Maydan Market Launches a Backyard BBQ Summer Series on Its New Patio

• Maydan Market has launched Backyard BBQ, a monthly summer pop-up series on its recently opened back patio, running from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on select Saturdays.

• The series is an extension of Maydan Market's Club 104 culinary residency program.

• Three chefs are confirmed: Baloot (Persian kebabs) on June 27, Island Smoke N Grill (Chamorro BBQ) on July 25, and Mel's Farmhouse (Southern grilled fish) on August 22.

• The market is located at 4301 W Jefferson Blvd in Los Angeles; walk-ins are welcome, with reservations available online.

Maydan Market is opening up its new back patio for the summer with Backyard BBQ, a monthly pop-up series that hands the grill to a different chef each month. The series extends the market's existing Club 104 culinary residency program into an outdoor, picnic-style format, running once a month from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through August.

Each Backyard BBQ installment takes over Maydan Market's back patio for a single day, with laid-back, picnic-style seating replacing the market's usual indoor counter setup. The format favors a communal, unhurried lunch over a reservation-driven dinner service, and walk-ins are welcome alongside advance bookings. The through-line across all three dates is live fire: every chef in the series builds their menu around the grill, whether that means charcoal, wood smoke, or a classic fryer.

The series opens with Baloot, a Persian kebab and rice concept founded by Chef Mehran Movahedi. Movahedi's approach draws on his Iranian heritage alongside professional training at Le Cordon Bleu, and for Backyard BBQ he is bringing charcoal-grilled Persian kebabs built around house ferments and seasonal produce. Notably, Movahedi is using Maydan Market's own white oak hearth even in the outdoor setting, carrying the same live-fire technique and smoke character from the market's interior kitchen out onto the patio.

The July date belongs to Chef Carmen Naputi Davis of Island Smoke N Grill, an Indigenous, woman-owned business built around Chamorro culture and cuisine. Davis draws her menu from her roots in the village of Inarajan, Guam, and her Backyard BBQ residency will feature wood-smoked whole pig, chicken, pork ribs, and beef, served alongside pickled papaya, spicy finadene sauce, and kelaguen, a ceviche-like Chamorro specialty made with citrus, freshly grated coconut, green onions, salt, and chilis. The menu functions as a direct link to Davis's family and heritage as much as it does a barbecue spread.

Closing the series is Mel's Farmhouse, returning to Maydan Market after its May residency at Club 104. The Powell family has operated the business for more than four decades, beginning as Mel's Fish Market in 1982 before expanding into the Fish Shack in 2008, a fixture in West Adams known for buttery, cornmeal-fried catfish before its closure in September 2024. Mel's Farmhouse continues that legacy with farm-to-table meals centered on grilled fish and Southern cuisine, alongside a track record of community work through partnerships with schools, 4-H, and Envirothon programs.

Maydan Market is chef Rose Previte's 10,000-square-foot market concept, anchored by a central live-fire hearth and built around the idea of a maydan, a word used across the Middle East, Central and South Asia, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and North Africa to describe a central public gathering place. Under one roof, the market houses Previte's own Middle Eastern restaurant and bar, Maydan, alongside her restaurant Compass Rose, plus market outposts including Golden Mountain Chicken, Lugya'h by James Beard Award-nominated Poncho's Tlayudas, and Maléna. The space also includes Club 104, the rotating residency program that Backyard BBQ extends outdoors, and Sook, a Middle Eastern convenience store and wine bar serving wine by the glass alongside pantry staples and counter-service dishes.

Backyard BBQ is a small-scale bet on a simple idea: that a residency format built for indoor counters can work just as well outside, with a rotating cast of chefs who each bring a distinct cultural through-line to the grill. For Los Angeles diners, it turns a single Saturday a month into a reason to visit West Adams three times over the summer, each time for an entirely different kitchen.