Collab dinners. Cocktail dinners. Wine dinners. Tasting menus. Residencies. Special dinners are popping up consistently around Long Beach, offering diners a distinctly unique perspective on where our food scene is and where it is going. And these special dinners have become one of the most vital tools for keeping a food scene dynamic, imaginative, and forward-moving.
There are tasting menus that are occasionally offered—think Selva. Or seasonally offered—think Nonna Mercato. Or as a permanent part of their structure—think Heritage. There are collaboration dinners, like the “Hell’s Kitchen” collab dinner at Bar Becky. Or Hamburgers Nice and Waldo’s Pizza at Due Fiori. And there are residencies, like the amazing Got Your Back residency every Monday and Tuesday at Selva. (Which also has a collab dinner embedded as they partner with Hamburgers Nice.)
There are wine and cocktail dinners. From the incredible MAHA dinner at Alder & Sage to Wood & Salt bar manager Gabriel Ducharme flexing his cocktail skills with their most recent cocktail dinner. And there are even competitions celebrating the mighty prix fixe: the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix Fixe pitted eight chefs against one another, homing in on tasting menus for each bracket that patrons vote on.
Special dinners reveal the depth of a kitchen staff’s craft. Their curiosity. Their discipline. And their imagination, introducing people to ingredients they might not normally encounter and combinations they may never have thought to try, broadening palates and deepening appreciation for the culinary arts. In this way, they serve as cultural incubators, keeping the dining community engaged, challenged, and excited.
Perhaps nothing reflects this more than Chef Philip Pretty of Olive & Rose and Chef Cameron Slaugh of Nonna Mercato’s most recent collaboration.
Chef Cameron Slaugh—the man and myth behind Nonna Mercato and The Attic—had never done a collaboration dinner. Until last week. Partnering with Chef Philip Pretty—the man and myth behind the Michelin-starred Heritage and Olive & Rose. The dinner was a welcoming, warming, winter-wonder of a menu offering that spanned Italy and France with Californian sensibility.
A pita-like puffed focaccia slathered in colatura—the wonderfully oceanic Amalfi-birthed fish sauce—smoked prosciutto, and honey. A braised-and-grilled rectangle of cabbage, charred wonderfully before being drenched in an umami-packed crab butter. One of the most innovative vegetable dishes to see Long Beach yet: parsnips hidden under a fried parsnip skin dome with liquid nitrogen-ed apple bits that create an apple sauce from the arctic. A return of Chef Cameron’s glorious lasagna al forno. A genuinely wondrous sous vide-d shortrib with perfect mashed potatoes…
And, for the finale, an ode to Chef Christina Tosi’s famed cereal milk ice cream. Chef Phil’s long-held dream of creating a burnt milk ice cream that results in a brown sugar-y wonder of an ice cream. It’s a marker in Chef Phil’s wonderful obsession with ice cream (with which his chamomile ice cream with caviar turned out to be one of 2025’s best bites.)
It was a rarity to see such two giants working in such an intimate setting—and it was just a perfect topping on what has been a stellar year culianrily for Long Beach.
Chef Philip Pretty led the collaboration effort years ago—and deserves a tip of the hat.
Every Sunday in February of 2022, Chef Philip led a powerhouse series of collaboration dinners that was, at the time, unheard of. Each week, he partnered with the best in the city to create a five-course tasting menu. The chefs? Night one: Chefs Jason Witzl of Ellie’s and Jesse Hellen-Lloyd of Hey Brother Bakery. Night two: Chefs Jack Leahy of Little Coyote and Kristen Colazas Rodriguez of Colossus Bread. Then night three: Chefs Dima Habibeh of Ammatoli and Arturo Enciso of Gusto Bread. And on the final night, he partnered with the much-missed Chef Melissa Ortiz, then of Rose Park.
Long Beach should be the residency capital of the region. And it could be if more teams like Selva and Got Your Back existed.
In the heart of Long Beach, the pop-up concept Got Your Back has quietly been shifting what it means to dine, drink, and connect in a city bursting with food talent. And with it, its garnered a rightful following: praised by everyone from the L.A. Times to LAist, it is founded and operated by hospitality veterans Sasha Schoen and chef-partner Brennan Villarreal.
But their residency at Selva takes it one step further. With Chef Brennan’s accessibility to all the kitchen toys and Sasha having an entire dining room to canvas, the pair show off what they can truly do with the right sources. And that is both culinarily and hospitality-wise.
