’s Kentucky Derby theme (hello, juleps and Southern bites), while in June, they’ll be all about baseball season with a “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” pop-up—and if there’s no NoMad take on the Dodger Dog that month, we might just call foul.
The NoMad Los Angeles is located at 649 South Olive Street in Downtown L.A. Find their new pop-up series in the coffee shop on Fridays and Saturdays from 5:30 to 11pm.