Juice Bar Near Me in Long Beach: Salud Juice on Retro Row

Salud Juice presses its juice raw and bottles it in glass at 1944 E 4th St, Unit 5, on the Retro Row stretch of 4th Street in Long Beach. Every pressed juice on the shop's own Square menu costs $7 or $13 depending on bottle size, and the counter opens at 7am every day. If you are searching juice bar near me anywhere between downtown Long Beach and Belmont Heights, this is the original shop of a local chain that began in a third-floor apartment a few blocks away.

The founder is Angela Keen, a history graduate of Cal State Long Beach. According to the company's About page, she had planned to start a master's program at LMU in 2012, but her uncle died after a cardiac arrest and her father then needed quadruple bypass surgery. She bought a $5 Jack LaLanne juicer at a garage sale, made juices for her dad, and the two would clink glasses and say salud before drinking.

Word spread, and she started delivering jars of juice around the neighborhood in a 1972 VW bus. Production moved from her apartment at 4th and Walnut to a commercial kitchen in Westminster, and in 2015 she opened the first shop at 4th and Cherry, followed by Belmont Shore the same year. Salud now has four Long Beach counters: 4th Street, Belmont Shore at 4918 E 2nd St, Bixby Knolls and Cal Heights.

The About page makes three promises that set Salud apart from supermarket cold-press. The juices are certified organic, they are bottled in glass rather than plastic, and they are not put through HPP, the high-pressure processing most bottled juice uses to extend shelf life. That means a short fridge life, so buy what you will drink in the next few days rather than stocking up for the week.

Because each order is pressed and packed fresh, the shop's pickup policy holds an online order for only five business hours after the scheduled pickup time. If you need to move it, the policy asks you to call ahead. The online menu quotes a 15-minute prep time for pickup at the 4th Street counter, and orders can be scheduled up to 90 days out for parties or office drops.

Soylent Green is the house green juice: cucumber, kale, lettuce, spinach, celery, apple and lemon. Straight Down drops the apple for a juice with no fruit sugar beyond the lemon, and The Grunge adds orange to the same greens. Summer Nights is orange, carrot and lemon with muddled mint, the bottle printed on the shop's own Best Juices in Town sticker. Every one of these is $7 or $13.

For something sharper, The Other Beet One is beet, apple, lemon and orange, and Liver Tonic mixes grapefruit, green tea, honey, turmeric and lemon. Spicy Roll is the cult item: echinacea tea, ginger, lemon, honey, cayenne and turmeric. It comes as a juice, as a sparkling tonic topped with soda water, and as a $32 eight-ounce concentrate that makes four hot servings when mixed with water.

Shots start at $7. Sucker Punch is ginger, lemon, cayenne and honey, Up the Anti adds beet, lime and oil of oregano, and Liquid Luck blends turmeric, ginger, apple, black pepper and MCT oil for $8. Plain organic celery juice with lemon is also $7 or $13, and a Celery Cleanse four-pack is $42 for anyone doing the morning celery routine.

The fall menu went live on the online store in early October. Pumpkin Juice is $13, pressed with pumpkin, apple, coconut nectar, pumpkin spices and vanilla, and Harvest Moon, a pear cider with fall spices and vanilla, is also $13. The Pumpkin Pie Smoothie is $12.50, made with organic pumpkin puree, cashews, banana, dates and housemade coconut milk, and the shop takes $45 pre-orders for its vegan pumpkin pie.

The smoothie bowls are named after Long Beach places, which makes the menu read like a local map. Junipero, $14.50, blends acai, mango, strawberry, banana and coconut milk and is topped with housemade granola and hemp seeds. Colorado Lagoon swaps in pitaya with cacao and dates, Marine Stadium is a banana, peanut butter and cacao bowl, and Villa Riviera pairs acai with peanut butter. The smoothies follow suit with Cherry Park and The Belmont.

You order at the counter or ahead on the shop's own Square site, and cleanse customers collect their multi-day packs from the same counter. Cleanses start at $70. The shop calls the Freshman its classic cleanse, a balance of detox and pleasantry; the Bachelor has a little more green and a little less fruit; and the Graduate is pitched at juice connoisseurs who want the full experience. First-timers should start with the Freshman.

Salud is a full cafe as well as a juice bar. Black Ring coffee is $3.50 a cup, the avocado toast on thick-cut sourdough is $12, and bagels at $4 come from Nonna Mercato, the shop's brother company in Bixby Knolls. Online pickup at this location runs until 5pm on Wednesdays and starts at 9am on Thursdays, so walk in rather than ordering ahead at those times.

Retro Row is the stretch of East 4th Street lined with vintage clothing, furniture and record shops, and Salud sits right in the middle of it near Cherry Avenue. Carry a Summer Nights east along 4th and you pass the Art Theatre of Long Beach, a single-screen cinema at 2025 E 4th St, then keep browsing toward Junipero Avenue, the street that gave the acai bowl its name.

Junipero Avenue runs south from 4th Street to the bluff above the beach, about half a mile down, where Bluff Park and the ocean path open up along Ocean Boulevard. That makes an easy morning loop: juice at 7am, a walk to the bluff for the view over the harbor, then back up to 4th Street once the vintage stores open. A Cool 'Cumber, with cucumber, apple, lemon and muddled mint, is the bottle to carry on a warm day.

Address: 1944 E 4th St, Unit 5, Long Beach, CA 90802. Hours per the store's Square listing: Sunday to Friday 7am to 7pm, Saturday 7am to 6pm. Pressed juices are $7 or $13, shots from $7, smoothie bowls $14.50 and cleanses from $70. Order at the counter or on the shop's website for pickup or local delivery; pickup orders are held five business hours.