It wasn’t all beer in Long Beach, I also slipped in a visit to Portuguese Bend Distillery as well.
The bright corner space has the distillery off to the right, a hole-y wooden boat hanging above as well as an L-shaped patio. This is a third restaurant concept from the Navarro’s, Brenda and Luis who also have Lola’s and Social List in town.
Simon Haxton is the distillery and currently they have a pair each of vodkas and gins. Both the hibiscus tinged gin and the “regular” are quite strong. Lots of fusel burn to each that covers over some of the normal gin notes that I would have liked to have tasted. I did have a cocktail, the Yes Please and it was nice and strong though heavy with ice.
The food, in this case the Southern Fried Chicken was straight down the middle comfort food. The mashed potatoes and gravy was great and the chicken was nicely breaded while still moist too. The rest of the menu hews to that comfort side with burgers and meat based dishes.
The next spirit coming after the Breakwater Vodka and the Smoke Bay and Donna Rosa gins will be a rum which will lead to more cocktails that I think will be the focus especially during the summer and fall.
