By snoadmin
Long Beach residents participated in the city’s first ever “Foodcrawl” Tuesday night, visiting four different mystery restaurants and tasting specially prepared samples of cuisine from each place.
Dishcrawl began in San Jose, Calif. and is now traveling to other cities to spread the unique experience of dining at four restaurants that define each city in just one night.
The group was given its first location through email about a day before the event. The first restaurant and the starting location for the Dishcrawl was Alegria Cocina Latina, a Latin American restaurant on Pine Avenue where guests were served tapas. The meal was a trio of appetizers that included a Latin-style bruschetta, and braised pork and chicken served with a mole sauce.
The food and the atmosphere were great, providing a very comfortable setting for the group of approximately 25 people become friends.
The next stop on the mystery restaurant tour was Beachwood BBQ, a local brewery. The restaurant served a platter that included its famous pulled pork, a pulled chicken slider and a fried green tomato topped with pickled shrimp. The pork and chicken were perfectly tender and went well with the house-brewed beers.
The group then moved on to Congregation Ale House, a church-themed bar and grill that was inspired by the breweries location in Trappist monastery in France. Rather than religion, Congregation worships beer, and their extensive beer list made it easy to find something that went well with the flatbread pizza and rib-eye burger they served.
The final stop on the tour was George’s Greek Cafe. Many people in the group were full at this point, but it was hard to pass up the gyro meat and pita bread that were served.
In the end, Long Beach’s first Dishcrawl was a success. It is a fun experience to meet new people while trying new things. However, it is unfortunate that the participating restaurants were somewhat well-known in the area. George’s Greek Cafe, Congregation Ale House and Beachwood BBQ all have other locations outside Long Beach.
If this event is done again, it would be better to focus on places that are not as well known and are more specific to this city. This way, it is less likely that people will be visiting places where they have eaten before and will be able to add a few new restaurants to their repertoire.
Dishcrawl tickets can be purchased at Dishcrawl.com. There will be a Dishcrawl in Hollywood soon, and it will return to Long Beach again in the near future. Tickets are about $45 per person, which includes meals at all four places.
