Village Cafe’s Beach Burger

It’s a common assumption back in the colder half of the country that California cuisine inevitably chooses style over substance, that we’re more content to crack open a Corona and plop some protein on the grill than to dutifully toil behind a stove. But one bite into the Village Cafe’s so-called Beach Burger and those postcard visions of piers and beers start to fade away. Yes, the burger does play to the healthier end of California cooking—sprouts and avocado join the usual lettuce, tomato and onion—but it’s a pure burger the same way that those back in, say, Wisconsin and New York have always been, formed fresh for each order, every jagged corner of beef hardened by a quick trip on the grill. What’s more, the burger’s a heavy one, too, enough food stuffed in the bun to make you at least pass on a side of fries. Still, as its name implies, the Beach Burger does feel distinctly Californian, a relatively ocean-adjacent invention packed away in Lakewood Village that could spring from nowhere but our coastal desert.

VILLAGE CAFE 4148 1/2 N VIKING WAY | LONG BEACH 90808 | 562.421.5515

Tags: beach burger, lakewood, Long Beach, SIDES, village cafe