If there is one thing to say about Long Beach, it is that it equally loves its breakfast as it does its drinking—two-beer lunches are the common and long-loved staples like The Coffee Cup Cafe and Potholder certainly aren’t going anywhere soon—which is why The Breakfast Bar has long held admiration amongst locals: Being able to simultaneously order a mai tai with a plate of fries lathered in eggs and gravy is truly a thing of beauty.
Which also contributes to the rightfully deserved hype surrounding Pamela and Joshua Beadel’s choice to open a location in Belmont Heights, which will open its doors tomorrow, Feb. 14, at 6AM: Not all of Long Beach wants to trek to DTLB in order to score Uncle Marcee’s omelette casserole and, even more, the Beadels were deserving of a location that simply provided that very special thing that is space and openness in a restaurant.
Taking over what used to be Francelli’s—a once-glorious-gone-mediocre Italian joint that depressingly closed the year it turned 50—near the southeast corner of 4th Street and Redondo Avenue, the new location is in stark contrast to the original. While I will always love the original for its cramped-ness, every single inch of space being used, the bustling sound of the open kitchen interweaving with the conversations of loud patrons brushing shoulders, Breakfast Bar The Younger Twin is open, colorful, and outright loving of its hometown.
Deep teals and brushed bronzes are tied in with the husband-and-wife team’s love of baseball, where the extended bar counter is made from the wood that makes baseball bats and the brown leather lounge spaces reflect the leather of baseball gloves. Working with local designer Joen Garnica, it is clear that the Beadels have created something that is distinctly theirs.
“I poured through historical photographs of Long Beach and, to be honest, nothing really spoke to me,” Pamela said. “[Long Beach photographer] Jose Cordon is not just a friend but someone I genuinely respect as an artist—so we asked him to go around town and capture the modern Long Beach in black and white.”
The result is a montage of gorgeous photos of the city, from the windows of the Kessal, Young, and Logan office in DTLB overlooking the new Gerald Desmond Bridge to shots of the bike path. Even the bathrooms exude the brightness and playfulness of the Breakfast Bar’s aura: Stoli-drinking and cigarette-smoking monkeys line the art of the wallpaper while mid-mod pinks and teal tiling remind patrons of the fact that the building they’re in is anything but new.
It’s warm, inviting, and chill—everything the Beadels want their breakfast space to represent.”And while the location might be new, the menu is not,” Pamela said proudly. “It’s a line-by-line replica of the Downtown menu.”
And patrons can expect that menu to be extended into the evening hours once the space gets its grounding firmly locked in. With staff shortages region wide for restaurants and the now outright-exhausting setbacks of the pandemic, the Beadels are unable to immediately jump to the breakfast-for-dinner hours they had hoped to open with.
For now, the space will be open Monday through Thursday from 6AM to 2PM and 6AM to 3PM Friday through Sunday, with the hope to glide into dinner hours in the coming weeks.And we’re okay with that—but we cannot wait for there to be finally be a joint where eggs aren’t relegated to the hours of the AM and there will be zero shame in eating pancakes with a martini at 10PM.
The new breakfast bar is located at 3404 E. 4th Street and will be open for its first service at 6AM on Monday, Feb. 14.
[…] “At first, we were like, ‘If we can make a thousand bucks a day, we’ll be good,’” says Joshua. “We far exceeded that our first year. Come year two, we paid off our debt and then we had the capital to go to a full liquor license — and that’s when the Breakfast Bar became the Breakfast Bar.” The drinks menu includes breakfast margaritas, mai tais, and jelly doughnut shots. There’s even a shot that tastes like pancakes and syrup chased with orange juice and a slice of bacon. Between the drinks and the cooking, the Breakfast Bar has become an outright staple, joining Long Beach morning legends like the 50-year-old Potholder and the Coffee Cup Cafe. In 2022, Breakfast Bar grew to a second location on 4th Street in the Belmont Heights neighborhood. […]