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Netflix plans to serve up food to eat, not just watch

We eat first with our eyes. Now the new limited-time pop-up Netflix Bites in Los Angeles will also fill our bellies.
Netflix Bites Curtis Stone LP O'Brien Dominique Crane
Contributing chefs include Curtis Stone (right) and Dominique Crenn (left), and mixologist LP O'Brien (center)|Photos courtesy of Netflix.

You watched it. You wanted it. Now (maybe) you can eat it.

The streaming network Netflix on Wednesday announced it will create its first “culinary space” on June 30. The new Netflix Bites will open in Los Angeles and will feature food from the chefs you’ve come to love on the smaller screen from shows like “Chef’s Table,” “Iron Chef: Quest for an Iron Legend,” and “Is It Cake?”

From “Iron Chef,” for example, will be dishes from Curtis Stone, Dominique Crenn, Ming Tsai and Andrew Zimmern. From “Chef’s Table,” Rodney Scott and Ann Kim will contribute. Nadiya Hussain of “Nadiya Bakes,” is involved, as is Jacques Torres of “Nailed It!”

Drinks will be created by Frankie Solarik, Julie Reiner, LP O’Brien and Kate Gerwin of “Drink Masters.”

The chefs will team up for a special tasting menu at the venue in the Short Stories hotel near Los Angeles’ Farmer’s Market at The Grove, though the actual menu has not yet been revealed. Keep in mind that reservations require a $25 deposit (applied to the bill) and menu modifications will be politely declined. Also, the chefs will not be on site, the website notes.

Netflix has experimented with “immersive activations” tied to various shows in the past, like The Queen’s Ball: A Bridgerton Experience, as well as Stranger Things: The Experience, and Money Heist: The Experience.

Netflix Bites will have a limited-time run. But we think there are more opportunities to bring streaming shows to life with food, and not just with Netflix shows.

From “Yellowjackets,” there should be roasted, uh, meat and snowcones, for example.

St. Louis sushi—ham and cream cheese rolls stuffed with a pickle—make an appearance in “Somebody Somewhere” season two on HBO. Other bar options could include whiskey with a laudanum sidecar (“Outlander”).

There’s the obvious s’mores (“The Menu”), Italian beef sandwiches and chocolate cake (“The Bear”), honeycomb cookies (“Squid Game”), and pastrami sandwiches (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”)

Netflix could revive dishes from Luke’s Diner (“Gilmore Girls”), as well as Bluth’s Frozen Banana (“Arrested Development,” nuts are 10 cents extra), and “Sex in the City’s” Magnolia Bakery cupcakes and Cosmos.

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