Put on a costume Saturday, Oct. 31, and Chipotle's Boorito gets you an entrée for $6 from 3 p.m. until close. It's in-store only, and you have to scan your Rewards card at checkout. Krispy Kreme is also giving costumed guests a doughnut. Details on both are just below.

Also this week: a different food truck every night at Lucky Luke's Palmdale taproom, The BLVD Market's last Thursday of the season, Saturday's winery farmers market, Baracoa and The Modern Tea Room, and a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe. Start with the trivia question below. The answer is at the bottom.

Your Halloween costume is worth money at two chains with Antelope Valley locations this week.

Chipotle's Boorito is back on Saturday, October 31. From 3 p.m. until close, guests in costume can get one entrée for $6 at participating U.S. restaurants. You have to scan your Chipotle Rewards card at checkout, and the deal is in-store only. It doesn't apply to app, online, delivery, kids' meals or catering orders. Guac (except on veggie entrées), queso and extra meat cost extra, and the limit is one per costumed guest. On Sunday, November 1, Chipotle also waives delivery fees on app and website orders of $10 or more.

Krispy Kreme is giving away doughnuts too. Wear a costume to a participating shop on Friday, October 30 or Saturday, October 31 and you can get a free Original Glazed or Classic Ring doughnut, no purchase needed. Krispy Kreme's Halloween details.

Participation can vary by store, so check your nearest Lancaster or Palmdale location before you head out in costume.

Wendy's has a new value combo built around its signature burger. The Dave's Single Combo is $7.99 for a limited time at participating U.S. restaurants.

You get a Dave's Single, which is a quarter-pound fresh-beef patty with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, ketchup, mustard and mayo on a toasted potato bun. It comes with small Hot & Crispy Fries and a small soft drink.

The deal works in the restaurant, at the drive-thru, in the Wendy's app and on Wendys.com. No end date has been announced. Prices and participation can vary, delivery may cost more, and the deal can't be combined with other offers or changed with substitutions. Check your Lancaster or Palmdale Wendy's before you order.

Mashed picked the 10 best new Taco Bell items of 2026 so far. A few are worth knowing about if you're watching what you spend.

The Mini Taco Salad is on the Luxe Value Menu for just under $2.50 and shows no sign of leaving. Salted Caramel Churros are three bites for $1.99. The Melty Pepper Jack Steak Burrito launched in July at $3.

The list also includes Fajita Street Chalupas, Diablo Nuggets with Zab Sauce, Chocolate Fudge and Caramel Empanadas, the Chicken Bacon Ranch Street Chalupa and the Tajín Pineapple Strawberry Freeze. Many were limited-time items, though, and the $1 Quesarito is already gone. Check the Taco Bell app for what your nearest AV location still has.

If a Trader Joe's run is on your list, Mashed's picks for the best new breakfast items of 2026 make an easy shopping list.

The Two-Potato Hash ($4.99) is sweet potatoes, Yukon golds, peppers and onions, already chopped for eggs, breakfast burritos or a quick side. Brioche-Style Pancakes ($3.99) can go straight from the package to the toaster. Sliced Double Chocolate Brioche ($5.49) makes a serious French toast.

Also on the list: a limited-time Organic Peru Cajamarca light roast coffee ($9.99), an unsweetened vanilla soy drink ($2.49) and Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins ($5.49 for four), though the muffins were out of stock when Mashed checked. Prices and stock vary by store.

When: Monday, October 26 through Saturday, October 31
Where: Lucky Luke Brewing Palmdale Taproom, 610 W. Avenue O, Suite 104, Palmdale
Cost: Free to attend. Food is priced by each truck.

