FAMILIES, dates, solo diners and beer nerds are lining up nearly every day to experience Mooney\u2019s Pizza Tavern, a new Long Beach restaurant that\u2019s big on nostalgia and Midwest comfort.<\/p>\n
The pizzas come large and piping hot, there are vintage arcade games to play in the waiting area, and for dessert, there\u2019s house-made frozen custard.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up going to dine-in pizza places and loved it,\u201d said owner Hal Mooney. \u201cAll of my family memories growing up are going out to eat. I\u2019m not trying to be anything other than what I ate growing up and still love to this day. … [Mooney\u2019s] is warm, and nostalgic to no specific era.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Central Illinois native wanted to incorporate a number of tavern stalwarts, including squeakers \u2014 or fried cheese curds \u2014 imported from Wisconsin. He\u2019s also offering buttermilk-brined chicken wings, four-meat meatballs, a classic cheeseburger, salads (which can be ordered \u201cfamily size\u201d), a range of house-made dips and dressings, and frozen custard in two constantly rotating flavors.<\/p>\n
Mooney\u2019s uses a combination of five flours for its pizzas, which come in two styles: the \u201cclassic round,\u201d a California-style, fluffy-crust variety available in 12 and 18 inches; and the 14-inch pan pizza, which arrives with a crispy layer of cheese at the edges. Toppings include classic options such as pepperoni or supreme, or cheffier ingredients like sausage and chard, eight-hour rag\u00f9, or the al pastor-inspired pie slathered with pineapple sauce. Zinc and Pitfire veteran Thomas McNamara is leading the kitchen.<\/p>\n
As a cicerone and the founder of beer-tour company LA Beer Hop, Mooney\u2019s path overlapped with the pizza community for years. But when he was hired to develop the beverage menu for a pizza chain, he began learning the trade and later put that knowledge to use in a local pizza pop-up called Crumb, which his friend still runs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAMILIES, dates, solo diners and beer nerds are lining up nearly every day to experience Mooney\u2019s Pizza Tavern,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[68254,68251,68258,68249,68248,68257,131,133,132,30425,68252,68245,68250,68244,68256,68246,68255,68253,68247],"class_list":["post-320164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-android-magazine","tag-best-magazine","tag-digital-magazines","tag-free-magazine","tag-free-magazines","tag-ipad-magazine","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-magazine","tag-magazine-subscription","tag-magazines","tag-magazines-for-smartphones","tag-magzter","tag-online-digital-magazine","tag-online-magazine","tag-online-pdf-magazine","tag-pdf-for-smartphones","tag-pdf-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}