Oh, Baby Gee.
The tiny but mighty 4th Street bar has rightfully culled itself as the best in the city. With a team that has never been more astute at somehow executing owner Gianna Johns’s massively complex creations on the fly for rowdy crowds that rarely disappear, Gianna and her team are ready to unveil the space’s winter offerings.
The result? One of Baby Gee’s simultaneously most esoteric yet nostalgic menus, where pumpkin and pear sit on the same set of ingredients as carrot eau de vie—eau de vie are basically spirits made from one distillate (grappa is from grape, for example) and they are something you will find Gianna waxing poetic on if you decide to inquire—and popcorn-washed mezcal.
“When making a new menu, we always want to thread the needle between exciting and innovative without alienating any less adventurous drinkers,” Gianna said. “This menu feels like a big success in that department: lots of crushable drinks with complex layers that will satisfy the freakier drinkers and the more traditional drinkers.”
What to expect from Baby Gee’s newly minted winter menu.
Debuting Tuesday, Nov. 18, Gianna’s menu aesthetic takes inspiration from the great Richard Williams, whose artwork laid the way for everything from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? to, in the case of Gianna, the opening credit sequence for What’s New, Pussycat? (And yes, you can find Gianna and Daniel’s puppy floating as cupid on the menu.)
And Gianna is not necessarily wrong in that some things are more approachable. “Gorganize Me, Captain” is a beautiful ode to the margarita—albeit served stiffly rather than on the rocks. But, of course, it’s Gianna and it’s Baby Gee; it’s not just a spirit-forward margarita. With chile en nogada season having just passed, she and partner Daniel Flores opted to turn the famed Mexican dish into, well, a cocktail. There’s a house walnut orgeat, a nod to the walnut cream sauce. There’s poblano. It’s dotted with pomegranate seeds. It’s fantastic.
There are three wildly refreshing drinks—the dry’n’ herbal “Alright, You Win,” the sour apple-like “Freaky Little Potation,” and the aptly titled but balanced “Princess Yum Yum.” Along with an of-course-there’s-a-pumpkin drink called “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch” that is, well, anything but your typical pumpkin drink. Pumpkin is pureed with green plantains, star anise, cinnamon, galangal… And then thrown into a wildly savory cumin-bergamot concoction that feels like it should be a candy.
But the real winner of their latest menu? Nostalgia.
Baby Gee has already built a rich annal of cocktails—and the time has come to reapproach them.
It should be duly noted that the watering hole has churned out hundreds of cocktails across its incredibly powerful, almost three-year run. From elevated highball menus for its happy hour to holiday menus on top of their winter cocktail menu to summer menus… Gianna and the team—including lead Noah Friedman—have rarely rested on their laurels. But also, they’ve been so maniacally focused on the forwardness of it all that they haven’t looked back at their array of creations.
Some might remember “Sally on the Moon” from the bar’s inaugural menu, a poem to sugar and spice that was layered with gin, the French aperitif Kina Karo, white vermouth, pink peppercorn, and Bazooka bubble gum. Gianna has taken that and created a Negroni where the peppercorn comes out in full swing and the bubblegum acts as a binder. (And, as a Negroni lover, I assure you, it’s not remotely as sweet as you would think.)
There’s even an impressive permanent addition of a tradition at Baby Gee: Jell-O shots.
But perhaps there is no drink I would use to describe as “Gianna in a cup” than her “Dream Boat” creation, making a return from the space’s first menu back in 2023. Wonderfully warming yet airy and layered, this slightly tweaked version adds vanilla to bring you a cocktail that, if you’re as big of a fan of Baby Gee as I am, it will give you all the feelies.
A look into some highlights from Baby Gee’s Winter 2025 menu.
Approachable? Sure, in some ways. Esoteric? Yes, in all the best ways possible.
Freaky Little Potation: Swedish Aquavit | Austrian Herbal Apertif | Blueberry | Gentian | Giner | Lemee Leaf | Sparkling Coconut Water
Quantum Entanglement: Gin | Carrot Eau de Vie | Vermouth Blend | Pickled Garlic Brine | Oregano | Black Pepper
Dream Boat: Vodka | Sake | Shiso | Pear | Coconut | Lemon | Vanilla
Bazooka JoeGroni: London Dry Gin | Lond Island Bitter | Rosso Vermouth | Pink Peppercorn | Bubblegum | Grapefruit Oil
Mushrooms & Bananas: Eau de Vie de Vin | Sicilian Spice Rum | Mexican Whiskey | Coconut Cream | Mushroom Blend | Banana
Gorganize Me, Captain: Tequila Blanco | Liqueur del Santo | Walnut Orgeat | Poblano | Mexican Orange | Lime | Hibiscus Float
Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch: Bacanora | Saffron Gin | Pumpkin | Plantain | Clove | Bergamot
Baby Gee AppleTini: Tequila | Mezcal | Sake | Apple | Poblano | Smbters Shiso
Espresso Martini Jell-O Shot: Espresso Martini | Cacao Nib Salt
Why Baby Gee—and Long Beach’s ever-growing cocktail scene—matter.
Baby Gee Bar has become one of Long Beach’s most dynamic creative engines, a place where co-owner Gianna and Daniel’s imaginations spill across every corner of the space and menu. Call it what you what—an editor for a piece of mine once called it “thrift store chic” and I admittedly cringed—but the influence of what they’re doing from a cocktail angle has affected every other drinking space—even dives—in some capacity. And it doesn’t have to do with their accolades, per se.
They’ve inspired bartenders to better their programs with fresh juices, with said bartenders even noting that when they leave a place (like Emilee Comeau of Roe in the link, who recently left the Belmont Shore restaurant), they do so because they are not meeting the minimum standards that Baby Gee set.
That combination of creativity and discipline is exactly why Baby Gee’s Spirited Award wins weren’t just deserved; they were signals. Long Beach, often framed as the quieter cousin to L.A.’s cocktail titans, is producing work that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the region’s best. And Baby Gee is at the center of that shift.
Baby Gee is located at 1227 E. 4th St.
