Tupac's Family Opens Pop-Up Restaurant in LA Inspired by Handwritten Notes from the Late Rapper

Powamekka Café will be open at L.A. Live from June 16 until June 30

CHICAGO - MARCH 1994: Rapper Tupac Shakur poses for photos backstage after his performance at the Regal Theater in Chicago, Illinois in March 1994. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
Tupac Shakur. Photo: Raymond Boyd/Getty

Tupac Shakur's family is expanding his legacy.

His estate is set to open Powamekka Café on June 16 until June 30 at 800 W. Olympic Boulevard in L.A. Live, Eater Los Angeles reports. The pop-up restaurant, an entity of Sacramento's Fixins Soul Kitchen, is slated to serve classics like fried chicken wings, gumbo and meatloaf for lunch and dinner.

The "Changes" rapper thought of the concept for the eatery before his untimely death in 1996. He dreamed of Powamekka Café being a place for "divaz" and "playaz," per notes later found by his family and shared on his official Instagram page when the L.A. location was announced.

Tupac also wrote that he wanted his restaurant to be "a passionate paradise 4 people with power 2 play and parlay," serving as "the perfect hideout 4 those who wish 2 escape the world'z cold reality."

"Come dine on authentic Italian food prepared by a reknown [sic] chef or the finest in down home southern & creole food from generationz of recipes & traditionz if u want more than we make the best sandwiches on the planet," his notes read.

According to Eater Los Angeles, Powamekka Café has already come to life in places like Fresno, California and New York City. For its Los Angeles run, it is teaming up with L.A. Live's Wake Me When I'm Free display, which salutes Tupac's life and legacy.

This isn't the first rapper-inspired pop-up eatery to be temporarily stationed in Los Angeles. In February, Eminem brought his famed Detroit eatery Mom's Spaghetti to the City of Angels during the week of the Super Bowl.

In September, Eminem opened Mom's Spaghetti in his native town of Detroit, based on the popular lyric from his 2002 hit "Lose Yourself." It offers a simple menu of no-fuss Italian fare like spaghetti, meatballs and a s'getti sandwich

"His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy," he raps early on in the song, which he penned for the soundtrack to his film, 8 Mile. "There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti."

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Em (né Marshall Mathers) first transformed the lyric into a food concept back in 2017, opening up Mom's Spaghetti as a pop-up shop at popular Detroit music venue the Shelter while promoting the release of his album, Revival. In April 2020, he sent containers of prepared spaghetti to frontline workers at Henry Ford and DMC hospitals, as they helped those in need amid the then-emerging coronavirus crisis.

Slim Shady has since given the restaurant a permanent home in downtown Detroit, (and made a surprise appearance at its opening) now taking up a bodega-sized portion of the ally next to Union Assembly — the two-story 14,800-square-foot restaurant in District Detroit across from Comerica Park.

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Union Joints, owner of Union Assembly, are partners with Eminem in the concept. They also worked with the musician on Mom's Spaghetti's previous pop-ups.

"We've had a lot of fun putting this project together with the folks at Union Joints, and the response from fans has been overwhelmingly positive," Eminem's manager, Paul Rosenberg, said in a statement. "The previous pop-ups were really a test for us to determine whether there was enthusiasm for a regularly-occurring Mom's Spaghetti spot that would be open all year long."

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