It’s been less than a month since Pates Fraiches uncovered its dining room at First and Elm, but it seems lines are already being drawn–Yelp started turning in its knee-jerk reaction to the place just days after it opened. While it’s never fair to judge a restaurant so early in its existence, my trip was a good one, filled with pasta in the only the purest, most organic sense: strings and stubs of impossibly tender dough boiled to just the perfect point of consumption. That’s the concept behind Pates Fraiches, after all, fresh, organic pastas made daily–there’s rice gemelli with portobello mushrooms and asparagus, rye fettucine with Virginia ham, zucchini and gruyere, chestnut  pappardelle with roasted duck breast and a few more to round out the menu. Also? The restaurant’s artisan beers are cheap–$2.75 cheap! But we have to give the place a little time. This is just a first bite.

Tags: First Bite, Food, Long Beach, pasta, pates fraiches, Restaurants