Here is the standard failure of a themed night out. You arrive at nine having not eaten properly, the bar serves three snacks and a bowl of nuts, and by eleven the group has quietly stopped enjoying itself for reasons nobody can name. The reason is always the same and it is always food.
A themed night out falls apart at eleven when everyone is hungry and the kitchens have shut. Tell Karpo where you are drinking and get the places near you that are still cooking.
The Long Beach branch of this October's travelling Halloween pop-up does not have that problem, because underneath the decoration it is a tavern with a working kitchen and a late-night menu.
A tavern first, a pop-up second
The Ordinarie sits on the Promenade in downtown Long Beach and describes itself as a modern American tavern — chef-driven comfort food, classic and house cocktails, local beer, a considered wine list and live music. That is its year-round identity, and the Halloween pop-up is applied on top of it for the season rather than replacing it.
The distinction matters because a bar that has been converted into a themed room for a month tends to simplify its offer to cope. A restaurant with a full kitchen keeps cooking. You can go for the decoration and the themed cocktails and still order dinner, which sounds obvious and is not the norm for this format.
The hours are the real feature
Half past eleven in the morning to half past midnight, Monday to Thursday. Half past eleven to half past one on Friday. Eleven in the morning to half past one on Saturday, and eleven to half past midnight on Sunday.
Those are long days by any standard and unusually long for a restaurant rather than a bar. The practical consequence is a genuine late-night menu, which in most of Los Angeles County means a taco truck or nothing. At half past midnight on a Friday, in a downtown that is not enormous, being able to sit down at a table and order food is a real service.
It also means the place absorbs an entire evening without you having to move. Happy hour, dinner, the themed drinks list, live music, late food. Most nights out in Los Angeles are a logistics exercise chaining three venues together across a car journey; this is the opposite proposition and there is something to be said for it.
- The Ordinarie, 210 The Promenade North, downtown Long Beach
- Open 11.30am-12.30am Mon-Thu, to 1.30am Friday, 11am-1.30am Saturday, 11am-12.30am Sunday
- Daily happy hour, including mini martini flights and $2 off small plates
- Weekend brunch on a large covered outdoor patio
- Separate late-night menu, which is the part most seasonal bars do not have
Happy hour and the martini flight
Happy hour runs daily, with two dollars off all small plates and specials on wine and beer. The item worth singling out is the mini martini flight, which is a genuinely sensible piece of menu design: a martini is a commitment, three small ones are an education, and being able to compare specifications side by side is how anybody works out what they actually like.
Two dollars off small plates is a modest discount that changes behaviour more than a bigger one on a single item would, because it makes ordering four things rather than two the obvious move. That is the correct way to eat in a tavern and it is the difference between a drink with a snack and an actual meal assembled sideways.
The patio, and the daytime version
Weekend brunch happens on a large covered outdoor patio, which is worth flagging because it is the daytime version of the same address and almost nobody who comes for the evening knows it exists. Covered outdoor space in Southern California is more useful than open patio — it works in the low October sun, it works in the marine layer that sits over Long Beach for much of the morning, and it means the brunch is not weather-dependent.
The Promenade itself is a pedestrian street, so the patio faces people walking rather than traffic, which is a rarer configuration in this county than it should be and the main reason downtown Long Beach feels different from the neighbourhoods it is usually compared to.
The live music is the other thing the patio-and-kitchen combination makes possible. A room that can feed people is a room that can hold them through a set, which is why taverns with kitchens book bands and cocktail bars mostly do not. It also sets the volume: this is music you can eat through rather than a show you have bought a ticket for, and the difference decides whether a group that wanted dinner and a group that wanted a night out can go to the same place.
Downtown Long Beach around it
This is a proper walkable downtown with a waterfront at the end of it. The Promenade runs down towards the harbour, Pine Avenue with most of the rest of the restaurants is a block west, the Aquarium and the Queen Mary are across the water, and the East Village arts district is a few blocks east. An evening here can genuinely be done on foot from one parking spot, which is the standing argument for Long Beach over almost anywhere in central Los Angeles.
Getting here from central Los Angeles is the trade-off: around thirty miles, and the A Line runs to downtown Long Beach if you would rather not drive it, terminating a short walk away. Given the closing times, the train is worth checking against your plans before you commit to a one in the morning finish.
Practical notes
The Ordinarie, 210 The Promenade North, downtown Long Beach. Open 11.30am to 12.30am Monday to Thursday, 11.30am to 1.30am Friday, 11am to 1.30am Saturday and 11am to 12.30am Sunday. A modern American tavern with chef-driven comfort food, house and classic cocktails, local beer, wine and live music, plus a daily happy hour with mini martini flights and $2 off small plates, weekend brunch on a covered outdoor patio, and a separate late-night menu. It is one of the Los Angeles-area hosts of this season's travelling Halloween pop-up. The A Line reaches downtown Long Beach if you are not driving.
Tags: #LosAngeles #LongBeach #DTLB #Halloween #LateNightEats #Restaurants #Tavern #Cocktails #LAEats #BlackLagoon #HappyHour #Brunch #ThingsToDoLA #ThePromenade
Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
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Ask Karpo first
Want to know which kitchens near you are still open late, where the happy hour is actually good, and which bars can feed a whole table at eleven? Ask Karpo what is open around you tonight.