Lucky Luke's Palmdale taproom has a food truck booked every weeknight this week, so you can plan dinner around whatever you're craving:

• Mon 10/26: Weary Bones Butter Burgers, 4–8:30 p.m.
• Tue 10/27: La Tropa Loca, 4–8:30 p.m., plus Taco Tuesday from 3–9 p.m.
• Wed 10/28: Infernal Tacos, 4:30–9:30 p.m.
• Thu 10/29: Smash Bros, 4:30–10 p.m.
• Fri 10/30: Hi Thai Street Food, 4:30–9:30 p.m., plus Bring Your Own Vinyl night from 6–10 p.m.

On Halloween, Saturday, October 31, the taproom keeps special holiday hours of noon to 6 p.m. Truck schedules can change, so check the calendar before you go.

Organizer: Lucky Luke Brewing Palmdale events calendar

When: Thursday, October 29, 4–9 p.m.
Where: The BLVD in downtown Lancaster, Lancaster Boulevard between Fern Avenue and Ehrlich Avenue
Cost: Free to stroll. Vendors set their own prices.

Lancaster's Thursday-night market wraps up its 2026 season this week. The market started in April and brings 15 to 20 vendors to The BLVD, with farm-fresh produce, food trucks and artisan goods. It's run by the nonprofit Raw Inspiration in partnership with the City of Lancaster.

This is the last chance this year to stock up on local produce downtown. Go early for the best produce, and stay for dinner from the food trucks.

Organizer: City of Lancaster, The BLVD Market · Questions: Lancaster PARCS, (661) 723-6077

When: Saturday, October 31, 9 a.m.–noon
Where: Antelope Valley Winery & Brewery, 42041 20th St. W., Lancaster
Cost: Free to attend. Vendors set their own prices.

Get your Halloween shopping done before trick-or-treating. The certified farmers market at Antelope Valley Winery runs every Saturday morning through November 14.

Vendors include Ventura County fruit and produce, small-batch local honey, organic micro-greens, farmstead organic eggs, artisan breads and pastries, handcrafted chocolates, hummus and pita, tamales, dried fruit and nuts, and fresh-squeezed juice. There's also lavender, goat-milk soaps and local crafts.

Organizer: Antelope Valley Winery & Brewery · (661) 722-0145

Palmdale doesn't have many places where dinner comes with live music on the patio and a view of the San Gabriel Mountains. Baracoa Cuban Restaurant, tucked into a shopping center on Auto Center Drive near 10th Street West, is one of them. The menu is built on Cuban family cooking, the restaurant advertises "AV's Best" wins every year from 2023 through 2026, and it has collected well over a thousand reviews from fans across the valley.

Start with a sandwich

If you only try one thing, make it a Cuban sandwich. Baracoa makes two. The traditional Cubano ($19) is the classic build: slow-roasted pork, ham, Swiss, pickles, mustard and mayo, pressed until crisp. The house Baracoa Cubano ($19) trades the ham for thick-cut bacon and adds grilled onions. It's the one the restaurant calls its signature. There are also sandwiches made with ropa vieja, crispy vaca frita, roast pork (pan con lechón) and a sirloin pan con bistec with chimichurri. Each comes with a side, and you can swap in congrí, sweet plantains or tostones for about a dollar.

The dinner classics

Ropa vieja ($28), which the menu calls the national dish of Cuba, is shredded beef braised slowly with garlic, peppers and onions in red wine and tomato sauce. Vaca frita ($28) starts with shredded beef too, but it's seared crispy with grilled onions and citrus zest, and reviewers single it out again and again. Lechón asado ($25) is tender roast pork with grilled onions, and pollo encendido ($25) is chicken braised in a spicy creole sauce. Entrées come with rice, black beans and sweet plantains, and nearly all of them are marked gluten-free.

For bigger appetites there's rabo encendido, spicy braised oxtail ($41), and the Mar y Tierra ($49), a Cuban surf and turf that pairs oxtail with Gulf shrimp. Can't decide? The Tour de Cuba ($65) puts lechón, ropa vieja and pollo encendido on one platter with two sets of sides. It's built for sharing.

