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Long Beach Food Scene Intel is a series from Brian Addison that will recap food news throughout the city, both news that needs just a quick mention or repeated news where you might have missed the full features.
La Casa de la Baleada opens in North Long Beach, expanding Latin American food options
Regarding food from the south of the U.S. border, there is no need to fuss around a blunt fact. That is because Mexican food dominates Southern Californian Latin American food culture. Dominates. That is, of course, due to proximity and cultural influx—but it has resulted in other Latin American cultures having to work twice as hard to separate their ownfood from Mexican food (or, in some cases like many of the Honduran, Guatemalan, Salvadorian, Belizean, Costa Rican, Panamanian, and Nicaraguan restaurants found throughout the region, having a separate Mexican menu attached to their traditional foods).
Comida Hondureña has largely been dictated (and rightfully so) by the underrated Honduras Kitchen, which has long had a presence on 4th Street and is dedicated solely to Honduran food and culture. But there’s always room for more. Enter La Casa de la Baleada. Taking over the shockingly short-lived La Super Birria space at the Uptown Commons complex, this Honduran, mother-and-daughter-operated space offers all the classics. Get your baleadas. Your Honduran enchiladas. Your pastelitos. And, of course, some tajadas con carne.
West Long Beach’s Villa Market re-branded to Olé City Market
The end of an era? That’s certainly how many feel after Villa Market—lovingly called “La Villa” amongst locals—has been rebranded as an Olé City Market, a subsidiary of SK Market Inc. Though Olé keeps the original name as a subtitle of the markets they purchase—this one will be “Olé City Market: Villa Market” as is done with others, like “Olé City Market: Best Bargains” in Inglewood”—they are, through and through, Olés. The company still claims Villa Market as its original space before it bought Best Bargains in 2003. Following that, acquirements of Advance Food Market and Jay’s Market in Los Angeles and Gardena Supermarket in Gardena expanded its presence.
Milk Barn Pizza & Dairy back from the dead with new mobile, wood-burning pizza oven
“A new star is born.”
These are the words of former Milk Barn Pizza & Dairy owners Joe and Hester van Ruiten after sharing they have bought a mobile, wood-burning oven to begin serving their much-missed pizza once again. In 2019, thanks to the arrival of the impossible-to-compete-with Costco, Milk Barn Pizza * Dairy was forced to shutter its doors. Of course, Joe and Esther had a few ideas—including a potential space in Lakewood but, alas, the pandemic—but this has become the first realtangible exploration of the space coming back to life in some capacity.
“This is the Original Milk Barn Fiero,” the pair wrote on social media. “We are beginning to acquaint ourselves with our new toy, an authentic Pavasi wood-burning oven. After a long five years, we are excited to start making delicious pizza again.”
Wild Fork Foods moves ahead as buidling is repainted, interior almost complete
The excitement has been real after Wild Fork Foods announced it would be opening its first Long Beach location inside the former Ruby’s space at the southeast corner of 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway late last year. And it’s because exotic meat lovers had a right to rejoice: alligator, ostrich, bison, rabbit… Those are just a few of the some 500 varieties of frozen meats and seafood, all flash-frozen at about -40 degrees to reduce crystallization.
And while it has been eight long months, progress is definitely moving forward. The building has taken on the grocer’s rust orange and white branding, while the interior has already seen an entire cleaning out of anything resembling Ruby’s.
Sosogu Japanese BBQ taking over former Plancha space at Long Beach Exchange
Redlands-based Sosogu has decided to step out of the Inland Empire and toward the beach. Taking over the former Plancha space, which closed in March of 2023—this version of the space looks like it is stepping away from its more casual style in Redlands and toward a more upscale, full-bar restaurant in Long Beach. Eschewing ramen and focusing instead on sushi and Japanese BBQ—for which it has built up a fairly decent following in the I.E.—the space will operate under a different LLC than its Redlands location.
Lobster Festival rebrands, returns to Rainbow Lagoon for three-day spread in September
The West Coast Lobster Festival (formerly known as the Original Long Beach Lobster Festival) will again take over Rainbow Lagoon in the name of crustaceans. Taking over the park space from Sep. 6 through Sep. 8, each day will have different hours: Friday, Sep. 6 from 4PM to 10PM; Saturday, Sep. 7 from noon to 10PM; and Sunday, Sep. 8 from noon to 8PM. Ticket prices have wide ranges—from simply general admission, where you pay as you taste, to full on lobster dinner packages being included—and can be found here.
Pizza Parlor finally gets a sign
After having just a “pizzeria” sign at the complex’s main array of signs for tenant, Pizza Parlor has finally anchored a sign of its own on its storefront. The massivley underrated East Long Beach sourdough pizzeria is a gem for the suburbanites of the area, offering some of the area’s best pies and coolest collaborations.
Tequila Ocho to host tasting dinner with Belmont Shore’s Viaje
One of my favorite tequila brands is Tequila Ocho, which treats their blue agave like grape vineyards: Depending on the terroir and year of maturity affects the type of tequila you’re going to get. And they’re doing a tasting dinner with Viaje, which has upped its quality beyond its opening that it is certainly one of Belmont Shore’s current stand-outs.
ICYMI: Right Mealz—from feeding the NFL to feeding Long Beach—proves healthy food can avoid, well, being boring
Right Mealz, the Downtown eatery that is a meals-to-go spot-meets-coffeehouse-meets-restaurant, is slowly building a name for two things. One is creating healthy food that goes beyond the boring chicken. And two, its owner, Chris Sweeney, became inherently connected to a neighborhood that could use all the love it could get.
From stellar takes on breakfast sandwiches and avocado toasts to saccharine-done-right treats like overnight oats and peanut butter’n’honry bread, Right Mealz gets healthy food done, well, right. Which probably explains why they’re also a partner in feeding professional athletes, from the NFL or Olympians.
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ICYMI: Sprouts to open new grocery market by Long Beach traffic circle Oct. 11
Great news for those seeking more grocery options: Sprouts will open up its Traffic Circle location on Oct. 11.
Locations? Where are they the article says nothing to where I can find them