Tens of thousands of Angelenos streamed into the Los Angeles Convention Center this weekend for ComplexCon, an annual culture festival celebrating its 10th year. Between two days of elaborate streetwear exhibitions and headlining performances from Playboi Carti and Ken Carson, two dozen vendors turned dining into its own stand-alone attraction with Family Style Food Festival.
Founded by Miles Canares with L.A. streetwear brand the Hundreds in 2019 and acquired by Complex in 2024, Family Style Food Festival merges viral food concepts with street fashion and culture. Take the RC Cafe, an experiential car cafe with an interactive booth that allowed attendees to dig for prizes using machine-operated excavator and dump truck toys.
The limited-edition bites were just as exciting, including Cinnamon Toast-flavored ice cream and fizzy grape refreshers from the RC Cafe; smoked short rib ssäm in gem lettuce cups from Majordomo; signature charcoal-fired carne asada tacos and burritos with all-you-can-eat guacamole from Tacos Royale; and strawberry hot honey wings from House of Wings.
“I’m surrounded by so much cool art and design,” said the RC Cafe partner Duong Nguyen, who designed typography for the cafe as well as ComplexCon performers Playboi Carti and Destroy Lonely. “It’s interesting to see what everybody’s coming up with.”
The food hall granted access to hard-to-book restaurants such as omakase-style Pizzeria Sei, which served up slices created in collaboration with Fragment Design. Mirroring the fashion partnerships highlighted inside the festival, Big Baby’s Cornbread and Hilltop Coffee and Kitchen served sweet potato-flavored cornbread and lattes and Handles Coffee merged with apparel label VandyThePink to offer strawberry matcha lattes.
Having big names on the lineup then brings traffic to up-and-coming brands like the RC Cafe, said Canares.
“There’s a lot of pop-ups,” Canares said of the weekend’s lineup. “We like to utilize the platform as big as this to give them some shine.”
Ibrahima Thiam, who brought his two young sons to ComplexCon on Sunday, said they were impressed by the food options and decided to wait for Marathon Burger, which drew some of the weekend’s longest lines.
“ComplexCon did really good on this one,” Thiam said. “The food, the streetwear, it’s like the perfect match.”
