Pack Pasta Salad in a Jar for a Taste of Summer in School Lunches

(Feature Impact) When students open up their lunchboxes in the cafeteria, it’s fun to be greeted with something bright, colorful and fresh. Pasta salad is a summer picnic staple, but once the weather starts to cool and kids head back to school, there’s nothing to say you can’t send a taste of summer with them.

The beauty of pasta salad is it’s totally customizable, ideal for eating cold and easy to make ahead of time. That means you can spend the evening before school dishing up jars then pop them in the fridge for a quick morning grab-and-go lunchbox filler. Adults in the household can take one to work while kids have their own at school – and if anyone wants a different dressing or no olives, it’s an easy accommodation.

If you’re making this Pasta Salad in a Jar recipe as the main course instead of a lunchtime side, up the protein by adding beans, chicken or cubed cheese to keep kids energized for the second half of the day. Choose whole-grain or high-protein pasta for an extra nutritional boost, and pack in vitamins and fiber with plenty of crunchy fresh produce, from cucumbers and carrots to tomatoes and olives.

Find more school-day recipes at Culinary.net.

Pasta Salad in a Jar

Recipe adapted from Best of This Life
Prep time: 10 minutes
Servings: 1

Dressing:

• 2          tablespoons olive oil
  
• 2          tablespoons red wine vinegar
  
• 1/8       teaspoon dried basil
  
• 1/8       teaspoon oregano
  
• 1/8       teaspoon parsley
  
• salt, to taste
  
• freshly ground pepper, to taste

• 1/4       cup canned chickpeas, rinsed
  
• 1/2       cup halved grape tomatoes
  
• 1/2       cup diced cucumber
  
• 2          tablespoons sliced Kalamata olives
  
• 1          cup cooked pasta of choice, cooled
  
• 1          cup chopped spinach

1. To make dressing: In canning jar, combine olive oil, vinegar, basil, oregano, parsley and salt and pepper, to taste. Stir in chickpeas.
2. Layer tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cooked pasta and spinach over dressing.
3. Refrigerate until ready to serve. To serve, flip jar over and lightly shake to combine dressing with other ingredients. 

Photo courtesy of Unsplash

SOURCE:

Culinary.net

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Last Updated on September 1, 2026 by Daily News Staff

For generations of Southern Californians, Roscoe’s was more than a famous combination of fried chicken and waffles. After 50 years, the restaurant’s cultural importance remains—but lawsuits, bankruptcy, closures and questions about its leadership have complicated the story.

What Happened to Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles?

For many visitors to Los Angeles, Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles is a destination—one of those famous places they have seen in movies, heard about in songs or watched celebrities visit.

For many of us who grew up in Los Angeles County, however, Roscoe’s occupies a different place in our memories. It was not necessarily our introduction to soul food, nor was chicken and waffles an exotic discovery. Roscoe’s was one among many soul-food restaurants where families ate in South Los Angeles, Inglewood, Compton, Watts and Long Beach.

I ate food from the South L.A. and Inglewood restaurants when I was young, although I was too young to compare the locations. When I returned to Roscoe’s as an adult and ate at the Long Beach location in 2021, I thought the food was good. That experience connected a familiar name from my Southern California childhood with the restaurant Roscoe’s had become decades later.

But the Roscoe’s story today is no longer only about food and nostalgia. It is also about how a Black cultural institution manages its legacy after lawsuits, bankruptcy proceedings, restaurant closures and a public controversy that caused some longtime customers to question who now controls the business—and whether its leadership still understands the community that helped make Roscoe’s famous.

From Harlem inspiration to a West Coast phenomenon

Herbert “Herb” Hudson, a Harlem native and former General Motors foreman, founded Roscoe’s in 1975. Accounts differ on whether the first restaurant was in Hollywood or Long Beach: Roscoe’s official history identifies the company as Hollywood-based, while culinary historian Adrian Miller and several contemporary reports place Hudson’s first location in Long Beach. What is undisputed is that Hudson brought a Harlem-influenced restaurant concept to Southern California and turned it into something distinctly Angeleno.

Hudson drew inspiration from the chicken-and-waffle restaurants and late-night music culture associated with Harlem, particularly Wells Supper Club. Chicken and waffles existed long before either Wells or Roscoe’s, with roots stretching through Pennsylvania Dutch cooking, Southern foodways and the work of Black cooks. Roscoe’s achievement was not inventing the pairing. It was making fried chicken and waffles a recognizable part of Los Angeles dining and eventually a national phenomenon.

