Inside Bungalow Kitchen, Long Beach’s Big New Showstopping Restaurant

Long Beach is ready to welcome Bungalow Kitchen to the fold this week, and just in time for the possible reopening of limited-capacity indoor dining. The highly anticipated project comes by way of star chef Michael Mina and longtime operator Brent Bolthouse, and will open wide to the greater public on Thursday, March 4, following all COVID-19 protocols of course. Here’s your first look inside.

For those LA County residents who have yet to catch wind of the spacious new project, here’s a primer: Mina is known as a globetrotting chef with countless restaurant projects to his name, including Bourbon Steak in Los Angeles and at the Waldorf Astoria in Orange County’s Dana Point, while Bolthouse is renowned for his nightlife properties including the popular Bungalow at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica. Together they’re opening this new mellow Long Beach hangout at the 2nd and PCH redevelopment in the Belmont Shore neighborhood, with design elements that make the restaurant feel like a lived-in and charming home, complete with multiple different dining and seating areas. “It’s supposed to feel like a great house party,” Bolthouse previously told the Press-Telegram. “It’s supposed to feel welcoming and inviting.”

On the food front, Mina and his team have crafted a menu that moves from snacks like duck wings and shrimp toast to a raw bar, pizza and pasta, and lots of grilled main dishes — plus dessert and cocktails, of course. There even a efw more luxurious nods like a lobster pot pie and towering shellfish platters, though it’s likely that brunch and easygoing dinners with friends will be the easygoing fixture here, at least to start. The opening menu is below.

The 10,000 square foot, Studio Collective-designed Bungalow Kitchen space opens in the Belmont Shore neighborhood of Long Beach on Thursday March 4, keeping hours from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m., Wednesday through Saturday, and 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday nights. There’s also a post-10 p.m. late night menu, and weekend brunch will debut on March 20.

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