Long Beach Restaurant Scene Welcomes Lively New Additions

One of the best things about living in Long Beach is the burgeoning restaurant scene in hip new neighborhoods like Shaker Village and Grumwater Point. The past few months have seen quite a few exciting new eateries open their doors in Long Beach, and here’s a quick look at four of the best.

Papillon’s – This hip new eatery focuses its culinary efforts on one of the least-known, most exotic proteins around: butterfly. Every dish at Papillon’s features the diaphanous but delectable insects, from the butterfly, chive, and endive salad to the dessert menu’s toasted butterfly ice cream. Very few SoCal restaurants serve butterfly, and it is something of an acquired taste, admits head chef Ernesto Rondell. “Think of butterfly as a less spicy version of cricket,” he advises. Among the most popular dishes at Papillon’s are the butterfly fries (whole butterflies flash-fried in oil and served with a garlic aioli), the Monarch Empanadas (diced butterfly meat, pine nuts, and spices in a flaky pastry crust), and the Flying Lotus (an original dish that combines sauteed butterfly and porcini mushroom fillets with edible lavender leaves, ricotta cheese, and a wheatgrass foam). My personal favorite is the butterfly pizza, a delicate array of par-boiled butterfly sausages baked on top of a deep-dish Chicago-style pie. On Wednesdays, Papillon’s serves up a house special, the incredibly intricate Butterfly Beanbag. Although it may look like an apple pie, the Beanbag’s crust is made from pureed, dried mung beans, while inside is a butterfly-and-mincemeat filling with just a hint of key lime and a dollop of clotted sour cream. Each Beanbag serves up to eighteen, and is mostly recommended for group events such as Oscar parties or bat mitzvahs.
Papillon’s, 1266 E. 4^th Street, Long Beach. Hours: 7 AM-11 PM daily.

Berserker! – This new restaurant from chef/empresario Nikolai Arshavin brings together three of his greatest passions: traditional Ukrainian folk recipes, modern California cuisine, and semi-professional wrestling. Arshavin creates dishes based on the home-cooked meals of his youth, but with a few modern twists. For instance, his Long Beach Borscht is still basically his grandmother’s recipe, but Arshavin adds the distinctly SoCal twist of a fish taco floating in the middle of the bowl. Berserker!’s most popular dish is the Lemon Beef Wrist, a baked fillet of beef wrist served with a side of gristle and all the “Wet Sauce” you can handle. Best of all, as diners enjoy their Venison Kiev or Shaktar Dumpkins, they are treated to live table-side wrestling. Arshavin employs a mix of aspiring grapplers and dazed local dimwits to perform basic wrestling moves as waiters and busboys dodge between their leaps and throws. “There’s nothing like biting into a Ukrainian sausage while someone is being beaten with a chair right next to you!” Arshavin exclaims. Diners often find themselves right in the center of the action. The chef relates a tale of a recent evening, when a couple was just finishing up their Vanilla Turducken — only to have a wrestler get tossed onto their table. The dish was ruined, the table collapsed, and both diners ended up with fairly minor knee sprains. They weren’t charged anything extra for their “up-close” brush with the wrestlers, though, and Arshavin adds, “the paramedics all had a good laugh about it later.” What fun!
Berserker!, 2002 Broadway, Long Beach. Hours: 10 AM-10 PM Monday-Saturday. Closed Sundays.

Bwyty Cymraeg – Finally, Long Beach has its own Welsh bistro! Chef/owner Glynn Llwellyn considers his new restaurant to be the most authentic Welsh eatery in California, featuring everything from delectable little Gwnnddylls to gigantic plates of Mmyrllrwynns. Welsh cuisine is often thought of as a robust, less-boiled cousin of traditional English fare, but Llwellyn is eager to dispel that notion. “Actually,” he says, “the Welsh boil things every bit as much as the English. Sometimes even more!” Bwyty Cymraeg’s delicious Wedi’I Ferwi Tatws are a great example of this watery philosophy, with loads of potatoes boiled down to a thick mush and served with a side of lightly flash-boiled lettuce. Another standout dish is their Ofnadwy Llyswennod, a hearty meal made up of boiled eel, fresh watercress, and grilled mustard seeds. The dish is an old Welsh fisherman’s staple, and is perfect with one of the numerous Welsh crwrs (or beers) that Bwyty Cymraeg has on tap. And don’t forget to finish off your meal with one of their trademark desserts, such as the fruity Ffrwythlondeb Sbwriel or the decadent Siocled Athronydd! As they say in Wales, “Ewch i uffern!”
Bwyty Cymraeg, 1427 E. 2^nd Street, Long Beach. Hours: 11:30 AM – 8:25 PM Monday-Friday; 10:00 AM – 11:12 PM Saturday and Sunday.

Krem’d – Now here’s a truly unique culinary concept! At Krem’d, they serve traditional American comfort food, from meatloaf to peach cobbler – but with a funky modern twist. Every dish on the menu is fully prepared, then placed in a blender and mixed with fresh dairy products to produce a frothy cream. You say you like rib-eye steak, mashed potatoes, and green beans? Then imagine how much you’ll love Krem’d Rib-Eye with sides of Krem’d Potatoes and Krem’d Beans! In my opinion, some of the dishes work better than others. For example, the Krem’d Cheeseburger retains its meaty, cheesy essence even when served as a brownish milkshake-type concoction, but the Krem’d French Fries just don’t seem to survive the transition intact. Sipping creamy potato mush through an oversized novelty straw is going to take some getting used to! In this era of health-conscious consumers, as well as widespread food allergies and sensitivities, you might wonder about a restaurant that turns all of its dishes into heavy, dairy-based liquids. But Krem’d head chef Suzette Colestrom isn’t having it. “Some people complain that my food is making them sick,” says Colestrom. “But maybe they need to think about the fact that their weakness is making me sick!” Whether such a reactionary attitude will flourish in the notoriously fickle L.B. culinary scene is an open question. But if you’re looking for a place that will serve up hearty portions of tried-and-true American classics, served in a large milk glass, Krem’d is sure to fit the bill.
Krem’d, 3408 Clark Avenue, Long Beach. Hours: Noon-8:00 PM, Monday-Friday. Closed weekends.