Behind Poltergeist and Estrano chef Diego Argoti's free Thanksgiving ramen pop-up

Diego Argoti's cake pop-ups are hard to pin down. The irreverent, genre-bending chef usually announces his pasta events just a day or two in advance with suggestive flyers, haunts LA's alleys and parking lots late into the night, and then disappears again.

But not on Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving Day, the former Poltergeist chef can always be found handing out free bowls of leftover-inspired noodle soups with mashed potatoes, turkey, and XO-infused cranberry sauce. It's his way of giving back to the city and caring for anyone who needs a hot meal somewhere – and giving himself a new appreciation for vacation.

Argoti preferred to spend Thanksgiving in the kitchen, long before cooking Bowls of Altruism, but to avoid the day rather than celebrate it.

“It was a very sad time,” he said. “All I cared about was working and partying.”

But in 2017, he was invited to another chef's home, where he and other chefs prepared the most extravagant dish imaginable: turducken roulade, squash stuffed with macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole with croissant dough, turkey gravy with gizzards and hearts drizzled with hachiya persimmons. It was Argoti's signal that he could and should really go crazy with this.

The following year, during his time in the Bavel kitchen, one of Argoti's colleagues mentioned that he had no one to spend Thanksgiving with. So Argoti invited him and spent the holidays pushing the boundaries again. They stuck a whole pineapple into the carcass of an Al Pastor-inspired turkey and hung it over a grill on a basketball court. They prepared a steamed cabbage roll with layers of sourdough filling, pumpkin puree, roasted beets and mushroom sauce. Argoti invited his parents and he felt like he was finally getting into the rhythm of Thanksgiving.

“It was this very lavish, over-the-top dinner and a way to make amends,” he said. “It was the first time I took a day off to cook Thanksgiving…they led to us cooking more [as a family]and to be more united.”

Then the pandemic came.

His friends and family didn't gather, but Argoti realized that a sidewalk pop-up could be the perfect platform for a social solution.

“I noticed that there were resources for people who had no shelter or food, but there were no services or resources for people who have all the money in the world and could be wealthy but are lonely, depressed and alone,” said Argoti, who struggled with depression and substance abuse for years. “At least you could have your friends or visit your family that you miss. Now [due to COVID] “That was out of the question.”

He set up portable burners in the parking lot of Button Mash in Echo Park — the arcade that housed Argoti's acclaimed but since-closed Poltergeist restaurant — and handed out Thanksgiving-inspired ramen and other comforting, unusual creations. He did it again the next year to more than double interest.

Argoti is promoting pre-orders through the Estrano Instagram account's direct messages the week before Thanksgiving. He's now approaching the pop-up's fifth iteration and has made friends and regulars over the years. Some are people who can't get home to their out-of-town families, some are nurses working the graveyard shift, others work in the service industry and are out feeding others on the holidays. Sometimes a whole family gets together just because they don't feel like cooking.

Argoti does not judge the guests' situation as long as they follow the rules: one bowl of soup per person, place the order via DM and arrange the pick-up time.

One year, Argoti said, he sent an email to a national grocery chain asking for two turkeys as a donation. A “truly demeaning” response from the company told him his efforts would be better spent donating to charity rather than cooking for the community. He continued anyway.

Argoti does not accept payments for the soups, although some donors have sent $100 to support the cause and fund the ingredients. He prepares his gift for 24 to 48 hours, roasting the turkeys, shaving their meat and cooking the bones in cauldrons of broth that simmer for a day.

Last year, Argoti appeared in the kitchen at Skyduster Beer's upcoming Silver Lake brewpub, where the chef plans to appear again this year. He confited the turkey legs, prepared the topping with mashed fries and prepared a large vat of tom kha gai with lots of lemongrass as a vegan version.

Fresh pumpkin spice-infused noodles were on the counter, made to order based on pick-up time, just like in a busy restaurant. Sometimes friends would come to help cook, and his mother — often a fixture in the kitchen each year — would help oversee the soup distribution. Solo travelers and groups of friends gathered outside the kitchen.

For a chef whose event flicks often feature obscene images — like a ball gagged avocado or Hello Kitty flipping the bird — this is a surprisingly wholesome affair. And it only comes one day a year.

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