Stache Bar, 4th Street’s much beloved dive-meets-high-end-spirits space, helped introduce Long Beach to good liquor. But long gone are the days when Stache Bar was the only bar in the city to offer Hudson Baby Bourbon and Weller’s full-proof.
Surely, it joins many others getting in on the happily welcomed trend of Halloween menu takeovers—including those at The Bamboo Club and The Social List—but it reflects the biggest shift at the bar in a long time. With bar manager Priscilla In building her relationship with owner Brett Gallo, the two have come to a communal understanding: The Stache deserves more love—and that’s exactly what they plan on giving it.
With its first formal cocktail menu in a long while, The Stache Bar has a return to form.
As a writer covering the city for over 15 years, I’ve noticed I’ve used the phrase “return to form” to form a lot this year. Chef Jason Witzl over at Ellie’s, exemplifying that the most, with Chef Carlos Jurado not following far behind. ISM Brewing harboring the return to proper pub food. And surely, amid the world of $100 bagels and $85 calzones—a marked distance between wants and what the vast majority can actually afford—there will be more to follow.
And that includes Stache Bar. After all, many may not remember how The Stache altered Long Beach drinking. Opening over a decade ago, it was and remains a prime example of a Long Beach hidden gem, the kind of classy dive that Silver Lake hipsters wish they had back in the early 2010s. Full shelves of small-batch and rare liquors, giant spherical ice cubes, and skilled bartenders who know how to put it all together. House-made ginger beer and bitters were paired with nights dedicated to craft cocktails.
“I just want to revamp a bit of everything,” Priscilla said. “We are a dive bar but also that place where you can get a really solid Old Fashioned or a mint julep. And I think now is the time to remind people of that. We’re not looking to reinvent the drinking scene but we want to remind people we pour much more than vodka-sodas.”
And Priscilla’s Halloween menu reflects that precise return to form.
Stache Bar, like many Long Beach spaces, is harboring the community’s love of Halloween.
For The Stache’s inaugural Halloween cocktail menu, Priscilla leaned heavily on two things. For one, the growing recognition of the space as one of Long Beach’s most cinephilic bar spaces, where its movie nights and perpetual screenings of everything from the pop to the rare of cinematic history has created its own hub of patronage. And secondly, Priscilla’s mom’s garden.
“She has this garden of herbs and fruits and vegetables—particularly Asian-leaning things of the garden,” Priscilla said, noting her Cambodian heritage. “So I asked her what was in season and I was hoping to score persimmons but she said her’s aren’t ready yet. But she had amazing other things from her garden.”
Pandan leaves. Plum. Pears. Basil. Mint. Ginger. Lychee.
And with cocktail names like “Nightmare on 4th Street” and an array of fresh ingredients, Priscilla began the R&D on The Stache Bar’s Halloween cocktail menu.
So… What about those Halloween cocktails?
My personal favorite? The “Rum Reaper,” is an ode to the flavors of Southeast Asia and Priscilla’s Cambodian heritage with pandan syrup and toasted coconut. And to be honest, there is no bad order on the Stache Bar’s Halloween menu.
Rum Reaper: Rum | Pandan leaf syrup | Coconut water | Lime | Toasted Coconut
Hannibal Nectar: Vodka | Lychee syrup | Orange blossom water | Lemon | Fresh lychee
Nightmare on 4th Street: Rosaluna mezcal | Spiced plum syrup | Triple sec | Lime | Cinnamon | Blood orange
The Blair Whiskey Project: Benchmark whiskey | Pear-basil syrup | Lemon | Angoursta bitters | Egg whites
The Crimson Krampus: Cranberry | Ginger syrup | Aperol | Sparkling wine
The Stache Bar is located at 941 E. 4th St.
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