Our Spot Coffee—the Long Beach popup headed by husband-and-wife team Chris and Ali McColl—has partnered with Belmont Shore’s underrated Liv’s for a new coffee residency. With a slate of new drinks—peach-matcha porch pounders meet strawberry-espresso creations—and Chef Rob White offering up Liv’s first morning offerings via a slate of breakfast burritos, it brings the city’s most unique breakfast collaboration. Add onto this the addition of The Pastry Club pastries (which includes an outright mind-bogglingly good kimchi-cheddar biscuit), and you have yourself not just unique but the best breakfast collaboration in a long while.
And yes, Our Spot is unequivocally creating the city’s most clever, creative, caffeine-centric concoctions that are, just like the third wave that came before it, redefining coffee and tea in Long Beach. It runs Thursdays through Mondays from 7AM to 2:30PM.
Our Spot’s partnership with Liv’s was sweetly serendipitous.
Our Spot’s first residency at Noble Bird was anything but unnoticed or unappreciated. Noble owners Sidney and Steve Sidney welcomed them to with open arms, including an extension of their stay.
But temporality was always looming: With Cafe Luxxe around the corner in a full brick-and-mortar, that gave them radius clauses built into their contract. And that means no coffee-centered businesses within, well, a close proximity of their business.
“Every corner we turned, when we tried to grow, we had this issue of Cafe Luxxe with their grasp of exclusivity,” Chris said, who mentioned that the long-running coffeeshop had mentioned something to them on day one to never bring it up again. Connecting with Alicia Kemper of Buvons to see if she was interested in a coffee pop-up, it turns out she was at the time. While building out her wonderful restaurant space, Alicia had wanted to introduce the space before the kitchen opened via a coffee popup. It just happened to be the stellar So Sentimental that beat Our Spot to the punch.
Then, Chef Rob stepped into Noble and, when connecting with Chris, asked if he knew Alicia. And for Chris, “it felt full circle.” With that, Chef Rob, wanting to explore with breakfast food, had the ability to offer Chris a proper space. One removed from his (admittedly adorable) cart; yay for counter space. One with a kitchen—yay for food. And one that could help both Liv’s and Our Spot lift one another up.
Long Beach’s Our Spot marks the continuation of the coffee pop-up’s dedication to the “fourth wave” of caffeination.
Chris has long called Our Spot the “fourth wave” of coffee, following the third wave that largely introduced people to properly and ethically sourced beans, a more minimalist approach to offerings (as opposed to second wave shops like Starbucks), and the idea that light roasts bring out more defining characters of a coffee bean.
And for him, this fourth wave is much more than creating fantastically modern coffee drinks. It isn’t solely about an unbelievable mezcal negroni-inspired drink that involves palo santo, black pepper, and zero alcohol. It is not soley about acid-adjusted peach reductions that meld beautifully with premium matcha or blending drinks with coconut water to heighten viscosity.
It’s also about transparency in his business: You can ask Chris almost anything about what he does—even the numbers—and he will inform you. Witnessing this wildly beautiful project in real time all the more makes the trip worthwhile for coffee lovers and novices alike.
The newest drink offerings from Our Spot at Livs’s in Belmont Shore.
Witty. Complex yet approachable. Dangerously sippable. Highly caffeinated. These are the outright magnificent coffee drinks that put many mocktails to shame from Our Spot’s newest iteration of offerings.
Sweet Marlowe: Hikari matcha | Good Mylk raw almond mylk | Acid-adjusted peach reduction | Burnt wildflower honey | Brûlée’d peach
First Date: Macerated strawberries | Espresso | Coconut water | Strawberry simple syrup | Raw cacao sauce | Fresh strawberry
Sticky Situation: Mango puree | Koatji oat milk | Coconut condensed milk | Genmaicha tea | Lime juice | Black sesame seeds | Black sesame sugar rim
Velvet Noir: 11-ingredient proprietary sarsaparilla base | Club soda | Cardamom bitters | Fresh lime
Tropicana: Sous-vide tropical coconut co-fermented coffee | Passionfruit simple syrup | Orange juice | Guava-coconut cold foam
Poolside Vice: Pineapple juice | Coconut milk | Maple | Passionfruit puree | Ritual’s N/A rum | Hikari matcha | Dried pineapple
And let us not forget about the food offerings from Liv’s.
Chef Rob White of Liv’s has created a streamlined offering of slender, no-need-to-save-a-second-half breakfast burritos that span masterfully created basic to the beautiful. Not pictured? “The Cure,” featuring Choriman chorizo (the same used by Sonoratown), pinto bean puree, and quesillo (aka Oaxacan cheese). And “The Classic,” with a pinto bean puree and Oaxacan cheese (and the ability to add egg).
The B.E.C.: Chopped bacon | Soft-scrambled eggs | Cheddar | Flour tortilla | Ability to add avocado | Ask for the house Cascabel hot sauce
The Verde: Marinated cactus | Poblano | Soft-scrambed eggs | Quesillo | Flour Tortilla
Table Tots: Extra crispy tots | Chipotle aioli
Our Spot’s residency at Liv’s currently runs indefinitely on Thursdays through Mondays from 7AM to 2:30PM. Liv’s is located at 5327 E. 2nd St.
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