In a 1978 advertisement in the Los Angeles Sentinel, Roscoe’s described the dish as “an East Coast specialty with a West Coast atmosphere.” It was an effective summary of Hudson’s idea.

His entertainment connections helped carry the restaurant beyond its neighborhood base. Stevie Wonder, Natalie Cole and comedian Redd Foxx were associated with its early rise, while athletes, actors, musicians and political figures followed. Roscoe’s became a place where local customers, tourists and celebrities could occupy the same dining room.

The restaurant also offered far more than its headline combination. Grits, eggs, greens, macaroni and cheese, red beans and rice, hot-water cornbread and chicken livers helped place Roscoe’s within the larger soul-food tradition. James Beard Award-winning author Adrian Miller’s history of Roscoe’s describes how Hudson used Black media, music connections and neighborhood locations to build the company.

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Becoming part of Black Los Angeles

Roscoe’s did not become an institution merely because famous people ate there. Black Los Angeles made it an institution.

Families celebrated there. Musicians stopped in after performances. Local residents brought visiting relatives. Young people grew up knowing the name before national food television began treating chicken and waffles as a culinary discovery.

Roscoe’s also entered popular culture. It was referenced in movies including Jackie Brown, Rush Hour and Soul Plane, appeared in television productions and was mentioned in music. Its yellow-and-red signs became visual shorthand for a particular side of Los Angeles—one connected to Black culture, nightlife and neighborhood life rather than beaches and Hollywood premieres.

President Barack Obama’s 2011 visit to the Pico Boulevard restaurant represented a high point in that cultural journey. Obama ordered three wings and a waffle, and the meal became known as the “Obama’s Special.” A restaurant created by a Black entrepreneur and sustained heavily by Black customers had served the nation’s first Black president.

Roscoe’s fame, however, could sometimes obscure the larger community around it. Los Angeles has long supported many soul-food kitchens, family restaurants and neighborhood establishments. Roscoe’s became the name outsiders recognized, but it was never the whole story of soul food in Southern California.

The discrimination case and bankruptcy

The most consequential legal chapter began with former employee Daniel Beasley, a Black man who sued East Coast Foods, the company managing several Roscoe’s restaurants.

Beasley alleged that Latino managers gave Latino employees preferential schedules and working conditions while treating Black workers unfairly. He also alleged that he was terminated after complaining about discrimination. A jury found in his favor, and the resulting judgment was ultimately reported at approximately $3.2 million.

This was a particularly damaging case for Roscoe’s reputation. The allegations did not come from an outside critic attacking a Black-owned institution. They came from a Black employee accusing the company behind that institution of failing Black workers.

East Coast Foods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2016. The discrimination judgment was a major factor, but it was not the company’s only financial obligation. Court proceedings described millions of dollars in additional debt.

The restructuring grew complicated. An examiner concluded that East Coast Foods could not meet its fiduciary responsibilities, and a court-appointed trustee effectively led the company for two years. A bankruptcy judge also ordered Hudson to reverse a transfer of the Roscoe’s name and trademark to an affiliated company he controlled, finding the transfer improper under bankruptcy law.

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A restructuring plan took effect in September 2018. It promised creditors full payment with interest, secured by company assets and as much as $10 million from Hudson. The restaurants remained open. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit later summarized the proceedings and Hudson’s guarantee.

The bankruptcy is important when discussing claims that Roscoe’s “changed hands.” Court supervision, the temporary appointment of a trustee and the emergence of new executives clearly changed how parts of the company were controlled. However, available reporting does not establish a straightforward sale of the entire chain to a new owner.

That distinction matters. Social-media posts frequently describe Roscoe’s as no longer Black-owned, but the company has not publicly provided a clear, current breakdown of its ownership. The most accurate conclusion is that Roscoe’s corporate structure and leadership became more complicated and less transparent—not that a complete sale has been conclusively documented.

A second employee lawsuit

Roscoe’s faced another labor case in January 2024 when former employee Jaime Alejandro Carbajal-Torres filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Carbajal-Torres, who said he worked for the company for more than 20 years, alleged unpaid overtime, interrupted or missed meal and rest periods, unpaid vacation wages and unreimbursed work expenses. The complaint sought class-action status, unspecified damages and an injunction against further violations of California labor law.

