Beachwood Distilling might have overtaken the former Liberation Brewing Co. space in Bixby Knolls in 2022. And indeed, they served as an excellent taproom addition to a neighborhood already rife with solid beer. (Hey there, Ambitious Ales!) But what we’ve truly been waiting for is the culmination of their distilling process.
We’re talkin’ rums. Gins. Vodkas. And yes, way more than that—which you can all experience when they start serving up to the public on Wednesday, Aug. 14.
Beachwood Distilling takes grain-to-glass to a new level for Long Beach.
“I am not here to be the next Tito’s,” said co-owner Gabe Gordon, who shares the space with his wife Lena, his longtime business partner, and master brewer Julian Shrago. “And I am okay with that because there’s not going to be this immediate market for Beachwood Vodka. But what I can do is control everything that goes into here,” he said, pointing toward a handmade tiki mug from Etsy.
Gabe has decided to make everything in your glass in-house on every level the space is capable of.
Yes, that Negroni you’re sipping on? You’re not drinking a highly branded gin or Campari. You’re drinking Beachwood gin and, yes, Beachwood “Campari.” And don’t think Gabe and his crew didn’t dive into the absurd details of concocting this OG spirit. Campari—invented in 1860 by Gaspare Campari in Novara, Italy—and many other aperitivos get their distinctly beautiful red color from carmine dye, derived from crushed cochineal insects.
“At first, we had the flavor on point, but there was something off with the color,” Gabe said. “And then Harrison [McCabe of Beachwood’s Blendery] discovered cochineals. And voila, we have ourselves a perfectly hued negroni. Still a little bummed we haven’t perfected our vermouth, so for now, we are using mass-produced vermouth, but we’re getting there.”
Tonics, liqueurs, cordials, bitters, syrups, and cold-pressed juices—Beachwood Distilling wants to create and control every step that goes into a cocktail made in-house. This has been a longtime reflection of Beachwood’s dedication to craft.
Beachwood Distilling’s aura and approach come from a long-held love of deep dives into research and development.
Gabe and Julian’s enthusiasm and dedicated nerdy-and-we-love-it dives into their endeavors are a long part of their professional character, for those who know them.
Beachwood’s initial rise to success was definitively based on Julian’s acutely astute palate for beer creation. After all, it became the birthplace of many other great brewers—including the already-winning-awards Ian McCall of ISM Brewing, which took over Beachwood Brewing’s DTLB space last year.
But Beachwood Distilling’s obsessiveness with creation is reflected similar to the brand’s sour beer offshoot, The Blendery in DTLB. Gabe, Julian, and then-barrel master Ryan Fields created what could definitively be the nerdiest ode to Belgian sours. One of the world’s most elusive beers to mimic, they decided to create a temperature-controlled barrel room—a room, mind you, that will mimic the temperature and humidity of a barrel room in Belgium on a daily basis—inside the space sitting at 3rd and Long Beach Blvd.
Needing nearly two years to open and three years to serve proper sours, the room has since created its own ecosystem—including a Blendery-specific yeast that they used for their pizza dough at their underrated Huntington Beach pizzeria.
Beachwood Distilling is just a continued reflection of the Beachwood team’s efforts to create things for their patrons.
And it’s more than just a handful of cocktails. There’s full on spirit-dedicated array of offerings and food.
Surely, there are still things they are perfecting. Like the aforementioned vermouth, creating dark or long-aged rums needs nothing more than, well, time. But that doesn’t mean that their Jungle Bird cocktail, a boozy tiki concoction, doesn’t feature their own in-house rum, amaro, and white gum syrup. Or that their New Age Zombie isn’t rife with in-house white rum, Ceylon cinnamon simple syrup, passionfruit syrup, Beachwood bitters, and yes, Beachwood absinthe with mint.
There’s a gin menu with four types of in-house tonics: classic, strawberry, lavender, or citrus. And a vodka menu with in-house ginger beer and bitters.
It is an impressive array of crafted cocktails that go with a solid list of bites. There are solid burgers, including a great play on a Western Bacon Cheeseburger that includes a stacked short rib patty, cheddar, muenster, fried shallots, dijon, house-made barbecue, sweet’ n’ spicy pickles, jalapeño, and a ton of love. There’s a hefty fried chicken sandwich that is as messy as it is delightfully savory.
But the absolute joy? I know this will sound oddly bland, but it’s their house bread that was imported from their Huntington Beach pizzeria. This beautiful puff of yeasty perfection comes with a drizzle of olive oil and Maldon salt, bubbling black pockets dotting its outer edge. With some roasted garlic, this is a damn near perfect snack—especially with one of their happily boozy’n’sweet tiki concoctions.
Beachwood Distilling is located at 3630 Atlantic Ave. They will open on Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 3PM. Hours of operation are: Wednesday & Thursday from 3PM to 10PM; Friday from 3PM to 11PM; Saturday 2PM to 11PM; and Sunday 1PM to 9PM.
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