Small plates and sweets

Order a round for the table: papas rellenas (mashed-potato balls stuffed with picadillo, breaded and fried, $12), beef or spicy chicken empanadas ($12), ham croquetas ($12), tostones or sweet plantains ($8) and yuca frita with garlic-lime mojo ($9). The Havana Bites sampler ($32) covers most of them. Save room for Marilem's Flan ($12), which the menu bills as Mom's secret recipe, or the guava cheesecake empanadas.

The budget-friendly way in

Dinner here runs about $31 to $50 a person, so lunch is the easier way to try it. Lunch bowls ($15) put ropa vieja, lechón or pollo encendido over rice and black beans with pickled cabbage and two sweet plantains. Happy hour is the other option: $2 off draft beer, $3 off house well cocktails and a dedicated menu of sandwiches and appetizers. Ask the restaurant for current happy-hour times.

Saturday is the night

Baracoa has live music every Saturday starting at 7:30 p.m., and the patio, with fire pits and mountain views, is where the action is. Book ahead on OpenTable if you want an outside table. Mojitos, sangria and a strong cortadito or Cuban espresso anchor the drink list, and the restaurant just introduced a new fall drink, the Canela Soul.

Good to know

• Cards only. Baracoa doesn't accept cash.
• Takeout and delivery: order direct online, call (661) 265-9463, or use Uber Eats or Postmates.
• Groups and catering: family-size ropa vieja trays serve 5 or 10 people, and the patio and dining room can be booked for private events. Text (661) 349-5593 at least two weeks ahead.
• Dress: casual. Families are welcome.

Local Bites take: Baracoa is the AV's go-to for Cuban food and one of its best date-night rooms. It's pricier than the typical Palmdale lunch stop, and a few reviewers say so, which makes the lunch bowls and happy hour the smart way to start. A Saturday night on the patio is the full experience. Order the Baracoa Cubano, a side of tostones and the flan, and you'll see why the place has such a loyal following.

Best for: Cuban sandwiches, date night, Saturday live music, group dinners and catering.

Plenty of AV cafés pour tea. The Modern Tea Room on Lancaster Boulevard builds an entire menu around it. The café calls itself "a modern take on an ancient taste," and it backs that up with more than 145 loose-leaf teas, a full breakfast-and-lunch kitchen and one of the biggest vegan menus in the Antelope Valley. It's a short walk from The BLVD Market, so Thursday's season finale is a good excuse to stop in.

Start with the tea

The tea list is the reason to come. Iced infusions ($5.89) combine loose-leaf tea with fruit and fresh lemon. The Gummy Bear is the café's best-known drink: white champagne raspberry tea with peach, pineapple and lemon, with gummy bears in the cup. Peach Time and the Lancaster Mango are close behind. If you'd rather have something creamy, the milk teas ($6.50) include a London Fog, a Lavender Oat Chai, a Coconut Chai Dream, a Tea-Chata horchata and, for fall, a Pumpkin Pie Chai and a Pumpkin Thai Milk Tea. Oat, almond, soy and coconut milk are all available, and boba is 50 cents extra.

Purists can order straight loose-leaf, from English Breakfast and Organic Masala Chai to Green Jasmine, Organic Moroccan Mint, a ginger-orange oolong and a set of Ayurvedic herbal blends. Organic Japanese matcha and hojicha are on the menu too. Find a favorite and you can take it home: most teas are sold in 2-ounce bags.

Visiting on a Thursday? Ask about Mouth Drop Thursday, a surprise tea sold that day only for $3. It tends to sell out fast.

Vegan, and not so vegan

The food menu is split into two sides, "Vegan" and "Not So Vegan," which makes ordering easy for mixed groups. On the vegan side, jackfruit does a lot of the heavy lifting: a BBQ jackfruit sandwich with house slaw and pickles on toasted sourdough ($13.99), a jackfruit burrito, jackfruit nachos and a vegan Philly. There are also taco-seasoned walnut tacos in lettuce cups with avocado crema ($7.99), a walnut burrito, tofu lettuce wraps with peanut sauce and the acai Coco Loco Bowl. Regulars rave about the vegan biscuits and gravy.