These are allegations in a civil complaint, not proven findings, and Roscoe’s did not immediately respond to the original request for comment, according to L.A. Taco’s report.

Nevertheless, the filing revived uncomfortable questions about the treatment of the people whose labor sustains a celebrated restaurant brand. For a company whose identity is tied so strongly to community, repeated employee complaints cannot simply be dismissed as a public-relations inconvenience.

Closures, tragedy and public controversy

The last several years have brought additional challenges.

Roscoe’s closed its celebrated Pico Boulevard restaurant in January 2023 after approximately 32 years. The company directed customers to its newer La Brea flagship, which opened in 2021. In June 2024, the Pasadena restaurant closed after 30 years, although the company said it hoped to find an upgraded location in the city. The Los Angeles Times reported that some customers had begun questioning whether rising prices still matched the food’s quality.

The chain was also touched by tragedy in September 2022 when rapper PnB Rock was shot and killed during a robbery at the Manchester Avenue restaurant. That killing was not a business controversy created by Roscoe’s, but it attached another painful chapter to the restaurant’s recent history.

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Then, in November 2024, a large inflatable figure of Donald Trump appeared near the Long Beach restaurant. Images spread online, leading some customers to believe Roscoe’s was endorsing Trump and prompting calls for a boycott.

Roscoe’s COO and creative director Diane Vara said the inflatable was connected to a political watch party at an adjacent jazz lounge, not the restaurant itself. According to Eater Los Angeles, the event was hosted by the Los Angeles County Republican Party and URBT News at the neighboring venue.

That explanation did not fully settle the controversy. Vara, who described herself publicly as a partner in Roscoe’s, had also exchanged contentious social-media comments with a food creator who criticized the restaurant and shared a homemade chicken-and-waffle recipe. The tone of the response intensified existing doubts about the company’s ownership, values and relationship with its traditional customers.

For many longtime patrons, the reaction was about more than partisan politics. Roscoe’s had spent decades benefiting from its status as a symbol of Black Los Angeles. Customers therefore expected its leadership to recognize how its actions—or events appearing to be associated with its property—would be understood by that community.

The state of Roscoe’s today

Roscoe’s reached its 50th anniversary in 2025. Its official website currently lists Hollywood, South L.A., Long Beach, Inglewood-LAX, Anaheim, La Brea and Pasadena, although the old Pasadena restaurant closed in 2024 and the company has discussed seeking a replacement site.

There are also signs of continued ambition. Roscoe’s has signed a lease for a space of more than 3,000 square feet at Los Angeles Union Station, according to 2026 reporting, though no firm public opening date had been announced. A Union Station restaurant would place Roscoe’s inside one of Southern California’s most important transportation landmarks as Los Angeles prepares for the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

This means Roscoe’s is not simply disappearing. It is contracting in some places, repositioning itself in others and attempting to carry a famous name into a new era.

But survival is not the same as renewal.

Roscoe’s still possesses something most restaurants could never purchase: a half-century of cultural memory. It helped popularize chicken and waffles across the country. It provided a gathering place for generations of Angelenos. It became one of the most recognizable Black-founded restaurant brands in America.

That history deserves recognition—but it should not shield the company from scrutiny.

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To retain the loyalty of the community that built it, Roscoe’s needs greater clarity about its ownership and leadership, fair treatment of its workers, consistent food and service, and a more thoughtful relationship with longtime customers. Nostalgia can bring people back once. Trust is what keeps them returning.

Roscoe’s remains an L.A. institution. The question now is whether the company managing that institution understands the responsibility that comes with the name.

Editor’s note: This article distinguishes court findings from allegations. Claims in the 2024 labor complaint remain allegations unless proven in court or resolved through an acknowledged settlement. Publicly available reporting does not conclusively establish that the entire Roscoe’s chain was sold or ceased to be Black-owned.

Sources and related reading

• Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles — official history
• The layered legacy of Roscoe’s — Adrian Miller, Resy
• In re East Coast Foods — Ninth Circuit opinion
• Roscoe’s sued by former employee over alleged labor violations — L.A. Taco
• Roscoe’s closes its Pasadena restaurant after three decades — Los Angeles Times
• The controversy surrounding the Trump inflatable near Roscoe’s — Eater Los Angeles

See What’s Happening Now!

