More than 800 breweries and 60,000 attendees descended on the Colorado Convention Center in Denver last week (Oct. 5-7) for one of the beer world’s largest events: the Great American Beer Festival.

Having just gotten back from a week-long vacation filled with booze and gastropub fare, I was hoping to cleanse my body of toxins and start living that (somewhat) healthy Southern California lifestyle again.

Long Beach has long been a city for beer lovers. Bars like Public Beer and Wine Shop and Congregation Ale House boast enviable rotating beer lists; shops like Stateside Crafts stock rare finds and, of course, Beachwood’s innovative beers and coveted guest taps attract plenty of local and non…

A chef on the rise, AC Boral is known for crafting dishes from and inspired by his Filipino background. It’s an unexpected coincidence, though, that Filipino cuisine is also gaining the attention of the mainstream in recent years.

Cambodia Town’s Khmer cuisine is the stuff foodie headlines are made of. But the neighborhood is now also home to a Vietnamese bakery that deserves its own recognition for Long Beach’s best banh mi, the Vietnamese staple sandwich served on a baguette.

Nearly every time I’ve been to La Santaneca, a Salvadoran restaurant and bakery at 2461 Atlantic Ave., I’ve enlisted the help of a stranger to act as a translator since not everyone on the staff speaks English and my Spanish language skills leave much to be desired.

Tux & Chucks Street Food is right at the heart of the West Side, nestled between two bars on Willow Street, with its façade splitting Regway Avenue. It’s a casual eatery that speaks directly to its neighborhood. Two of the owners grew up in the area, and the menu — of tacos, burritos, quesadillas, rice bowls, hot dogs and specialty fries — brings together Mexican, Filipino and Korean influences reflective of the local demographic.

Pow! Wow! descends on Long Beach July 16-22, bringing a diverse group of artists to paint murals throughout the city in a weeklong celebration of public art. The event brings together some huge names from around the art world, and great news for us: Nearly half of the participating artists i…

I used to walk by this tiny building on Long Beach Boulevard (on my way to Long Beach Creamery, of course) and stare at a sign in the window that said The Merchant was coming soon. 

The food world is stirring, and the cuisine of the Philippines finally seems to be getting the recognition it deserves.

In many ways, Rivera’s embodies much of what I love about Long Beach. It sits on the corner of Gladys Avenue and Seventh Street, a yellowish building with a bold sign brandishing its name and black awnings with simple labels —takeout, dine-in and banquet room — to give passersby just enough information to know yes, food is served here. But locals who have pushed passed the restaurant’s red “Come in, we’re open” sign know beauty can be found in the most unassuming places.

There’s been an awakening interest in Long Beach’s coffee scene, and with good reason. Specialty shops are springing up across the city; the newest additions being Wide Eyes Open Palms (also lovingly referred to as WEOP), born from a farmer's market stand and just-opened brick-and-mortar at 416 Cherry Ave.; and Commodity (1322 Coronado Ave.), a tiny shop next to Working Class Kitchen.

It’s a small adventure to get to Cielo (40 S. Locust Ave.), the bar atop the historic Breakers building off of Ocean Avenue. Follow the sloping stretch of Locust down to the red awning emblazoned with The Sky Room’s Art Deco lettering, and step into an almost certainly haunted hallway down to the elevators. Tell the elevator operator you’re headed to Cielo —“sky” or “heaven” in Spanish — and up you go.

While it’s easy to lump Peruvian food into an oversimplified category of South American cuisine, a look at a menu or a few bites of lomo saltado are enough to reveal that the cuisine is unlike any other in the world. Because of the country’s history — of ancient civilizations, colonization, immigration and slave labor — its culture draws influence from neighboring nations as well as Europe, Asia and Africa.

There’s a funky building off of Willow Street that turns over restaurants almost every year—it was a burger spot a few years ago, before transforming into a taqueria and then a teriyaki place. The latest tenant, which opened in February, is Villa’s Comida Mexicana. From the outside, it looks like any of Long Beach’s independent taquerias, but there’s more to it than its (awesome) Taco Tuesday.

