Butter up! Los Angeles gets a taste of Jakarta’s dessert phenomenon when Butter Baby's first-ever U.S. pop-up lands on Melrose Avenue this weekend. Running December 12 to 14, the three-day event brings the beloved mascot, crispy donuts and full pastel-soaked universe to L.A.
If you haven’t encountered Butter Baby online—or seen its bag charm dangling from the outfits of K-pop stars and Southeast Asian celebrities—this is your chance to discover the hype and understand whether or not the donuts live up to it.
Founded by Nick and Henry Burch, the character-driven brand has become a cultural shorthand for a new creative movement in Indonesia, where food, design and storytelling merge into a single collectible lifestyle. And fans treat it with the kind of frenzy usually reserved for sneakerheads.
The pop-up, titled Better Than You Know What, is the brand's first full-scale presentation outside of Asia, which is why they are going big. Expect a headline collaboration with Katseye, plus exclusive drops with Mark Tuan and JasonTheWeen that will only be available during the event. The merch includes apparel, accessories, blind box collectibles and the signature bag charm that’s become a fixture in Southeast Asian fashion circles.
But the main event is still the food. Chef Dedy Sutan Supriady, the culinary force behind the brand’s flavors, is debuting three new creations in L.A. before they land in Jakarta: strawberry matcha, ube crunch and vanilla cheese crunch. The immersive setup leans fully into Butter Baby’s character universe, bringing its animated backstory and soft-pastel aesthetic into physical form through installations and photo ops.
For Los Angeles, this is one pop-up bigger than a first-taste experience. Better Than You Know What will be a direct connection to one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic cultural exports before an almost inevitable global blow-out.
Butter Baby: Better Than You Know What runs December 12–14 at 8462 Melrose Avenue from 10am to 6pm. For more information, click here.
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