The Los Angeles Times released its 35 best brunch spots across SoCal—and two Long Beach spaces made the list.
Chef Dima Habibeh’s stellar Levantine space, Ammatoli, was rightfully mentioned. Ammatoli’s brunch is definitively unique, if not wildly and wonderfully different from the onslaught of brunch-gone-decadent offerings common to Long Beach. Bowls of fattet hummus. Puff pastries stuffed with smoked salmon and za’atar. Fusion breakfast burrito plays like the wittily named Holy Shawarma wrap. It’s distinctly, unquestionably Chef Dima at her most whimsical.
And Baby Gee owners Daniel Flores and Gianna Johns’s Due Fiori was also listed—and justifiably so. Due’s wonderfully minimal brunch sticks to its core. Unlike many brunch menus, which often act as protrusions from a restaurant’s identity rather than a melding with it, Due’s brunch feels like, well, a Due brunch menu. Not overstuffed. No endless variations. These are sharp, focused plates that lean into craft and comfort. Simple, sure, but dialed in.
What did they say about Ammatoli’s brunch?
Senior Editor Danielle Dorsey wrote:
“On a pedestrian-friendly block of 3rd Street in Long Beach, [Chef] Dima Habibeh serves dishes that celebrate her Palestinian, Syrian, and Jordanian heritage in a sun-dappled dining room with vines dangling from the ceiling and on a gated sidewalk patio filled with umbrella-covered tables and olive trees. The sprawling menu is best tackled by a group, with plenty of mezze, fresh-baked pita and manoushe, and brunch-only items such as shakshuka and Levantine chilaquiles.
Or skip the decision-making and opt for the family brunch with shakshuka, fattet hummus, hummus with shawarma, foul, falafel, mutabbal, pickles, and olives for $119. Mint lemonade and orange blossom lattes make for a refreshing start to the day, or dig into the wine list that favors bottles from France and Lebanon.”
And what did they say about Due Fiori’s brunch?
Staff writer Stephanie Breijo wrote:
“Some of Long Beach’s most promising new restaurateurs just followed up their lauded cocktail bar, Baby Gee, with an Italian restaurant. Daniel Flores and Gianna Johns built Due Fiori as part neighborhood restaurant, part wine bar—and it’s almost all patio space. That makes it the perfect place to perch for brunch, sipping a frozen wine slushie and dunking confit-garlic focaccia into eggs in purgatory, mixing the runny yolks with tomato sauce studded with smoked guanciale.
“The kitchen, helmed by a Bestia alum [Chef Waldo Stout], churns out pastas, just-charred seasonal vegetables, salads, and a killer square pizza that falls somewhere between a Sicilian slice and a cheese-crusted Detroit pie. And yes, during brunch, you can throw an egg on it.”
Why Long Beach is, very much indeed, a brunch town.
Long Beach is a breakfast city. A brunch city. And definitely a day-drinking city. (One of my first professional meetings with my executive director, some 15 years ago, led to the dubbing of the “Long Beach two-beer lunch,” where he noticed during a lunch meeting that nearly everyone around him, whether in suits or shorts, had a beer, if not two, for lunch. Ah, the good ol’ days.)
Whether it be classic joints like The Potholder or Coffee Cup Cafe, or more contemporary spaces—Ammatoli and Due Fiori also made my own highlight of Long Beach’s brunches—there is something special about those sweet, sweet late morning hours where spaces are abuzz with eggs, coffee, mimosas, or, if you’re at The Breakfast Bar, a breakfast mai tai.
Go get your brunch on, Long Beach. And don’t forget to applaud the places that are making Long Beach the rightful culinary destination it is.
Ammatoli is located at 285 E. 3rd St. Due Fiori is located at 2708 E 4th St.
