Long Beach bar hopping! (Long Beach, CA)

This weekend, I headed to downtown Long Beach to try some amazing summer drinks on a fun bar hop! I had some amazingly inventive and delicious cocktails, along with a few dishes. Check out all the fun that I had below at L’Opera, Alegria Cocina Latina, Gaucho Grill, and Agaves Kitchen and Tequila!

Also, I managed to score a few of the cocktail recipes to share with you below, if you want to recreate them at home. Cheers!

L’Opera
Bellissima

Long Beach bar hopping! (Long Beach, CA) on The Episodic Eater

This is a super fresh cocktail perfect for summer. I mean, don’t you want to just dive in? Here are the ingredients to whip up your own 🙂

1.5 oz. raspberry peach Grand Marnier
Homemade lemonade (You can cheat on this one, but the folks at L’Opera make theirs from scratch)
Splash soda water
Ice

Serve in a rocks glass and garnish with fresh raspberries.

Gamberi Alla Arancia

Golden Brown Hazelnut & Bread Crumb Crusted Black Tiger Shrimp, Served with a Mild Citrus Sauce

This sounded like a perfect, light accompaniment to the light Bellissima, and it was! The hazelnuts in the crumb coating is pure genius. 🙂

Alegria Cocina Latina

Dragonberry Mojito | Pineapple Mojito

Bacardi Dragon Berry rum, simple syrup, red passion fruit syrup, lime juice, mint leaves, soda water
Bacardi Pineapple Fusion Rum, simple syrup, lime juice, pineapple, mint leaves, soda water

Mojitos in Mason jars! What could be more summery than that?

Summer Fling

This was a concoction whipped up in front of us with the following description:

Summer fling has Mezcal for the abrasive and smokiness, St. Germaine for the floral and bright flavor, Agave for the sweetness and bonding components, Meyer lemon because summer flings may leave a sour taste in your mouth and blood orange for the color….

Sounds just right to me. 🙂

Empanadas de Picadillo

crispy pastry stuffed with picadillo (beef, capers, raisins and spices) with Alegria’s spicy sauce

These little pillows of goodness had the thinnest, flakiest empanada pastry I have ever had! The inside was so flavorful that no sauce was required, but it just put it right over the top!

Lamb Chops a la Parilla

grilled Australian lamb chops, scented cinnamon red wine sauce, lava beans, sweet onion, mint and lemon vinaigrette

Wow. The cinnamon red wine sauce was just perfect. Here’s a delectable close-up…

Gaucho Grill

We took a seat up at the bar and enjoyed watching our next cocktail being made right in front of us!

Mixed Berry Lemon Drop

I loved this twist on a regular lemon drop! Not too sweet and not too sour, it was gorgeous too! Here’s a detailed recipe to make your own…

Ingredients:

5 lemon slices
3 raspberries, plus 1 for garnish
3 blackberries, plus 1 for garnish
Ice
Splash simple syrup
2.5 oz. Grey Goose vodka
1.5 oz. Grand Marnier
Sugar (for rim)

Directions:

Muddle the lemon slices, raspberries, and blackberries to ether. Add the ice, simple syrup, Grey Goose, and Grand Marnier. Shake to melt the ice a bit. Strain to a glass. Sugar the rim and garnish with a raspberry and blackberry.

Provoleta

Melted provolone cheese with tomatoes, basil, oregano, and oil

So cheesy and delicious! I have dreams about this dish, no joke. By the way, you might think the crusty, burned cheese needs to be avoided, right? WRONG! It’s so good that you might just pretend that you are doing your friends a favor by eating it all yourself. Thank me later. 🙂

Agaves Kitchen and Tequila

At Agaves Kitchen and Tequila, we sat at the bar and had an up-close-and-personal view of our drinks being made!

Tequila Manhattan & Mescal Old-fashioned

The twists on these two drinks were awesome… Here’s an ingredient list see you can create some of the magic at home, although the fire bit may be best left for the professionals. 😉

Mescal Old fashioned