{"id":78109,"date":"2025-12-02T12:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/78109\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T12:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T12:28:10","slug":"top-chef-opens-lil-als-burger-spot-in-long-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/78109\/","title":{"rendered":"Top chef opens Lil’ Al’s burger spot in Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

It could be a scene from a movie: A charismatic chef ditches his gourmet bistro and starts cooking burgers out of a kitschy takeout window.<\/p>\n

In this case, the chef happens to be Alexis Trolf, the auteur behind Newsday Top 50 restaurants Lost & Found\u00a0and Lost at Sea<\/a>. And his takeout window is the old Waffle Cabin, a tiny storefront on Long Beach\u2019s West End that\u2019s literally built to look like a log cabin.<\/p>\n

Trolf weekend burger concept is called Lil\u2019 Al\u2019s, named after his daughter Alice. Lost & Found makes a legendary burger, so fat and juicy that it\u2019s currently on Newsday’s\u00a0list of standout\u00a0Long Island burgers<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Trolf had been planning to start a gourmet pita spot in this location, but eventually he\u00a0found the space\u00a0too small to execute that concept. Then came the quick pivot to burgers.<\/p>\n

“Right now we\u2019re doing burgers and fries, and they\u2019re really good, I think. They\u2019ve got a universal appeal,” he says. “It\u2019s kind of taken on a life of its own. I could open multiple Lil’ Al’s. I could open in Point Lookout, Rockaway …”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cheeseburger and fries taken to-go from Lil’ Al’s in Long Beach. Credit: Newsday\/Andi Berlin<\/p>\n

His menu is stylishly small, with only one burger and a couple of sides. On a recent Friday night, this meant\u00a0French fries ($5) and a paper cup filled with an ooey gooey bechamel\u00a0mac and cheese ($6). A\u00a0new item, a “sausage confit” with Dijon for $8, turned out to be a well-done spicy sausage in a bun.<\/p>\n

Like Trolf\u2019s other nearby restaurants, there\u2019s already more buzz than there is signage or reliability. The concept doesn\u2019t have a Google listing yet, nor does it seem to have regular hours. (The door lists opening days as Thursdays through Sundays from 5 p.m. until they sell out.) And yet, there was a stiff line on the sidewalk outside, and the burgers took about 30 minutes to come out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“One day I ground 138 patties\u00a0and they were gone in two and a half hours,” Trolf said. “I spent three and a half hours cutting and grinding patties\u00a0and they were gone in half that time.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

At less than six ounces, the cheeseburger ($10) is significantly smaller than the bistro burger at Lost & Found, although it\u2019s still got that fat beefy steakburger quality. Instead of Gruyere, it\u2019s layered with Cheddar cheese, which doesn\u2019t have the same funk. Hearty eaters may want to, gasp, order two. Because the freshly-ground meat is still very high quality, the\u00a0whole experience might leave you, too, wanting more.<\/p>\n

Lil\u2019 Al\u2019s, 874-B W. Beech St., Long Beach. Open 5 p.m. until sellout Thursday through Sunday.<\/p>\n

\"Andi<\/p>\n

\n\tAndi Berlin is from Arizona and does not know where she is going. But when she gets there, she\u2019ll find something beautiful and delicious that the world needs to taste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It could be a scene from a movie: A charismatic chef ditches his gourmet bistro and starts cooking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[44976,44977,131,133,132,412],"class_list":["post-78109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-feedme","tag-fmopen","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78109","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=78109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}