Missed out on Brian Addison’s Favorite Things of past? We got you covered—just click here.
Too many years back, I wrote a very self-indulgent listicle that was about so-called “essential” Long Beach dishes; dishes that I loved and could depend on as long as that place existed—and I wrote it because there’s something so elemental and useful about a specific great dish at a specific place. It was less about some grander proclamation than it was about, “This is just great food.”
And after a year of not doing such lists, I want to return to it: Hence Brian Addison’s Favorite Things. Not some grand list of “essential dishes”—that is too hard of a burden to put on a restaurant: You better have this and you better have it all the time. But for now, in this moment, I am happy to share some of my favorite things.
In other words: Why not just own the moment? Without further ado, and once again in the third person, Brian Addison’s favorite things he is eating across Long Beach…
Taco de tripa from Sonoratown
244 E. 3rd St.
The first time I had the mightily underrated tripas of Sonoratown was the wild moment I won Food/Culture Critic of the Year at the L.A. Press Club’s National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards—and it is why they are an order I rarely skip when go there. Sonoratown taco de tripa > any award on the planet.
For those skeptical of tripas, this would be the way to introduce them: An insane crisp, its velvety center intact, almost umami-like, these little rings are served up with their red salsa and avocado sauce, cabbage, and atop their perfectly perfected flour tortilla. Looking for a more gluttonous way to have it? Get their caramelo with tripa. Wondrous, I say.
Hot beef sandwich from Dilly’s Sandwiches
4144 N. Viking Way
While one will be able to find my full feature on Dilly’s in the coming days, there is an admission that must be made: I really didn’t know what to put as my favorite thing I ate there this month. Their off-the-menu peanut butter and pickle sandwich is a glorious offering—I kid you not—featuring bread and butter pickles from Kaylin & Kaylin. Their pastrami and Reuben are solid. Their turkey and salami are happily traditional takes on the comforting classics…
But the hot beef is really where it’s at. Thinly sliced roast beef—from Los Angeles meat legend Russak’s—is layered with Tillamook cheddar and stuffed between two slices of grilled sourdough. Served with an essential horseradish dipping sauce, this comforting sandwich is just in time for the season while offering a perfect salt-bomb of a sandwich.
Teta’s carrot cake from Ammatolí
285 E. 3rd St.
While Ammatolí—Chef Dima Habibeh’s James Beard-recognized Levantine restaurant—has always stellar sweets, the addition of Chef Dima’s daughter, baker Massah Habibeh, has brought their dessert menu up to a new level. Staples like their date cake, lemon olive oil cake, and tahini chocolate chip cookies have become an essential part of the experience at Ammatolí.
You can add Teta’s carrot cake to that list. Inspired by Massah’s grandmother in Amman, Jordon, this cardamom-forward take is topped with a wonderfully salty toffee buttercream frosting and walnuts. Not too sweet, masterfully complex, and nostalgic for anyone who was lucky enough to have a family member make them a carrot or zucchini cake.
“Juice Theory” from Tokyo Noir
210 The Promenade N.
There is no question that Tokyo Noir—a speakeasy concept from the crew of El Barrio—is one of the most exciting spaces to come out into the Long Beach cocktail scene. Tucked into a space where one enters through the alleyway that sits just west of the restaurant’s main, 4th Street-facing entrance,
Yakitori from Smokmoc Yakitori
Popup; view Instagram for places they appear
There is something deeply compelling about sushi and yakitori chef Yoya Takahashi. Charming, loquacious, and genuinely talented in the art of Japanese cuisine, his Smok Moc Yakitori popup reflects this talent: Marinated skewers of beef, chicken oysters, meatballs, and veggies are met with the lovely smoke that eminates from them as they are charred over fire.
And, rumor has it that he will be opening a brick-and-mortar in DTLB.
Missed out on Brian Addison’s Favorite Things of past? We got you covered—just click here.
