Long Beach’s first Wild Fork Foods grocer to open Aug. 28; grand opening is Sept. 25

Exotic meat lovers rejoice: alligator, ostrich, bison, rabbit… These are just a few of the some 500 varieties of frozen meats and seafood—flash frozen at some -40 degrees to reduce crystallization—that will be offered by Wild Fork Foods. It will be opening its first Long Beach location on Aug. 28 and host a grand opening Sept. 25 inside the former Ruby’s space at the southeast corner of 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

The grand opening from 5PM to 7PM will include:

• On-site tasting of products
• The first 50 people to make a purchase and enter their email at checkout, will receive a swag bag
• Spend $100 to spin the wheel and take home one of their products

Wild Fork Foods and its first Long Beach location is part of a simultaneous shrinking and expansion

Crews began demolition on the former diner’s interior back in 2023. It made way for aisle upon aisle of frozen and fresh offerings. Everything from common meats like your good ol’ chicken and beef will be featured on top of their specialty meats and seafood. Think razor clams, elk, whole turbot, goose, quail, kangaroo, and more.

The specialty grocer has nearly 40 stores throughout the States in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. However, its most ambitious expansions are in California and Florida. And the space chosen for its first Long Beach location makes sense, given the company’s recent moves. It has been closing its much largerlocations, like that at Coral Springs, Florida, in order to focus on smaller, more manageable spaces.

The opening of Wild Fork Foods creates a sort of Grocer Heaven at the intersection

The Long Beach Ruby’s was the last to remain open before closing mid-pandemic. This followed the heartbreaking fire that shuttered the Seal Beach Ruby’s on the pier. But before the closure of the Huntington Beach Pier Ruby’s in 2021.

However, it welcomes a new kind of Grocer Heaven when it comes to the intersection of 2nd Street and Pacific Coast Highway: Once Wild Fork Foods opens, the intersection will be home to Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Ralph’s, and Gelson’s—making it one of the most grocer-rich areas in the city. This fact gets compounded when considering the Marina Farmer’s Market on Sundays. 

It also adds some much-needed life to Marketplace Long Beach, which has seemed both desolate and out-of-touch since the massive 2nd & PCH retail complex replaced the former SeaPort Marina Hotel across the street. 

However, this lease, along with potential aesthetic upgrades, could help, along with the multiple residential developments that will be coming its way: Three massive housing projects announced last year have taken big steps forward toward fruition—including two projects scoring entitlements this year—fruition that could alter the entire landscape of Pacific Coast Highway as one heads north, coming in from Orange County and crossing into Long Beach.

They include two five-story buildings with 670 units at 6500 E. Pacific Coast Hwy. dubbed Onni Marina Shores; a six-story, 380-unit, mixed-income building (with 17 of those set aside as affordable units) and some 4,800 square feet of ground-floor retail space at 6615 Pacific Coast Hwy.; and a six-story, 281-unit (originally 303) residential project (with 13 units set aside as affordable), with 3100 square feet set aside for retail at 6700 E.

Pacific Coast Hwy.Wild Fork Foods is located 6405 E. Pacific Coast Hwy.

Editor’s note: This article originally said Wild Fork Foods would open Sept. 25; that is their grand opening. They are opening Aug. 28.