For the first time in three years, the Attic has revamped its entire menu head-to-toe. And with that, it brings some of Long Beach’s most exciting food in a world where comfort-seeking and familiarity rule the day. From venison carpaccio and fried quail to contemporary takes on classics like almondine and duck pâté, Chef Cameron Slaugh flexes his ability to bounce between styles cohesively.
Perhaps just as importantly, between balancing his talents at Nonna Mercato and The Attic, he proves he is unquestionably one of the region’s best chefs. But even more, it demonstrates that a restaurant can eschew something that’s simply popular because it is Instagrammable in favor of something culinarily artistic. And, even beyond this, the very restaurant that tossed the social media vote aside can continue to challenge and introduce Long Beach palates to something far more deserving than constant plates of mac’n’cheetos.
If owner Steve Massis has anything to proclaim, it is that Chef Cameron is the perfect person to do so. (Fear not, the damn mac’n’cheetos are still on the menu, y’all.)
The exquistely country-gone-city vibe of The Attic’s new menu brings a refreshingly beautiful take to Southern cuisine in Long Beach.
Before his recent departure at The Ordinarie, Chef Nick DiEugenio—a chef whose food had a kindred spirit with The Attic in terms of its love affair with Americana roots and vibes: brick chicken, plays with cuts like lamb neck and meats like venison… And with The Ordinarie choosing to steer away from heavily chef-driven food toward far more amicable, pub-friendly fare, The Attic is the sole place that takes the American food diaspora at heart with its menu.
Chef Cameron doesn’t consider the menu bold, which is somewhat true in the larger picture of food across SoCal. But, regarding the Long Beach food scene, it is wildly beautiful to see something like a venison anything on a menu, let alone something as striking as venison carpaccio. And to have food that is simultaneously country-feeling—as someone who grew up with hunters, there is a nostalgia to the food—and contemporary in a space that is as old-school as a Long Beach craftsman home is truly something worthy of experiencing.
It feels vintage-y in all the right ways. Comforting in all the right ways. And yes, unique for Long Beach in all the right ways.
Venison and duck pâté join crudo, grilled sardines, and pimento cheese for starters.
Venison is a meat long loved by hunters and Southerners—my father one of them—and approached more trepidatiously by diners inexperienced with the lean meat; seeing its gorgeously red tint lined raw is Chef Cameron directly urging us to explore more. Beautifully creamy—far more than its beef counterpart—Chef Cameron lines the circles of deer meat with dried cherries. Dots of dijon and pickled golden raisins. Little leaves of thyme. Pieces of pistachio. Ribbons of rucola.
Like his crudo—an albacore-centric dish slathered in olive-oil-soaked chives and crispy shallots—the mean lays largely unadorned with salt and citrus, letting the proteins speak for themselves. It is a gorgeous interpretation of carpaccio if there was one to be had.
His duck pâtê? Yet again, a fowl loved by hunters and the South, Chef Cameron’s take is more of a terrine, where a slice is topped with pickled onions and shavings of scallions. While it may be crude, it had a headcheese-like quality that made it feel, well, very country in a sense—and atop Nonna Mercato’s seeded bread, it acts as one of the most distinct starters in the city with carpaccio.
Beyond what may be adventurous for some, Chef Cameron Slaugh’s most straightforward plates are among his strongest.
Of course, if you’re not down for the grilled sardines or venison carpaccio or duck parts, there are many a dishes worthy of exploration.
As always, Chef Cameron’s salads are never a bad choice: His love affair with chicory—which had previously been reflected in The Attic’s Southern Nights dinner series in 2024—star in a salad paired with machego cheese and an anchovy vinaigrette. There’s a classic market lettuce salad that’s adorned with lemon and white cheddar. But his baby cabbage salad—tossed with forbidden rice, Thai basil, passion fruit, and plenty of cilantro—is the one that wins the gold.
There are beautiful Duroc pork chops doused in fennel pollen and layered atop creamed kale with apples. The meat is so beautifully porky that the fennel gives it an Italian sausage quality as delectable as it is warming.
There is fish galore, including a wonderful Japanese sea bream whose fillets are cured in citrus oils before being cooked skin-side-down only and happily drenched in coriander, taragon, and chili oil. Paired with a citrus salad to accompany the citrusy flakes of the fish, it is a beautiful ode to what would have likely been a trout somewhere down South.
The Attic has already redefined what a Long Beach space could be—and it continues to do so.
Since bringing on Chef Cameron Slaugh in 2020, The Attic has become, par none in Long Beach, a restaurant showcasing the choice to side with the art of cuisine rather than the popular Instagram vote. Eschewing its broad-rimmed-hat brunches in favor of tighter, far more focused cuisine, owner Steve Massis has shown the local food scene how freeing humility can be.
There is a deep sense of soul-searching to stand as a business owner, watching your restaurant filled to the brim with basic brunchers willing to wait However Long to assure themselves they can snap a pic of some mac’n’cheetos for their Instagram, crowds of people turning the once calm corner of Broadway and Newport Avenue into a social event every day… That? That takes a bit of emotional lifting to be able to look at it all and say: “I am just not fulfilled and I am not happy. That’s what was going through my head every week, every brunch, every day,” in the words of Steve.
Steve has opened the discussion surrounding a lack of fulfillment and happiness in a business that requires your presence and attention nearly every hour of every day—and with Chef Cameron, also opens the conversation about the anxiety that comes with new menus or, in the case of The Attic, an entirely new concept when it was rearranged in 2020.
Many regulars will be concerned at a very new menu that leaves many classics—steak frites, fish’n’chips…—unavailable. But trust Steve in his chocie of Chef Cameron and trust Chef’s choice in food.
The Attic is located at 3441 E. Broadway.
