What began with a home oyster knife, a love of New Orleans, and one wonderfully tiny truck is becoming something much larger: Loquat Oysters is taking up residency inside RetRoll Sushi at the Art Theatre on 4th Street.
Beginning Sunday, Sept. 6, Long Beach locals Lucky and Liz Huon will take over the RetRoll space every Sunday through Tuesday, serving the raw, dressed, fried and charcoal-grilled oysters that have earned Loquat an intensely loyal following. The residency will also give the couple room to move beyond the bivalves that made their name, with a rotating collection of other dishes they have long wanted to share.
“We’re incredibly grateful to John [Kim] of RetRoll Sushi for sharing his kitchen with us,” Liz said. “And to Kerstin of Alder & Sage for always being so welcoming to us. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to share what we love with our community. We can’t wait to bring some of our classic dishes and introduce some new ones.”
It is the most significant evolution yet for a concept that, despite operating largely from a farmers market, has become one of Long Beach’s most exciting food projects. And it is another sign of how residencies are altering the city’s culinary landscape—giving pop-ups access to professional kitchens, letting established restaurants activate otherwise dark days, and offering diners an experience that sits somewhere between a special event and a new restaurant.
Lucky [left] and Liz Huon [right] of Loquat Oysters. Photos by Brian Addison.
Loquat Oysters started with a trip to New Orleans—and a lot of oysters
Loquat’s origin story is one of those charmingly simple tales that feels almost destined in retrospect. Lucky and Liz’s first trip to New Orleans involved, in Liz’s words, “a ridiculous amount of oysters” and an equally ridiculous number of hurricanes. The experience eventually became a date-night ritual back home, with the self-taught pair learning to shuck during the pandemic as a way of recreating what they had experienced in New Orleans.
“We’re self-taught,” Lucky told me in 2025. “COVID had us bored, and we wanted to re-live our time in New Orleans, so just… We just began shucking oysters at home.”
Those nights expanded from the two of them to family, friends and neighbors. Encouragement followed. Then came the truck—a Vespa-like little vehicle that functions less as a traditional food truck and more as a miniature oyster bar, complete with a counter where customers can watch Lucky and Liz shuck and dress everything in front of them.
Their first public appearance came at a Queen Mary night market. The line seemed endless, the menu was far too large and the couple had to pull a friend onto the line to help shuck. It was overwhelming, but it also proved there was an audience for what they were doing.
Loquat Oysters finds its footing at the Bixby Park Farmers…
Loquat eventually found its home turf at the Bixby Park Farmers Market, where its bright orange umbrella and tiny truck became a Saturday fixture. There, the pair developed the combination that would define Loquat: excellent oysters, playful Asian-influenced treatments, and the kind of warmth that turns first-time visitors into regulars.
Their oyster selection changes with their purveyors—Shigokus, Malaspinas, Misty Points, Samish Pearls, Beausoleils and whatever else catches their attention. Some arrive simply on ice. Others are dressed with caviar, jalapeño mignonette or a Cambodian-inspired mixture of Thai chile, fish sauce and herbs that plays with the flavors of prohok.
Then there are the fried oysters, including their karaage-inspired version with scallion-and-togarashi oil. And the grilled oysters—Loquat’s true specialty—cooked over Japanese charcoal with everything from garlic butter and Cajun seasoning to bone marrow, ’nduja, spicy miso, kosho or yuzu wasabi. Or a collaboration with yours truly.
In the beginning, Liz and Lucky had to persuade marketgoers to try them. Now, the oysters are one of the primary reasons people seek out Loquat.
From farmers-market favorite to one of Long Beach’s most collaborative pop-ups
While Bixby Park remains Loquat’s home turf, the past year has pushed the concept far beyond the farmers market. The Huons have steadily appeared at catered events, weddings and pop-ups while using collaborations to explore what Loquat might look like inside an actual restaurant.
The most important of those was its oysters-and-martinis collaboration with the now-closed Bar Becky during Long Beach Last Call. Loquat operated from the restaurant’s chef’s counter and open kitchen, giving Lucky and Liz their first opportunity to work within a full-service environment—learning the rhythms of bussing, expediting and coordinating with a restaurant staff while still maintaining the direct interaction that makes their farmers-market setup special.
“What’s particularly cool about this event is that we are able to offer Liz and Lucky their first chance to offer full service,” Bar Becky chef Johnathan Benvenuti said at the time, before the space sadly shuttered.
That collaboration paired Howland’s Honeydrop oysters and Loquat’s shoyu-yuzu chargrilled oysters with Bar Becky’s cocktails and seafood-focused menu. More importantly, it demonstrated that Loquat’s identity could survive—and arguably expand—inside a brick-and-mortar.
Residencies are changing what is possible in Long Beach
The blueprint has already been drawn elsewhere in the city.
Got Your Back’s Monday-and-Tuesday residency at Selva remains the clearest example of what can happen when an established restaurant opens its doors on days it would otherwise be closed.
Founded by hospitality veterans Sasha Schoen and Chef Brennan Villarreal, Got Your Back began by creating relaxed, community-focused events in backyards and similarly informal spaces. Its residency at Selva gave the pair access to a professional kitchen, a dining room and the infrastructure necessary to execute their vision at a scale they had not previously been able to reach.
“This is a full restaurant takeover, with our own staff, menu, wine list, and hospitality,” Sasha said when the residency was extended.
For Chef Brenna, it meant being able to create his largest Got Your Back menu while pushing his combination of Filipino nostalgia, California produce and modern technique. For diners, it meant experiencing something more developed than a fleeting pop-up without Got Your Back having to immediately shoulder the enormous expense of opening a permanent restaurant.
Pop-ups will, of course, continue with Loquat Oysters outside their residency.
Selva and Got Your Back proved how compelling that exchange can be. RetRoll and Loquat now have an opportunity to build their own version of it.
Loquat will remain rooted in the farmers-market intimacy that made people fall in love with it: Lucky and Liz behind the counter, an oyster knife moving quickly, something cold resting on ice and something buttery hissing over charcoal. Only now, for three nights a week, that little oyster bar has a restaurant to call home.
“We’ll definitely continue doing pop-ups,” Liz said. “We love how pop-ups give us those special interactions we wouldn’t have otherwise. That said, pop-ups can be limiting in what we’re able to serve. With this residency, we’re excited to have more room to bring some of the dishes and ideas we’ve had on the back burner to life.”
Loquat Oysters begins its residency Sunday, Sept. 6, inside RetRoll Sushi at the Art Theatre, located at 2023 E. 4th St. It will operate every Sunday through Tuesday. Follow Loquat Oysters for menus, hours, and weekly updates.
