Great crowd. Rocking band. Awesome lighting. Quick, easy bar service. Comfortable space. Clean, spacious restrooms … equipped with a lock, even–you know, for the pee-shy.

Looks like The Cellar, Vince Jordan’s new club–virtually next-door to the Blue Cafe, where he booked all the entertainment for years–could be well on its way to attaining cult status in Long Beach’s nightclub scene.

The club’s soft opening Saturday night was well-attended by an eclectic crowd, including local celebrity roller-derbyist George Copeland, bar owner Dave Hayden and those crazy drunken bastards “The Longshoremen.” Plus Whiteboy James and his band busting The Cellar stage’s cherry in a particularly virile and merciless performance.

(The Cellar should be open for good starting either tomorrow or Thursday.)

Unfortunately, every newborn has a soft spot. The Cellar’s weakness revealed itself when I finally got around to paying for my own beer and handed the bartender a fin for a Pabst and received 50 cents in change. Hmmm. Maybe these bartenders are of the self-tipping sort, I thought to myself.

Sensing my confusion, my neighbor down the bar said “Yep. $4.50 for a Pabst.”

“FOUR-FIFTY FOR A PABST?!” I yelled.

I once drank a $6.00 Pabst at the Yardhouse a few years ago and I wouldn’t shut up about it the whole night. And, someone else bought that one for me. I needed answers.

“Hey Vince, what’s with the FOUR-FIFTY PABST?!”

“There’s a reason for that,” Jordan said. And he then proceeded to give me an excuse, namely that the Pabst-makers have upped their keg price–but I didn’t hear a reason.

Because there is no reason for charging FOUR-FIFTY FOR A PABST!!! That is not the action of a reasonable man. A reasonable man raises the price of the other drinks, if he really must, to keep the Blue Ribbon of Beers at a … reasonable price.

Anyways, it’s a great bar and I did have a great time. And I love Vince, but–come on–FOUR-FIFTY FOR A PABST???

Tags: "The Longshoreman, blue cafe, California, daniel de boom, Dave Hayden, George Copeland, Long Beach, pabst blue ribbon, Southern California, the cellar, The District Weekly, The Yardhouse, vince jordan, Whiteboy James