Roe, the seafood-centric staple of Belmont Shore in Long Beach, has long exuded a dedicated quality to its fish and sea critters. And though it had many noble attempts at lifting its cocktail program throughout the years—particularly highlighted through its underrated wine and spirit dinners—it never quite had the beverage program to match its food and hospitality, led by the rightfully loved management of Gillian Roe.
With bar manager Emilee Comeau, however, the Belmont Shore space is ready to showcase its evolution in cocktails. And with it, join the ranks of programs that have come to life Long Beach to its most elevated status when it comes to the craft of cocktail concocting.
Roe has its roots with Long Beach culinary legends—and its cocktails should reflect that.
Chef Arthur Gonzalez—the man that was also behind Panxa Cocina in Belmont Heights and the now-shuttered Hideaway in Zaferia—was really the root and heart of Roe, long before his tragic passing in 2022. Starting out as RoeXpress in 2012 (which is now Roe Fish Market, the tiny space off of Claremont attached to Roe proper), Chef Art and wife Vanessa Auclair attempted to make Roe a full, formal restaurant. Years of construction setbacks—the former space, Mykonos, was wrought with coding violations—Roe finally opened in 2016.
Despite Chef Art eventually leaving to focus solely on Panxa and The Hideaway, Roe has remained alive and well thanks largely to the leadership of general manager Gillian Poe. Her infectious personality, consistent presence, and damn near being at the space every minute, has created a nw patronage for Roe that has moved beautifully and rightfully past Chef Art.
Which is why Emilee can be considered such a great bonus addition to Roe’s evolution.
Emilee Comeau’s program is one rooted in hospitality experience and proper feminine energy.
Having her roots in 320 Main in Seal Beach—where former Ordinarie bartender Colby Sue now oversees their cocktail program—Emilee saw something brutally honest about Roe’s own program: It wasn’t keeping up.
“Sure, some of the things offered could have been acceptable in the Shore or Long Beach years ago,” Emilee said. “We were using things like Monin Blackberry syrup that just don’t fit in the current cocktail climate. With places like Marlena and Baby Gee and Tokyo Noir, we had to compete and update our program or we would continue to lose patrons.”
Starting with her fall and winter menus, Emiliee began to experiment with things outside the box for their customers. More amaros. More umami characteristics. A bit of more floral and herbal notes. And more spirit-forward concoctions joining the fruity porch pounders. It’s the touch of a woman-led bar program that male leads are beginning to understand is essential to balance. The result? Happily drinking customers.
Even more, there was “always a disconnect between the bar and our food menu,” Emilee said. “And that is a tragedy because our food is so solid—it deserved to have a cocktail menu that would go with it.”
A look at some cocktail highlights from Long Beach’s Roe.
From fruity and fermented to bright and bold, Emilee’s newest cocktail menu is a celebration of spring—with zero fear of punchy flavors, complexity, or simply good.
The Voyager: Gin | Italicus | Bergamot | Jasmine tea | Lemon | Clarified milk
Strawberry Roots: Beet vodka | Lofi Amaro | Pickled strawberry | Lemon | Bitters | Mint
Dutch Dandy: Bols Genever | Amaro Nonino | Luxardo Maraschino | Peychauds
Sakana Sour: Select aperitif | Yuzu | Yellow chartreuse | Nori
The importance of continuing to highlight our cocktail community.
The hospitality industry is, in and of itself, an economic backbone—surely, there is little need to emphasize that point. It’s also an extremely tight-knit community, particularly here in Long Beach. And when it comes to the larger lens focusing on food and drink hospitality, the focus on the former while kind of lumping in the latter, rather than highlighting it as its own entity, is certainly cause for frustration.
And I myself, as a food writer, realized I was doing just that across my career: Lumping in cocktail programs with food rather than treating those programs and their creators as culinarily artistic in their own right. Even larger publications would reject my bar or cocktail story pitches because “those stories don’t do as well as food.” These realizations of how quickly we dismiss or under-sell the bar industry led to the spark for the creation of my Long Beach Last Call event, which celebrated year two this year. And it has led me to focus on the peole who make it happen, like Emilee at Roe. Or Dave Castillo at Marlena. And Gianna Johns at Baby Gee. Or Kevin Lee at Tokyo Noir. And Jocelyn Jolly at Michael’s on Naples. Or Priscilla In at The Stache. Or, or, or…
They deserve uplift—and it is something I will continue to provide.
Roe is located 5374 E. 2nd St.