Lola’s Mexican Cuisine is a Long Beach institution. With two locations — the original on Retro Row and the newer in Bixby Knolls — the restaurant, owned by chef Luis Navarro, has been serving family recipes, new takes on Mexican cuisine and a whole lot of love for almost 10 years.

When I saw St. Patrick’s Day was coming up, I came to a realization: There are a lot of Irish-themed pubs in Long Beach. Where our obsession with this particular type of bar comes from, I’m not sure, but I’m thankful for it.

There are few foods that elicit such an emotional response as pizza. The Italian import has become so engrained in American culture that cities and regions claim their own styles. Relationships have been ruined by competing preferences for Papa John’s and Domino’s. A 2014 report from the Department of Agriculture stated that 13% of the U.S. population eats pizza on any given day.

Aguas Way is where two worlds collide: The family-run Mexican street food spot selling the classics you crave and the cool, modern (dare I say hip?) eatery where you hang out on an outdoor patio, drink in hand.

More and more bars and restaurants based elsewhere are washing up on Long Beach shores. We’re no stranger to hosting outsiders: Beachwood BBQ and Brewing rode the coast up from Seal Beach in 2011. The Blind Donkey made its way down from Pasadena in 2014 and became one of our favorite speakeasies. LA’s Dog Haus restaurant opened an outpost on the Promenade last year and Torrance’s Smog City Brewing Co. just opened a tasting room in Bixby Knolls.

Good news: There is still time to get those New Year’s resolutions locked in. And living by the beach in Southern California means fitness and health-related resolutions are a foregone conclusion. Juice cafes seem to be proliferating in Long Beach, heralding the benefits of fruit-and-vegetable concoctions that aren’t loaded with artificial sweeteners.

Long Beach’s brunch game has never been stronger than it is right now. Staples like The Attic, Coffee Cup Cafe and Starling Diner are still killing it with some of the best breakfast dishes around, and it seems there are new eggs, pancakes and mimosas to be consumed every weekend. Here are four of the city’s newest brunch hot spots and what to try when you get there.

French food is hard to come by in Long Beach. With the exception of a handful of creperies and Bo-Beau Kitchen + Roof Tap’s “California-French” plates, the cuisine remains an enigma to our city.

Bear with me, here: Another poke restaurant opened in Long Beach. In order to reach it, you must travel to the far reaches of Camelot — or rather, The Camelot Center, a strip mall on the border of Bixby Knolls and North Long Beach.

Cheko El Rey Del Sarandeado may be what we all need right now, if only for one meal — an escape.

As if you needed more evidence that Long Beach is the coolest city around — we have a cider house.

Every animal that’s traditionally eaten at a party or picnic is here, smoked and prepped for the taking.

My first visit to Prime by Shenandoah was a confusing one. This roadside eatery was once home to MVP’s, the burger joint that’s since moved up Fourth Street next to O’Connell’s pub. The space got a hip facelift and started slingin’ delicious fried green tomato grilled cheese sandwiches under…

Public Beer and Wine Shop has all of the ingredients to be the best bar in Long Beach. A diverse, rotating selection of craft beer and wine; friendly and un-snobbish bartenders; great tap takeovers, movie nights and other events; and a small but mighty bottle shop that will make beer nerds g…

What’s Good, Long Beach?, writer Linda Domingo explores the Long Beach food and drinks scene.

In our new column, What’s Good, Long Beach?, writer Linda Domingo explores the Long Beach food and drinks scene.

Long Beach: Let’s talk about doughnuts for a minute. While LA and Orange County obsess over Sidecar Doughnuts & Coffee and Blue Star Donuts, it’s easy to feel like the gourmet doughnut trend bunny-hopped right over us.

Once occupied by The Flea espresso bar, the space nestled between the Art Theatre of Long Beach and The Center is now home to The HipPea, a family-owned vegan spot with a simple menu and a few tables on the sidewalk outside.