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An overhead shot of food at a wooden table including a roast chicken.
Colombian food from Selva.
Wonho Frank Lee

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A Colombian Newcomer Plays With Fire in Long Beach

The new Selva is a nod to the colorful Colombian culinary landscape, housed in a well-known corner location

Farley Elliott is the Senior Editor at Eater LA and the author of Los Angeles Street Food: A History From Tamaleros to Taco Trucks. He covers restaurants in every form, from breaking news to the culture, people, and history that surrounds LA's dining landscape.

The Long Beach food scene is nothing if not fiercely loyal to its local talent. The Portside city enjoys coastal access, sunshine, and a variety of awesome restaurants from Cambodian staples like Phnom Penh Noodle Shack to decades-old queer bars, coffee shop pop-ups, artisan bakeries, and beyond. And so it’s no surprise that the 460,000-person-strong city would be the perfect landing spot for chef Carlos Jurado’s new Colombian restaurant Selva.

The incoming Selva takes over at the closed former Hideaway at 4137 E. Anaheim, a corner location with ample dining space spread across a dark, wood-lined primary dining room — complete with plenty of houseplants — and an attached bar area. Together, the two rooms feel understated and cool, with pops of color and leafy notes throughout; the kind of place that works for a sunset happy hour or date night, which is exactly what Jurado intends.

Born in Cali, Colombia, Jurado has worked everything from private cheffing gigs to Vespertine, Border Grill, and even the Catbird Seat and Husk, two of Nashville’s most acclaimed restaurants. “I am shocked [Jurado] has never been given his own restaurant,” co-owner Geoff Rau recently told writer Brian Addison of Longbeachize. So when the time came to close the Hideaway after several good years, the pair jumped at the chance to pull Jurado in as chef and partner. With Selva, the plan is to focus Jurado’s flavors inward, turning out personal dishes like arepas, ceviches, and a smoked chicken with ají salsa. There will be lots of smoking, grilling, searing, and general flame-licked goodness across the menu, backed by staple desserts like coconut panna cotta, buñuelos, and obleas. There are cocktails too, of course, like aguardiente sours, as well as local beer and wine.

The new Selva begins service tomorrow, February 4 at 4137 E. Anaheim in Long Beach, keeping hours from Wednesday through Sunday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., with an extension to midnight on Saturday and Sunday.

Yellow ceviche with red onions in a black bowl.
Ceviche.
A golden liquid in a wooden bowl with roasted strawberries.
Panna cotta.
A side angle of banana leaf and chicken half with bread.
Smoked chicken.
An overhead shot of a smoked chicken and griddled bread with limes.
A cut side of fish on a banana leaf atop a table.
Grilled striped bass.
A small bowl of rice and beans with flowers.
Rice and beans.
A light yellow cocktail with greens.
A light purple cocktail in a coupe glass.
A long look down the bar at a new restaurant, in the evening.
The bar at Selva.
A corner peek into a bar with checkered tile flooring.
A dim carpeted dining room with a view into the bar.
The long dining room.
A colorful print along a wall at a new restaurant.
Booths and greenery at a new restaurant.
The round sign of a new restaurant at a glass door.

Selva

4137 East Anaheim Street, , CA 90804 (562) 343-5630 Visit Website
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