{"id":89042,"date":"2026-06-04T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=89042"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:50:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T19:50:00","slug":"three-pigs-in-long-beach-makes-the-best-japanese-food-you-havent-tried","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/eat\/three-pigs-in-long-beach-makes-the-best-japanese-food-you-havent-tried","title":{"rendered":"Three Pigs in Long Beach makes the best Japanese food you haven\u2019t tried"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article was originally published by LAist<\/a> on May 29, 2026.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The soft hiss of fat dripping onto white-hot binchotan. The alchemical smell of both sweet tare sauce and charred meat. If you closed your eyes, you could easily imagine yourself parked at the counter of any number of South Bay yakitori joints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is\u00a0Three Pigs,<\/a>\u00a0a Long Beach-based pop-up and catering operation that roves around the region, one week perhaps at a street fair, another in the parking lot of a donut shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the work of partners Allison and Vasili Tavernakis. In just under two years, they\u2019ve built a community of dedicated diners from Orange County to Los Angeles, drawn to their personal market-inspired take on traditional Japanese cuisine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Three Pigs owners, Vasili (left) and Allison Tavernakis. Courtesy Three Pigs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yakitori is what first launched Three Pigs. So there are always skewers on the menu, like a juicy beef kushiyaki skewer dabbed with wasabi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there\u2019s also always something special and even ephemeral to be had. Maybe it will be hearty kakuni don, a bowl of rice topped with meltingly tender soy-braised pork belly, a jammy soft-boiled egg, and daikon and bok choy sprouts. Or perhaps you\u2019ll find a hyper-seasonal dish like nowhere else: yuzu-scented whipped tofu, charred broccolini, sake-cherry agrodolce, and sprouted watercress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three Pigs is restaurant-quality cooking unbound from the financial and creative trappings of a brick-and-mortar space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe challenge is what keeps me excited,\u201d Vasili said. \u201cI want our pop-ups to feel like if you changed our bamboo plates, you\u2019d feel like you were at a restaurant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A restaurant-quality dish at Three Pigs. Courtesy Three Pigs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Organic growth<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Allison and Vasili are both hospitality veterans. The pair met while working at a restaurant in Torrance: Allison as a manager and social media director in the front of the house, Vasili as a chef in the back of the house. After their shifts, there were few options for late-night bites. Inevitably, Vasili said, they\u2019d find themselves at Japanese izakayas, where they and their coworkers could build camaraderie over skewers and small plates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was during those post-work meals that Vasili became enamored with yakitori. But it wasn\u2019t until the pandemic lockdowns that Vasili ever attempted to cook it himself. It was a slow process, learning the techniques and honing the recipes that called back to those late-night meals that he sorely missed. For Allison, who is Japanese-American, the dishes spoke to her own flavor memories and family traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n Link<\/a>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, they became confident enough to invite friends over for dinners to try out new dishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the idea of a pop-up seemed far off. It wasn\u2019t until a friend who owns a store in downtown Long Beach offered a pop-up opportunity that Three Pigs started serving the public. After that first smashing success, which saw their entire menu sell out, the operation has grown organically ever since, building on community connections and word of mouth to find new avenues to share their food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evolution and ambition<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you pay enough visits to Three Pigs\u2019 pop-ups, you can watch the pair continually push boundaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn a recent visit to Japan,\u201d Vasili recounted, \u201cwe saw a vendor with a gorgeously long irori-style grill with fish standing on skewers. In Japan, irori is a multifunctional space in the home for both heating and cooking. I hadn\u2019t seen a vendor do that before, so I thought I could try building one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So he did. Then he sourced ayu, small fish prized in Japan for their sweet, delicate flavor. The fish were skewered whole and arranged vertically around lengths of charcoal stacked in the center of the grill. The result was not just an approximation of that inspiration from Japan, but an homage to the craft and care of Japanese cooking. Even attempting such a cooking method is something no other pop-up, let alone a brick-and-mortar restaurant, is likely doing in Southern California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Casual pop-ups are only part of the Three Pigs experience. Allison and Vasili also host a dinner series. And it\u2019s at those dinners where Three Pigs\u2019 creativity is truly at play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a Santa Monica nursery a few months ago, Three Pigs paired an ambitious tasting menu dinner with an ikebana class hosted by Tiger Blossom Studio. In between flower arranging lessons, Allison and Vasili served a farmers market-driven menu that saw dishes like a hamachi crudo in a pool of strawberry ponzu, spiny lobster in a caviar and white miso beurre mont\u00e9, and a hojicha panna cotta with craggy, dehydrated black sesame cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe try and create an experience, not just food on a plate,\u201d Allison said. \u201cWe see this as an entire restaurant experience that happens to be outside in the community. We get to interact with customers in a more intimate way, ask questions, and have a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that conversation isn\u2019t just one with customers old and new. It\u2019s a dialogue between memory and place, Southern California and its seasons, and tradition and evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter where you find Three Pigs, you can always guarantee there will be something new on the menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit Three Pigs on Instagram at @threepigslbc<\/a> for upcoming pop-ups and events.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI want our pop-ups to feel like if you changed our bamboo plates, you\u2019d feel like you were at a restaurant, proprietor Vasili Tavernakis said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":89043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32365],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32391],"class_list":["post-89042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eat","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89042"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89050,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89042\/revisions\/89050"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89042"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=89042"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}