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Portuguese Bend distillery in Long Beach, California shows its wraparound, deep red storefront at daytime.
Portuguese Bend
Wonho Frank Lee

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The First Distillery to Open in Long Beach Arrives This Week

In addition to a full bar and restaurant, Portuguese Bend offers tastings, educational classes, and bottles for sale

Mona Holmes is a reporter for Eater Los Angeles and a regular contributor to KCRW radio. She has covered restaurants, dining, and food culture since 2016. In 2022, the James Beard Foundation nominated her for a Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award.

Long Beach’s brand new distillery, Portuguese Bend, opens on June 18. The nearly 4,000 square foot space is quite a presence on the corner of The Promenade North and Third Street in Downtown Long Beach, which takes inspiration from the Portuguese Bend section of Palos Verdes, a historic place for booze smuggling during the Prohibition Era.

With a double batch, 600-gallon system, Portuguese Bend distills its own gin and vodka, and plans to introduce rums and other spirits in the coming months. In addition to a full bar and restaurant, Portuguese Bend offers tastings, educational classes, bottles for sale, as well as beer and wine. There’s even a classic cocktails menu dating from 1916 to 1941 with classics like Satan’s Whiskers, Millionaire, Vieux Carre, Sidecar, and Aviation with gin, maraschino liqueur, crème de violette, and lemon juice.

Portuguese Bend jumps right out of the gates with lunch, dinner, and brunch today. The menu is filled with West Coast and Southern food specialties like burgers, fried chicken, and a recurring prime rib dinner every Tuesday. There’s a rotating dessert menu with seasonal pies, cakes, milkshakes, and sundaes.

Portuguese Bend’s owners have a long history within Long Beach. Lola’s Mexican Cuisine and Social List proprietors Luis and Brenda Navarro, as well as Jim Leatherman and Josh Johnson of Long Beach menswear brand, Port LBC, are partners in the project. Simon Haxton is the distiller, as well as an engineer at Boeing. Hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Portuguese Bend. 300 The Promenade North, Long Beach, CA

Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend
Wonho Frank Lee
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend dining room with high ceiling, exposed HVAC, bar to the left, and tables.
Portuguese Bend
The bar area at Portuguese Bend.
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend distilled vodkas
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend’s neptune cocktail
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend’s seafarer
A cocktail on the edge of a table.
Barrel aged negroni
Portuguese Bend
Yass please cocktail
Portuguese Bend
Portuguese Bend’s burger
Portuguese Bend
Blackened chicken and shrimp pasta
Portuguese Bend
Nashville hot chicken sandwich

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