The not-so-vegan side leans on pressed melts and deli classics. Try the Cubano with shaved ham, tea-infused pickles, Swiss and pickled jalapeños on Hawaiian bread ($12.99), the BLT Tea with tea-infused mayo on sweet molasses bread, or the Modern Egg Sandwich, egg salad with apricot spread on toasted potato bread ($9.99). Salads, avocado toast, the new Soul Bowls ($15) and a cup of tomato soup or the soup of the day round out lunch.

Breakfast and something sweet

Breakfast is served Tuesday through Saturday, and it's where many fans start: several styles of avocado toast, berry, coconut and churro French toast, trail-mix pancakes, chia pudding and lox bagels. With your tea, try the tea-infused pop tart ($7.49), filled with wild blueberries and topped with coconut cream and a tea-infused blueberry compote. Scones, cinnamon rolls, banana bread and a rotating case of baked goods fill out the counter, though the popular ones sell out.

Good to know

• Expect a short wait. Food is made to order and the room fills at brunch. Regulars say to allow about 30 minutes for takeout.
• Order ahead for pickup on the café's online ordering page, call (661) 941-4616, or use DoorDash.
• Groups: the café takes reservations and has a separate room for private functions.
• Closed Mondays. Hours run about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call ahead before a Sunday visit.

Local Bites take: The Modern Tea Room is one of the few spots in the AV where a vegan, a tea snob and someone who just wants a good turkey melt can all order happily at the same table. Come hungry for brunch, get the Gummy Bear or a pumpkin chai while it's in season, and pick up a bag of loose-leaf on your way out.

Best for: Brunch, tea lovers, vegan and vegetarian diners, mixed groups, a slow afternoon downtown.

Have some canned pumpkin left over? These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from Tasting Table use just ½ cup of it. The recipe makes 15 cookies and takes about 34 minutes from start to finish.

The trick is to blot the pumpkin purée until it's very dry. Press it in a sieve lined with paper towels or cheesecloth until it shrinks by nearly half. That concentrates the flavor and keeps the cookies chewy instead of cakey.

From there it's simple: brown sugar, butter, egg yolks, vanilla, pumpkin pie spice and dark chocolate chunks. Roll 2-inch balls, flatten them slightly and bake at 350°F for 14–15 minutes, until they're puffy and set. Let them rest on the sheet for 8–10 minutes before moving them. They're an easy treat to have ready for Halloween night.

Before you grab a ribeye at the meat counter, check its thickness. Mashed says about 1.5 inches is ideal.

At that thickness the outside can build a good crust before the center overcooks. Thinner steaks make it hard to keep the inside pink, and much thicker cuts can burn on the outside while the middle is still underdone.

A 1.5-inch steak works well seared in a pan. If you're grilling a thicker cut, sear it over direct heat and then move it to indirect heat to finish. Look for even thickness so it cooks consistently, and more marbling for a juicier steak. Prime usually has more marbling, but Choice can be the better value. Use a meat thermometer. The USDA recommends cooking steak to at least 145°F.

November fills up fast, so AV restaurant owners should plan now. A few dates are worth building a promotion around:

• National Sandwich Day (Nov. 3) and National Nachos Day (Nov. 6) are easy menu tie-ins for a weekday special.
• Veterans Day (Wed., Nov. 11) is a chance to offer veterans and active-duty military a free item, a discount or a coupon for their next visit. The AV has a large military community, so this one matters here.
• Thanksgiving (Nov. 26) means take-home meals, pies and catering. Promote pre-orders early.
• Black Friday (Nov. 27) and Small Business Saturday (Nov. 28) are good days to push gift cards.

You don't need to celebrate every food holiday. Pick the two or three that fit your menu, take a good photo of the special and tell your past customers about it by email or text.

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