As we continue celebrating Long Beach Food Scene: Last Call—a 10-day, multi-event celebration of our city’s rich bar culture and the people who make it happen—we will offer a series of features that highlight everything from our most stellar cocktail programs at restaurants to to the very events occurring (like this feature on The Breakfast Bar)… All in order to lift a glass to a social and economic driver that rarely receives the love its deserves: our bar industry. For more information on Long Beach Last Call, tap here.
The Breakfast Bar is the space that led Long Beach into, for lack of a better term, the world of contemporary breakfast and brunch. Largely eschewing the basic, Breakfast Bar is known for its egg casseroles, hangover fries, Eggs Noni, and instead of hash browns or country potatoes, beautifully fried potato pancakes-gone-pucks stuffed with cheese and herbs.
But few know that, in the name of early risers and all-night partiers, they have a Walk of Shame happy hour every day of the week from 6AM to 8AM. And to encourage the early birds who want the worm, we are hosting a Walk of Shame meetup on Sunday, Mar. 9, from 6AM to 8AM at their 4th Street location.
What’s with this Walk of Shame meetup?
As part of Long Beach Last Call and an encouragement from members of my food group to have more meetups, The Breakfast Bar and myself will hopefully be welcoming a large crowd on Sunday, Mar. 9, from 6AM to 8AM.
On the menu? $9 breakfast burritos & sandwiches. $8.50 biscuits & gravy. $10.50 hungover fries bowl. And, of course, all the alcohol: $5 screwdrivers, $7 Bloody Marys, $7.50 mimosas, $9 vodka lemonades, and $9.50 Irish coffees.
The Breakfast Bar has also been expanding.
The Breakfast Bar’s OG location—which has, across its decade-long existence, not only reactivated a previously dead space of Atlantic but has also helped reinvigorate the Travelodge attached to its borders—has opted to make a seemingly-crazy-but-actually-smart choice. It has sealed up the pool that was once attached—a pool, mind you, that its owners, Joshua and Pamela Beadel, often used to wake themselves up before opening up in the early days of the space—to create a space that simultaneously expands its seating along with its private party options.
Every aspect of the space, from the planters to the tables, is moveable. It isn’t massive, nor is it tiny. Angela feels it is precisely what the space needs: Expanded use for the weekend patrons (weekend events are not permitted) and open Monday through Friday to private parties, both within and outside operating hours.
“This is something I feel is worth building,” Angela said. “I know it won’t be an instant hit—which is hard to swallow because the space took money to build out. It will require the trust of a handful of folks booking it and understanding how unique it is.”
Unique is an understatement: Few are catering to the breakfast crowd in Long Beach. And that is a crying shame, given the growth in post-wedding brunches, convention-based breakfast meetings, and caterers focusing on breakfast-centric fare. And Angela very much gets that: Space-use fees are waived if your event is within operating hours. Your parties can include or exclude alcohol. All catering is in-house. Audio-video packages are available for meetings with presentations and speakers.
The story of the Breakfast Bar is a truly Long Beach one.
Owners Joshua and Pamela Beadel were service industry vets dreaming of owning a restaurant specializing in hangover cures and morning cocktails before The Breakfast Bar was fully realized. Their now iconic Long Beach restaurant has been celebrating over 10 years of service in a once dingy, kitschy room next to a Travelodge motel, while their 4th Street location reaches is in its third year.
The couple’s keen sense of what would succeed in Long Beach stems from their winding hospitality backgrounds and knowing what would resonate with like-minded professionals. In the 2000s, both Joshua and Pamela worked long hours at Red Lobster; he baked an enormous number of cheddar biscuits while she managed the dining room. Joshua also bartended at Hamburger Mary’s in Downtown Long Beach for a stretch. And, after years of working for someone else, Joshua and Pamela wanted something for themselves and Long Beach, a place that truly catered to the hospitality industry.
Wait–you mention Long Beach Last Call 2025. What is it?
Long Beach Food Scene: Last Call—or Long Beach Last Call 2025 if you wanna keep it simple—returns March 1 and run through March 10 with a series of events on each day that celebrates the city’s rich bar culture, community, and its workers. From industry-only and unlimited tastings events to cocktail contests and proper Irish coffee lessons, Long Beach Last Call will continue to be the premiere event celebrating Long Beach’s bar and cocktail culture.
After the success of my restaurant in 2023, Long Beach Food Scene Week, bar owners and tenders rightfully asked: “What about a week for us?” So I decided to oblige and present Long Beach Last Call last year, a ten-day long celebration of Long Beach’s amazing bar culture, it’s even more amazing workers, and the industry that often goes without recognition as one of our city’s largest economic and social drivers. And thousands of people proudly showed up. With the alcohol industry going through a roller-coaster of layoffs and rearrangements—from brands leaving distribution companies to brand representation shrinking nationwide—now is the time more than ever to support these incredible people.
The Breakfast Bar is located at 70 Atlantic Ave. and at 3404 4th St. The 4th Street location will host the breakfast Walk of Shame meetup on Sunday, Mar. 9, from 6AM to 8AM.
My son and I visited Long Beach a couple years ago and loved that place. We ate there almost every morning since it was close to our hotel. Excellent prices and very friendly staff. I highly recommend this place if you’re in the area.