Group shows are often wonderful for ensuring that a shit-ton of people show up to a gallery opening. Pair a group show with a food related topic and you’re pretty much guaranteed to see half the city. At least that’s what it felt like at Thursday night’s “Please Have Enough Acid in This Dish!” at M+B organized by James Beard Award-winning chef Vinny Dotolo (of Animal and Jon & Vinny’s fame).

The jam-packed exhibition explored the intersections between food, daily life and art in Los Angeles and featured food-influenced paintings, drawings, sculptures and videos by 37 Los Angeles-based artists, including many new works made for the exhibition. Participating artists include (hang in there, the list is long): Harold Ancart, Alex Becerra, Louise Bonnet, Derek Paul Boyle, Matthew Brandt, Greg Colson, Bjorn Copeland, Cameron Crone, Awol Erizku, Kim Fisher, Samara Golden, Rives Granade, Joel Kyack , Dwyer Kilcollin, Friedrich Kunath, Shio Kusaka, Candice Lin, Nevine Mahmoud, Josh Mannis, Calvin Marcus, Max Maslansky, Joshua Nathanson, Claire Nereim,  Ariana Papademetropoulos, Ana Prvacki, Sean Raspet, Charles Ray, Fay Ray, Ed Ruscha, Adam Silverman, Marisa Takal, Kenneth Tam, Paul Pascal Theriault, Charlie White, Chase Wilson, Jonas Wood and Eric Yahnker

Throughout the opening Dotolo served up his signature “Green Garlic Bone Broth,” Ana Prvacki served up “This is not an olive,” a special cocktail developed for the show which replaced the traditional martini olive, with kumquats sourced from Ed Ruscha’s studio orchard because of course and Sean Raspet debuted his new chemically-flavored waters which people enjoyed hesitantly if at all.

Feeling like a summer block party the crowd at M+B continued to spill out into the front courtyard where there was a Kogi truck and cooler full of Tecate along side many bottles of Soylent (look it up). Conversations ranged from descriptions of the show as “meh, just okay” to stories about skipping high school for Amsterdam and many strong declarations about LA’s eclectic style. Most people pretended not to notice when Mad Men darling Kiernan Shipka arrived with friends later followed by Gillian Jacobs and friends although the amount of sneaky snapchats would say otherwise. 

After enjoying our kumquat adorned cocktails and active people watching (shout out to the guy with the lime green buzzcut!) we bid farewell to the who’s who of art and foodie la la land, grabbed a taco for the road, and collectively wished more visuals were served with victuals.