Breakfast Bar owners Joshua and Pamela Beadel said aloud a realization many restaurateurs refuse to: Their menu was, in their words, going stale. This fact is particularly compounded further when dealing with legacy businesses such as theirs that have served the Long Beach community for over a decade.
So what do they do? They bring in a culinary rock star. Chef Johnathan Benvenuti of Bar Becky usually needs little introduction in Long Beach. His latest spring menu at his East Long Beach restaurant? It’s one of the city’s finest. And his work at the beginning of his career, bolstered by his second-place finish on Hell’s Kitchen Season 22, has since led to incredible partnerships. This one is no exception.
“After 13 years, we noticed things became somewhat stale,” Joshua said. “In all frankness, it just needed a refresh and new flavors that are more aligned with the current culinary atmosphere. Even more so, since The Breakfast Bar’s menu has such a personal, familial connection, we bonded with and resonated with Chef Johnathan. I mean, our egg casserole is a recipe that’s been handed down through three generations in my family. So when we heard the role his mother and family play in his own space, he felt like the right person. The right kind of human to carry something like a menu renovation through with his expertise.”
The Breakfast Bar’s ‘new’ menu will look familiar—and that’s because this is more like a renovation than a replacement.
Shrimp and grits. A breakfast burger. French toast. Grilled cheese and tomato soup. The locally famous Hungover—fries slathered in a gravy with accoutrements. These are all Breakfast Bar staples, and they remain on the menu.
Just with Chef Johnathan’s touch. Soufflé eggs here for lightness. A lemon-and-chive cream cheese there for brightness. A creamy tomato bisque for their grilled cheese, now layered with pesto rather than truffle oil. House-made fruit compotes and granolas…
The shrimp and grits? They still come with peppers. But they are now layered with roasted cherry tomatoes and asparagus for brightness, with a poached egg for an unctuous quality. The meatloaf steak? That is now a personal recipe from Chef Johnathan’s mom. It sits atop the space’s (rightfully) loved potato pancake, which then sits on onion jam before being topped with fried eggs. It’s sour, sweet, and salty in all the right ways.
And the breakfast burger is, of course, there. But it is now a monster tackle. Stuffed between two beef patties is a potato pancake, then topped with cheese and two hunks of their candied bacon slices. Add an egg, thousand island, grilled onion, lettuce, tomato, house pickles, all stuffed between a brioche bun and… You have quite a burger fit for a breakfast king.
The updated menu at The Breakfast Bar was less about self than it was community and uplifting a space nearing 15 years of service.
And when I say “Chef Johnathan’s touch,” I mean it. Across months, while he wrote the recipes and R&D’d at Bar Becky, he was also training their staff to ensure they could execute everything. And given Chef Johnathan calls the entire Breakfast Bar kitchen staff a “well-oiled machine,” there wasn’t much uphill climbing.
“I can’t begin to say how much fun I had working with Josh, Pam, and the entire team at Breakfast Bar,” Chef Johnathan said.
“It was such a heartfelt collaboration that gave both of us an opportunity to give something new to the community. I love brunch—we tried our fricken hardest at Bar Becky— and Josh and Pam are such legends in the city. I learned so much of myself from the process, from them, and I’m so proud of what we were able to do.”
The menu, ultimately, remains entirely focused on celebrating what’s made The Breakfast Bar so successful. All the while bringing in some refined, chef-driven techniques and more contemporary culinary choices.
This is but a continuing evolution of a pride-inducing trend in the Long Beach food scene: collaboration.
2026 has become the year of collaboration, partnerships, and comraderie in a way that our food scene has never really previously achieved. In a time where we’re witnessing this collaboration in real time—and our city’s culinary talent strengthens—it becomes essential to market that growth. This is precisely what this Breakfast Bar collaboration with Chef Johnthan exudes.
It reflects the incredible work being done citywide to showcase our culinary culture in multi-faceted ways. Sonoratown helping Sura cement their legacy status with Korean tacos. Selva bringing Ojai sensation Chef Saw Naing down to cook in and for Long Beach. Proudly Serving collaborating with Gemmae Bake Shop for a Filipino burger. Dilly’s partnering with much-respected brewery Sante Adairius for its first coursed dinner. Chef Carlos Jurado using Chef Cameron Slaugh of Nonna Mercato’s pasta skills for a special weekly pasta menu. Bar Becky bringing in Loquat Oysters to learn how to bus, expo, and operate in a brick-and-mortar. Selva opening its space when it is closed for the Got Your Back residency…
Collaboration is becoming synonymous with the Long Beach food scene. And that is something we should be deeply proud of.
A look at the revamped Breakfast Bar menu…
Intentionally more complex and layered—with hints of sour, dots of sweet, and dashes of umami—in ways that uplift the dishes we all know from The Breakfast Bar.
Homemade Biscuit Sliders ($15): Homemade biscuits | soufflé eggs | lemon & chive cream cheese | hot honey | choice of protein
Shrimp & Grits ($20): Grilled shrimp | cheesy grits | poached egg | pasilla peppers | roasted cherry tomato | asparagus | garlic buttered sourdough toast
Brioche French Toast Combo ($21): Custardy brioche | seasonal berry compote | fresh fruit | granola | served with 2 eggs and choice of protein
Lovely Chicken & Waffles ($21): Crispy fried chicken thigh | homemade Belgian waffle | fruit compote | brown butter maple syrup | hot honey | cowboy candy
Mom’s Meatloaf ($21): Homemade meatloaf | two eggs any style | potato pancake | onion jam | grilled rosemary sourdough
The Hungover ($22): Homemade chicken-fried steak | fried egg | red-eye gravy | hot honey | cowboy candy | pig candy
Breakfast Burger ($21): Two smashed patties | fried egg | pig candy | potato pancake | American cheese | Thousand Island dressing | grilled onion | lettuce | tomato | house pickles | brioche bun
Turkey Club ($19): Turkey | house bacon | tomato bacon jam | green goddess dressing | pickled onions | arugula | tomato | brioche
Grilled Cheese & Tomato Bisque ($18): White cheddar | Jack cheese | homemade pesto | parmesan garlic-crusted brioche | tomato basil bisque
The Breakfast Bar is located at 70 Atlantic Ave. and 3404 E. 4th St.
