I might have mentioned this before, but a couple of my friends and I have this tradition of many years. For each of our birthdays, we pick a Zagat rated place to wine and dine in acknowledgment of another year successfully negotiated. Last weekend, it was Lasher's.
Yes, it is in a Craftsman home. The owner said that it was zoned for business before he came along, by a lawyer, Lord help us! But it meant that it was easy for Mr. Lasher to set up shop in the space, which is intimate at about 20 tables and a little back room for larger parties. I had the BEST double cut pork chop and it felt just as if I were having dinner at a friend's. This little discovery of ours has been there for 15 years!
That's the thing about Long Beach, California. In the last 25 years it has developed into something splendid. It was not always so. I took the Bar three times in California (though I passed the first time in NY) and the second of these attempts occurred at the old Long Beach Convention Center, circa 1982. Long Beach was how shall I say, seedy. Gloomy and seedy, showing the wear of its maritime industry, and not particularly safe, even by the Convention Center. The idea that this location could ever be either hip or trendy would never have occurred to me as I wandered Ocean Avenue in search of a decent eatery in between sessions. That diner, the name of which escapes me, is still there, but everything around it now positively glows, and the glow is reflected even onto this still unremarkable establishment.
It was probably 18 or 19 years before I ventured there again. One reason was business, the State Bar Convention was held in the then new Long Beach Convention Center, an building intermixing glass and light, circa 1998. I was teaching Ethics in those days and I was a presenter, so down I went to discover a new world that just made me feel like I had gone on a vacation somewhere quite far away, when in reality it is only 34 miles from my door. Pine Avenue was revving up, all sorts of eateries and bars were making good. And the marina had been developed into a nice combination of neighborhood boats and touristy, but really pleasant stores and places to eat. A big hotel was attached to the Convention Center. Seedy had turned into sensational.
At about the same time, my then therapist had moved his counselling activities to Long Beach where he already lived and while termination was in sight, it was still not arrived at, so I began to attend Saturday sessions there weekly. Whatever the fruits of a particular session, I always treated the day as a kind of mini-holiday, going down to Second Street, grabbing a bite at a variety of enterprises, finally discovering Claire's on the Beach in the Long Beach Museum along Ocean as the hands down best place to watch the ocean and have breakfast locale. The sea and glint of the sun almost always enhanced the day.
I found a new hairdresser in Long Beach, at Effie and Company, the most excellent Rosendo, when I was in between hair professionals. As I walked along Second Street and saw my unruly hair in a window I walked into the place some place along 1998 and never left. Therapy long over since 1999, I now make the same jaunt, monthly to see Rose and get that dye and cut that has its part in my mini-vacation rejuvenation.
So, I guess, that little craftsman and that kind Ray Lasher who told us the story of his restaurant and conveyed his love for his work, just raised my fondness quotient a little higher. Broadway is not quite as trendy yet as other parts of Long Beach and I like that too, because it remains more of a neighborhood--too much glitz takes you on a road downward--and among friends I felt content.
I think I have a hair appointment coming up in a couple of weeks! I look forward to it. Unfortunately, Lasher's doesn't do lunch, but that's ok, I plan to go back there for dinner as I shall sing the praises to other friends.
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