Johnny Hollywood

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Under a full moon, the Hotel Maya’s restaurant/bar Fuego claims a view of the Long Beach harbor that’s the stuff of After Dark screen savers, with celestial light bouncing off the black surface of the sea, an oil island anchored in the distance and the rest of the world, it [...]

Kafe Neo vs. Ice Cream Man

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
There are plenty of reasons to love Kafe Neo: its gargantuan lentil soup; its tangy, fire-roasted red-pepper pita dip; its Czechvar by the bottle. But the Bluff Heights eatery has another claim to fame—one that’s infinitely more rare and a lot more valuable: its Clover 1s “coffee [...]

Silky Cucumber

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Cucumber martinis aren’t new to Long Beach’s cocktail circuit—we first reviewed Tantalum’s version back in August 2007—but they are nonetheless an exciting and welcome highlight on any drink menu. At the Up Lounge at the Sky Bar, the Silky Cucumber—Stoli vodka infused in-house with cucumbers and mixed with Martinelli apple juice [...]

Cheap Beer at Cheapshot’s

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Stroll past Cheapshot’s and it might appear a little dodgy, like some kind of a small, dirty porn bar. (In my own twisted imagination, I pictured mustachioed old men sitting at the counter talking sweaty boobies and different ways to style their ‘staches.) But then you see it—a [...]

Kavikas Saketini

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
As gorgeous as it is aromatic, Kavikas’ saketini—a purple-tinged mix of sake, framboise, sparkling wine and lychee puree (and garnished with a whole piece of the fruit)—is just one unexpected option on the restaurant’s cocktail menu. Joining it is the Mekhong Thai rum-based Sabai Sabai (previously reviewed in this column), which [...]

The LBC Cocktail

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
On any given Saturday night, venerable Broadway dive/wormhole 36/36 delivers you straight back to college with the requisite cheap bottles of Bud Light and pool-table-side sing-a-longs to songs too ingrained in our brain matter to retire (Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”)—even an arcade game (Big Buck Hunter Open Season [...]

Missionary’s Downfall

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
The second of Donn Beach’s original pleasure punches we’ve featured in this column—the previous one was a knock-’em-dead Zombie with multiple shots of rum (limit two per customer, for our own safety)—the Missionary’s Downfall dates back to late-1940s Waikiki. Mixing drinks at his own Dagger Bar, Beach intended the cocktail (joined [...]

Old-Fashioned

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
John Coltharp, a friend and established bartender in LA’s heavily praised mixology scene, once noted in an interview that the old-fashioned is the mark by which he judges all other bartenders (and to say that Coltharp makes a pretty good one himself is a gross understatement): “They’ve been made for over [...]

O’Peppermint

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Bouchees Bistro at Smooth’s bartender Marie Dorado put herself through school working for John Morris—first at Mum’s, then at Smooth’s and now at Morris’ new hybrid restaurant/bar with Tony Zervas—and with her latest specialty drink, the O’Peppermint cocktail, it’s easy to see how: she’s pretty excellent at what she does. A [...]

Belgian Strong Dark Ales

PHOTO by ROSHEILA ROBLES
Belgian. Strong. Dark. These three words are an invitation into a group of Belgian-brewed and Belgian-inspired ales that offer the complexity of the finest red wines. Belgian strong dark ales are typified by a rich maltiness with fruit-forward flavors and aromas such as plums, figs and raisins. They often [...]