Even more, the graciousness of Chef Carlos Jurado offering up the space—Selva is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays—is something that, in all frankness, should be a citywide, on-the-regular thing. Mondays are infamous for Long Beach restaurants being closed. And with it, a silver lining. Closed spaces offer an opportunity for pop-up concepts to exercise their skill beyond the tent.
Mondays, if anything, should be citywide residency night.
Some other recent highlights amongst Long Beach’s growing special dinner scene.
Here are some other highlights of special dinners that have made this year one of Long Beach’s finest culinarily:
- Alder & Sage’s MAHA wine dinner: Bringing underrated Paso Robles winery gem MAHA—a space he was closely connected to for four years—Chef Matthew Roberts showcased his love of wine. And its potential in pairing by doing something few if any chefs do. (I know for me, this is the first time I’ve seen any chef work this way for a wine dinner.) He asked the winery to choose the wines they wanted to showcase first. And then, after tasting them himself, he creates his menu. Wine first, plates second.
- Bar Becky’s ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ collab dinner: Bar Becky—Chef Johnathan Benvenuti’s space over at LBX—brought together a powerhouse of a “Hell’s Kitchen” alumni crew for a multi-course dinner. A genuinely happy spread that spanned summer vegetables to Iberico pork to witty plays on carbonara. Hosting Chef Ryan O’Sullivan—the Irish powerhouse from County Cook that took out Johnathan in the Season 22 finale—and Chef Sammi Tarantino—the charismatic fan-favorite of the season who ended in third place—the trio kept the dinner Bar Becky in spirit but highlighted each of their strengths. Collectively, they proved that Bar Becky, whether hosting guests for a collaboration dinner or focusing on something as simple as the farmers market for a tasting menu, is the city’s most underrated space.
- Wood & Salt’s cocktail dinner: Wood & Salt in Bixby Knolls is really the only space harnessing cocktails (outside of the relatively new cocktail space that is Beachwood Distilling). And it is certainly the only one harnessing cocktail dinners. The first with its newly minted lead in the kitchen, Chef Albert Lopez, featuring libations concocted by the much-talented Gabe Ducharme, it was genuinely great to see a crowded dining room for a tasting menu at the end of 2025—one of the roughest years for food and drink businesses.
- Ellie’s ‘Feast of the Seven Fishes’ at Partake Collective: The team behind Ellie’s and Ginger’s—led by Chef Jason Witzl and FOH extraordinaire Molly Sirody—tackled a tradition that most Italians and Italian-Americans know very well and most food-centric Americans know from the stress-inducing series that is “The Bear.” It’s the Feast of the Seven Fishes, taking over Partake Collective’s R&D kitchen across December. It not only features some of Chef Jason’s best food—including my favorite dish he served while competing in the Grand Prix Fixe—but also shows noticeable deviations from Ellie’s, showcasing his desire to look beyond his Alamitos Beach staple.
- Chez Bacchus’s tequila dinner: Chez Bacchus is such an underrated space—that goes without saying. But their latest tequila dinner showcased something broader within the city. It was further proof that reps are treating Long Beach as a distinct sector of its own, worthy of hosting with food and libations. And that our culinary scene is worthy of dinners that step outside of regular menus. It was further proof that such experiences inspire chefs to challenge themselves. And that our culinary scene is worthy of being partnered with stellar brands.
- Nonna Mercato’s dinner nights: Chef Cameron’s always-sold-out dinner series at Nonna Mercato have proved one thing across 2025: Nonna needs to have dinner service on the regular. This year, the team stretched beyond its regular summer dinner service and did a winter dinner service in December. Showcasing our city’s finest pasta purveyor, each iteration of the series focused on a region of Italy and was executed with class, taste, and pure Long Beach energy.
- The Long Beach Grand Prix Fixe: With an ending that was the Most Long Beach Ending Ever—long-loved Chef Luis Navarro scored the gold—my inaugural chefs competition showcased everything I love about my city’s food and the people who create it. Who did it feature? Some of my personal favorites in the kitchen: Chef Jonathan Benenuti of Bar Becky; Chef Luis Navarro of Lola’s; Chef Max Pfeiffer of Sky Room; Chef Waldo Stout of Due Fiori; Chef Carlos Jurado of Selva; Chef Jason Witzl of Ellie’s; Chef Michael Ryan of Marlena;and Jason Winters of Speak Cheezy.