If your late-summer routine includes a “Tims run” and a little wizarding-world nostalgia, Tim Hortons just gave you a reason to detour. To celebrate its new Harry Potter-inspired collaboration — complete with themed menu items, merch, limited-edition packaging, and plenty of fan-service easter eggs — Tim Hortons has transformed one Toronto restaurant into a full Back to Hogwarts-themed takeover.

The pop-up-style experience is open now at 815 Caledonia Rd. in Toronto, and it’s only around for a limited time.

A magical makeover, inside and out

The first thing you’ll notice is the exterior: the familiar Tim Hortons façade has been replaced with a bold Harry Potter x Tim Hortons design inspired by the collaboration’s limited-edition packaging.

Step inside and the theme goes even harder. The restaurant features celebratory displays inspired by moments from the Harry Potter film series, including:

• Platform 9 ¾-inspired elements
• A Hogwarts Great Hall vibe
• A Sorting Hat-themed photo opportunity for guests

Tim Hortons says the goal is to make fans feel like they’ve entered the wizarding world the moment they arrive.

“We want Harry Potter fans to be able to imagine that they have stepped into the wizarding world the moment they arrive for their Tims Run,” said Hope Bagozzi, Chief Marketing Officer for Tim Hortons.

The Harry Potter magic is rolling out across Canada, too

Even if you can’t make it to Toronto, Tim Hortons locations across Canada are leaning into the Back to Hogwarts energy — timed to the seasonal tradition and the 25th anniversary of the Harry Potter film brand, according to the release.

Here’s what’s available (while supplies last, and at participating locations):

Hogwarts House Donuts (pick your House)

Tim Hortons is offering four House-themed donuts:

• Gryffindor Strawberry Cheesecake Donut
• Slytherin Chocolate Pistachio Donut
• Ravenclaw Blueberry Donut
• Hufflepuff Lemon Meringue Donut

And yes, there are Golden Snitch Caramel Timbits — plus a limited-edition Golden Snitch Timbits Holder.

Colour-changing cups that reveal Patronuses

Order select cold drinks and you’ll get a temperature-activated cup that reveals a trail of Patronuses when filled.

Featured drinks include:

• Patronus Sparkling Quenchers (customizable with lemonade, protein dairy beverage, or frozen)
• Forbidden Forest Iced Tea Quenchers (available at participating restaurants where fountain beverages are served)

Collectable merch and limited-edition gift cards

In addition to the Golden Snitch Timbits Holder, participating restaurants will carry limited-edition “25 Years of Magic” gift cards.

Harry Potter Trivia Night (Aug. 28)

On Aug. 28, participating Tim Hortons restaurants will host a Harry Potter Trivia Night to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the first film and the kickoff of Back to Hogwarts.

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Tims Rewards contest: win a trip to London

From Aug. 17 to Sept. 6, Tims Rewards members who order and scan (in-restaurant, in the app, or on TimShop.ca) will be entered for a chance to win one of two grand prizes: a Harry Potter VIP experience for two in London, England.

Contest details are listed at www.timhortons.ca/harrypotter.

Limited-edition packaging with easter eggs

Tim Hortons is also rolling out limited-edition Harry Potter packaging across select items, including:

• Single-item donut boxes
• Multi-pack donut boxes
• 10-pack and 20-pack Timbits boxes
• Cold beverage cups

The packaging is designed to be more than just collectible — it’s packed with hidden references for fans.

If you’re in Toronto: here’s the play

If you can swing it, the 815 Caledonia Rd. takeover is the kind of limited-time brand experience that’s built for photos, fandom, and a quick treat run that feels like an event. Between the Sorting Hat photo moment and the themed menu lineup, it’s basically a mini Back to Hogwarts celebration — with coffee.

And if you’re not in Toronto, the House donuts, colour-changing cups, trivia night, and limited-edition packaging give you plenty of ways to join the fun from your local Tims.

Source: Tim Hortons Canada

🍴 What’s your favorite food, recipe, or dining spot? Tell us in the comments! Then subscribe to the STM Daily News newsletter for fresh recipes, restaurant news, food trends, and delicious stories delivered straight to your inbox. Join our growing community of food lovers today!