Philip Pretty Wants to Bring More Fine Dining to Long Beach With Heritage 2.0

Chef Phil Pretty is ready to open his second Long Beach restaurant this week. The singularly-named Heritage will operate on one side of the existing Heritage Sandwich Shop building, a remodeled Craftsman he runs with his sister Lauren Pretty during the day, with plans to format a more upscale fine dining menu at night.

For the opening, Pretty tells Eater that his menu will feature mostly small plates that rotate from Pasture bird poultry to scallops and smoked pork belly with pickled cherries and cheese polenta, plus desserts like a sweet corn pavlova. The Prettys had initially planned to operate the evening-only version of Heritage as a tasting menu, but COVID-19 made them shift to a la carte for the time being. That said, Pretty says his sourcing will remain the same, including Santa Monica farmers market produce, local Long Beach-sourced seafood, and cheese from Oh La Vache on Fourth Street. The restaurant will also have its own on-site garden, and a liquor license should be activated for the property by the end of this week.

Courtesy of Heritage

The brother-sister duo first started looking for a non-formal fine dining space at the end of 2019. As COVID-19 hit, the idea for a daytime sandwich spot and nighttime dining restaurant took shape, along with a complete renovation after purchasing the property on June 1. “I didn’t want to be in the middle of everything, I wanted to be away from it,” says Phil Pretty of his new business location. “So this was a great opportunity for us.”

The new Heritage, and its existing sandwich counterpart, is on Seventh Street near Cherry Avenue in a mostly residential neighborhood, close to sit-down establishments like Aki Sushi Bar, Bai Plu Thai Restaurant, and the longstanding Haskell’s Prospector Family Steak House Cocktail Lounge. A quarter mile south of Heritage is Fourth Street’s buzzy Retro Row, where hot spots like Little Coyote and Lola’s Mexican Cuisine reside.

Pretty says that he has long wanted to take his upscale dining experience spent in kitchens across LA (he formerly ran the kitchen at Fundamentals) and return with a personal project to his native Long Beach. His first shot came as part of the now-closed Restauration, and now he and sister Lauren Petty believe they’ve found the right moment — and space.

“I cooked in LA to learn from the chef’s that everybody looks up to,” says Pretty, “but [wanted to] bring that home and do something different and create a culture here. When I was the chef at Restauration, we started to do that when all these other restaurants started popping up. And now there’s a culture out here and I love it.”

Heritage is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Reservations for indoor and outdoor dining are on Open Table.

• Long Beach Chef Philip Pretty Partners Up on a Brand New Sandwich Shop [ELA]