From pink slip to playful kitsch at Bungalow Marcasso

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Getting laid off blows, but when your severance check covers two years of unemployment with enough scratch left over to open a business (and be your own boss), the pink slip doesn’t sound so terrible. Just ask Mark Sutherland, owner of Bungalow Marcasso.
The 47-year-old [...]

Paradise bridges Rainbow Row’s bar gap

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Even if you’ve never eaten at Paradise, chances are you can probably describe the place—a brick box that stands out in mid-’90s Miami style, with checkered tiles and metal planters and neon lights pulling your eyes away from the road. The restaurant/bar needs to stand out, though, [...]

Long Beach Pizza Company’s Pesto Pizza
Long Beach Pizza Company is in a popular part of town, tucked in on Broadway between neighborhood staples like Olives and the Library coffeehouse. But what brings in the crowds is LB Pizza Co.’s variety—the place has a sprawling selection second only to Long Beach’s favorite Thai/Italian/American flavor-pit, Dean’s. However, [...]

Café Ambrosia adds even more veggie delights

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Stuck right in the middle of Broadway, Café Ambrosia is a well-kept local secret, a hidden garden filled with unexpected Mediterranean delights. In the mornings and afternoons, it’s a lush, sunny place serving mimosas and hibiscuses (buy one and get each subsequent one for 50 percent [...]

The Kids Are Alright: When you just can’t buy it for yourself

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Oh, this stupid, stupid recession. (Or is our economy still just taking a power nap?) I’ve listened to the experts. I’ve made budgets and learned to stick to them. No purchase is unconsidered, no penny left in the change bowl. And [...]

‘Sweeney Todd’ a disappointment to die-hard fans

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a great, big, huge, fucking faggot.
If I were less of a fag, I wouldn’t have the original 1979 Broadway cast recording of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd on my iPod. If I were less of a fag, I wouldn’t have watched the 1982 Emmy [...]

Susan Egan: Seal Beach native and Broadway star Susan Egan comes back with dinner and drinks at the Carpenter Center. She’ll belt out a performance, too. 6pm.
CARPENTER CENTER 6200 Atherton St, Long Beach 90815. 562.985.7000; carpenterarts.org.
Jermaine Dupri: No word on how much of this autobiography Dupri wrote himself, but the yarn’s  a fascinating one: the [...]