Too many years back, I wrote a very self-indulgent listicle that was about so-called “essential” Long Beach dishes; dishes that I loved and could depend on as long as that place existed—and I wrote it because there’s something so elemental and useful about a specific great dish at a specific place. It was less about some grander proclamation than it was about, “This is just great food.” (I’ve done a much more comprehensive, similar list since then.)
And after a year of not doing such lists, I want to return to it. Not some grand list of “essential dishes”—that is too hard of a burden to put on a restaurant: You better have this and you better have it all the time. But for now, in this moment, I am happy to share some of my favorite things.
In other words: Why not just own the moment? Without further ado, here are the favorite things I’m eating right now…
Tartare sando from Olive & Rose
255 Atlantic Ave.
For the entirety of its inaugural outing, Olive & Rose was relegated to night hours with a (stellar) dinner-only service. That, in turn, left much to the imagination as what the space would encompass in during the day. After all, the entirety of its west-facing wall can open to the attached hotel’s pool and inner plaza. It opened mid-autumn and then rolled into the winter months, further making one wonder what a gorgeous spring day would be like…