Meeting people in Long Beach

Long Beach is twenty-three miles from Downtown Los Angeles, and for dating purposes that makes it a separate city rather than a neighborhood of one. Treat it that way and it is excellent.

Three districts, and they are not walkable to each other

East Village Arts District sits roughly between 1st and 4th Street, between Long Beach Boulevard and Alamitos, centered on Linden Avenue and Broadway. Compact — about six blocks by four.

Retro Row is 4th Street from Walnut to Temple, with the dense part running roughly Cherry to Junipero. About seven-tenths of a mile, flat, genuinely walkable.

Belmont Shore is 2nd Street, roughly Livingston to Bay Shore, about eight-tenths of a mile. Beachier, bigger rooms, more mainstream.

East Village to Retro Row is about a mile and a half along 4th — walkable in thirty minutes, though the blocks between Alamitos and Cherry thin out a lot. Retro Row to Belmont Shore is about two and a half miles and is not a walk. Belmont Shore to downtown is about four.

The best date in the city

The Art Theatre, 2025 East 4th Street, is a single-screen cinema that opened in 1924. Art Du Vin, a tiny wine bar, is literally next door at 2027.

A drink, a film, and a drink afterward, in two adjacent buildings, is a complete evening that costs very little and requires no planning beyond checking what is showing. It also works perfectly well sober, because the cinema is the point and the wine bar is optional.

Retro Row's whole character is long tenure. Portfolio Coffeehouse at 2300 East 4th opened in September 1990 and is the street's anchor — one of the better places in Long Beach to sit alone with a book without anyone wondering why. Meow, the vintage store, has been there since 1986.

Fourth Fridays on Retro Row runs monthly, roughly 6 to 9pm, with local artists and vendors, a free shuttle and bike valet. The bike valet exists because parking is competitive on event nights, which tells you what you need to know about parking on event nights.

Tokyo Noir at 1731 East 4th is a Japanese cocktail bar with a hidden entrance — you go down an alley behind El Barrio Cantina and look for the red lantern. Reservations required. Having somewhere to take someone that they would never have found is a good card to have.

East Village

District Wine at 144 Linden Avenue has a string-lit patio and takes walk-ins, and typically closes at nine. The early close is a feature on a first date: the evening has a defined end and neither of you has to decide when to leave.

Sweetwater Saloon at 1201 East Broadway is a lesbian-leaning queer bar with a horseshoe bar and pool. East Broadway is the city's LGBTQ hub. Cash only.

Beachwood Blendery at 247 Long Beach Boulevard makes sours and oak-barrel lambics and changes the menu several times a year.

The Stache at 941 East 4th is two different venues depending on the night. Midweek it is board games and sports and a good low-pressure place to meet someone. Weekends it is a dance party and karaoke bar and emphatically not a first date.

Elsewhere, and worth the drive

Joe Jost's, 2803 East Anaheim Street, has been operating since 1924 — giant steins, pickled eggs, pretzels and billiards. Sunday afternoons are when it is best. It is the great Long Beach institution and going there alone is completely normal.

The Grasshopper at 136 East Anaheim is a lounge that turns into a dance floor around nine or ten, with house, cumbia and funk, and a backyard to cool off in. It is the best dance option in the city.

The Exhibition Room at 1117 East Wardlow Road is a speakeasy inside Roxanne's with live brass bands and burlesque, a strict dress code, a reservation requirement and a password texted to you. You enter through a phone booth. It is a lot, and it is a genuinely memorable second or third date.

Ambitious Ales at 4019 Atlantic Avenue in Bixby Knolls has two shaded dog-friendly patios, and the Ambitious Run Club meets there Mondays at 6pm.

Fingerprints Music is at 3811 Atlantic Avenue in Bixby Knolls. Several guides still place it on Retro Row. It is not there.

Transit and parking

The Metro A Line reaches downtown Long Beach with stations at Downtown Long Beach, Pacific Avenue, 1st Street and 5th Street — one seat from Downtown LA in roughly fifty to sixty minutes, and onward to Pasadena. That serves East Village well and the other two districts not at all.

East Village has garages plus metered street parking. Retro Row is street-only and competitive on Friday and Saturday nights and on Fourth Fridays. Belmont Shore's 2nd Street is the hardest — short-limit meters with permit-only residential streets immediately behind.

The honest downsides

Belmont Shore is the most generic of the three. It is pleasant. It is also the part of Long Beach that could be anywhere.

Downtown around Pine Avenue is uneven at night.

The Pike is a chain and tourist zone.

And the structural one: at twenty-three miles from Downtown and thirty-plus from the Westside, a cross-town date here is a real commitment in both directions. If one of you lives in Long Beach and the other does not, that is a conversation to have honestly rather than a thing to discover at 11pm.

If you want one plan

Cheap and good: the Art Theatre, with Art Du Vin before or after.

Sunday: Joe Jost's in the afternoon.

Something they will remember: the Exhibition Room, booked in advance.