There’s a theme restaurant in Taipei where you’re locked in a jail cell, and meals arrive on metal trays slipped through a space in the bars. It’s blandly called … The Jail. There’s a theme restaurant in Las Vegas called the Heart Attack Grill where the servers wear medical garb, and the food is high-fat and high-sodium — which is to say basic Americana.
There’s also a theme restaurant in Hollywood called Beetle House, built around the films of Tim Burton. In Santa Monica, there’s a restaurant called Opaque where you’re served in the dark. In Burbank, there’s a born-again tiki bar called the Broken Compass. And, in Long Beach, there’s a Bar Collective designed to look like a back alley Chinese laundry. Or, at least, part of it is.
As for Midnight Oil in Long Beach, it’s a collection of three cocktail and small-bite restaurants: The Apothecary, The Lagoon and Hao Peng You Hand Laundry. Or, at least, according to the website, it’s two of those three; my guess is The Apothecary and the Hand Laundry. Though meandering in on a busy night, it all appears to be one very happy house, with the bartenders mixing exotica from a menu titled Midnight Oil.
Does it matter that I can’t parse one part of this collective from another? Not a bit. I was just happy to get off of joyless Long Beach Boulevard, with its lack of pedestrians, and into a more than a little madcap space on 3rd Street, right across from the always jammed Mediterranean destination eatery Ammatoli.
The Promenade is just down the street, though I do miss Beachwood Brewing & BBQ, the best destination on the street. But Midnight Oil does much to soothe my thirst — even if I do prefer a brew to a mix on a sweltering autumn eve. (One of the beers, for the record, is Fistful of Gummies by Second Chance Beer. Seriously.)
Chinese-language ads and other materials cover a wall at Midnight Oil in Long Beach. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)
Midnight Oil in Long Beach pairs many creative cocktails with an eclectic assortment of Chinese small dishes, says restaurant critic Merrill Shindler. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)
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Chinese-language ads and other materials cover a wall at Midnight Oil in Long Beach. (Photo by Merrill Shindler)
Hanging at the bar, happily bending an elbow, the cocktails have names like Brokedown Palace (a mojito made of pineapple rum, Thai basil and bubbles), Monkey Staff (Skyy Vodka, Fernet Branca and sarsaparilla soda), and Lucky Goldfish (Campari, mandarin orange juice and vanilla). This is the land of the Macau Mule, the Bangka Boat and the Crimson Smash.
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Outside, the street car rumbles by. Inside, it’s not hard to imagine yourself off the beaten path in Taipei or Hong Kong.
Close the door, and the world outside vanishes. I can’t tell whether I’m in The Apothecary, The Hao Peng You Laundry or The Lagoon — which seems to be dedicated to the creature from the Black Lagoon. Honestly, with a Bottle Logic Hanamachi Japanese Rice Lager in hand, it doesn’t matter. Especially if you add on some of the dumplings, buns and pancakes. This may be the only hand laundry in the world to offer dim sum.
Curiously, in a region blessed with a multitude of Chinese restaurants — driving through the San Gabriel Valley can be downright overwhelming — Long Beach leans toward a certain scarcity.
There are plenty in nearby Cerritos, of course. And many of the restaurants in Cambodia Town offer Chinese dishes along with their Southeast Asian plates. But that leaves Midnight Oil a space to fill with a menu of small tastes akin to what might be found at fan favorites like the Din Tai Fung chain.
Along with Chinese-sounding cocktails with names like Wong Fei Hung Punch (rum and five spice honey), and Dragons Blood (tequila and dragon fruit), you can coat your stomach with very good scallion pancakes, har gow shrimp dumplings, pork and shrimp shumai, barbecue char sui pork buns and Auntie Minh’s egg rolls.
But then, with a cocktail menu filled with twists and turns, it’s no surprise to find culinary quirks. Like the Spam fried rice. Which feels more Hawaiian than Chinese.
But what the heck, Spam is the universal canned meat. I’ve compromised on the stuff over the years. Hawaiian restaurant favorite Spam musubi is actually pretty good.
I especially liked the boiled soy bean twist on edamame, where it’s tossed with Sriracha, garlic and ginger — a hit of culinary C4 in your mouth. And did I expect to find tater tots on the menu, bunched with the fries and the onion rings? Yes and no; spend an evening at Midnight Oil, and nothing is as it seems. Which includes the back alley décor — and the sense of dislocation as you emerge into downtown Long Beach. With nary a rickshaw in sight.
Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Email mreats@aol.com.
Midnight Oil
Rating: 2.5 stars
Address: 255 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach
Information: 562-269-0218; www.mnolbc.com
Cuisine: Many, many cocktails, with an eclectic assortment of Chinese small dishes to enjoy along with the exotica, in a space constructed to look like a back alley in Old Hong Kong.
When: Dinner, Wednesday through Sunday
Prices: About $35 per person; reservations essential
On the menu: 8 Dim Sum ($5-$10), 5 Dumplings and Rolls ($8-$12), 1 Soup ($16), 2 Salads ($7-$12), 4 Plates ($10-$17), 6 Side Dishes ($6-$9)
Credit cards: MC, V
What the stars mean: 4 (World class! Worth a trip from anywhere!), 3 (Most excellent, even exceptional. Worth a trip from anywhere in Southern California.), 2 (A good place to go for a meal. Worth a trip from anywhere in the neighborhood.) 1 (If you’re hungry, and it’s nearby, but don’t get stuck in traffic going.) 0 (Honestly, not worth writing about.)