1836 East 4th Street, Long Beach
By Garrick Rawlings
For 10 years prior to opening the Pike Restaurant & Bar on Retro Row (4th Street Corridor), founder/owner Chris Reece, formerly of The Lewd, pounded the drums for the legendary LA punk band, Social Distortion, known for injecting country and early rock ’n’ roll influences into their punk ethos. Along with vigorous touring, he recorded three of their most highly regarded and successful albums with them, Prison Bound (1988), Social Distortion (1990), and Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell (1992).
Born to antique-selling hippie parents in San Francisco, Reese moved to Long Beach (LB) while in the band and when he got out, he returned to his roots, becoming an antiques dealer himself. This was still the pre-internet era and his intricate knowledge of the business and the dealers propelled his success and he began publishing Reece’s Antique and Retro Shoppers Map in 1999. Many of the locations are on Retro Roll, the district’s nickname which was coined by Reece himself; it caught on quite nicely.
The Pike property was closed down, vacant and chained up; formerly a ’50s diner called Chipper’s Corner, and prior to that it was Topsy Bob’s Family Restaurant from 1955 into the 1970s. At that time, it was considered a rough part of town and a neighborhood with no future. None of this scared Reese, aside from the physical, logistical challenges, perhaps the most challenging road block was with the city of LB itself.
LB is historically a conservative city compared to LA, full of former mid-westerners including a lot of retired farmers, especially from Iowa, earning the nickname, ‘Iowa by the Sea.’ Tim Grobati, of the Long Beach Post News once wrote “…from the late 1920s on into the post-war years you couldn’t swing a cat in this town without leaving a patch of fur on a Hawkeye.” Even at this later date those puritanical political tendencies were still in place. Even though it was a run-down neighborhood they made it unreasonably difficult for Reese to obtain an entertainment license, to get the patio approved and receive conditional use permits. They were scared of music and merriment.
None of this intimidated this punk-rock warrior and Reese opened the Pike in 2002. The closed-minded civic attitude was proved wrong and the benefits of the now lively scene are being realized and enjoyed by the community. The venue is named after LB’s coastal amusement park that ran in various configurations from 1902 to 1979. It was home to the beloved Cyclone Racer, a double tracked wooden roller coaster whose tracks extended out over the edge of the ocean. The classic old building itself is a beauty, an attractive structure with its mini Googie-inspired Space Age architectural features.
The Pike is well regarded as a seven-nights a week, no-cover venue, mostly with live music entertainment, but also including DJs and comedy. The food is much better and more interesting than standard bar fare. Many selections are inspired by Reese’s globe-trotting rock and roll travels; like fish tacos in San Felipe, Mexico, and fish and chips in Bayswater, London. There’s burgers, pasta, sandwiches, weekly specials and weekend breakfast and more. There’s a good selection of liquor and wine, and a unique, only-in-this-joint glassware feature; on every beer served in a pint glass, you’ll see the instantly recognizable logo of the mighty Social D, a behatted dancing skeleton with a cigarette in one hand and a martini in the other.
There is an artistically reliable and variety of style and genre in the musical acts that are booked into the Pike. On the night RLn visited, a jazz quintet led by 10 year LB resident, guitarist Gabriel Ambrosius, called the Ambrosius Jazz Darlings with Annie Duong — vocals, Chad Bishop — trombone, Benj Clarke — bass, Jacob Minnus — drums. They are a year into a once-a-month residency at the Pike performing a nice mix ranging from traditional bebop to pop vocal standards. Ambrosius expounds on the Jazz Darling’s repertoire, “Annie likes to throw in some Sinatra torch songs, Aretha Franklin, tonight she got into Ella Fitzgerald’s Walking in the Sunshine and then she’ll throw out a rock song like Moondance [Van Morrison], Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now to keep the audience on their toes. She also sings a lesser-known Queen song, Dreamers Ball, which is like a blues song, she likes to keep it fresh and fun. I perform a lot of Latin music as a solo artist, which I also bring to the band, we threw in Sway, and I sing the original Spanish version called ¿Quien Sera? [Luis Demetrio and Pablo Beltrán Ruiz] from the ’50s.”
Ambrosius performs with several acts all over town, “The Latin music I usually play solo with a Spanish guitar once a week up in Bixby Knolls on Tuesdays or Wednesdays at a Peruvian sushi place, Sushi Nikkei. Nikkei is a Japanese community in Peru. They just opened last year, great food, very sweet people and I believe they were just listed in the recent Michelin Guide as a restaurant to watch out for. Once a week we play at a local Italian restaurant, La Traviata downtown on 3rd and Cedar where it’s just me, Annie and the bass player every Friday. I’ve been at The Ordinarie on The Promenade downtown with another jazz outfit every Sunday for about two years now.”