The Bamboo Club, a popular tiki bar in Long Beach’s Zaferia neighborhood, is changing hands, with the deal scheduled to close as early as next month.
The bar on Anahiem Street, just east of Redondo Avenue, has been a staple in the local food scene since it opened in March 2019. Carefully crafted, unique tiki drinks and a full food menu quickly endeared it to locals. It has an ever-evolving menu with “about 45 drinks” at any given time, owner Jim Ritson said.
But Ritson, who also owned the popular bar 4th Street Vine until he sold it in 2021, recently decided he wanted to spend more time with his family. So, he started looking for a buyer.
“It’s a great business, but it’s a busy place, and it’s a grind,” Ritson said in a phone interview.
The buyer is another Long Beach local with a wealth of knowledge in the hospitality industry: Kevin Larsen. Until recently, Larsen worked for Republic National Distributing Company, one of the biggest wholesale alcohol distributors in the country.
When the company left California for Texas, Larsen decided to leave his job as vice president of restaurant sales and look to purchase a local restaurant or bar.
After 19 years on the corporate side of wine and spirits distribution, Larsen was looking to spend more time in Long Beach and less time “on airplanes and in hotels,” he said.
He was the first person Ritson approached about selling The Bamboo Club, and the deal was soon struck over a beer.
“Luckily for me, I don’t have to come in and, you know, do a whole new reset,” Larsen said. “I don’t plan on changing a thing.”
The purchase price was $950,000, according to a legal notice.
In a phone interview, Larsen said he wants The Bamboo Club “to be exactly the same,” under his ownership.
The bar has filled a special place in the market since pioneering tiki bar Don the Beachcomber closed.
With decor by renowned tiki designer Ben “Bamboo Ben” Bassham and distinctive dishes like its fried chicken sandwich, brined in Thai tea and served with coconut chili slaw, The Bamboo Club quickly earned a stellar reputation.
It survived the pandemic because of its ability to pivot to serving food and drinks to-go, Ritson said. These days, patrons can once again drink at the horseshoe-shaped bar designed by Bassham.
Currently, The Bamboo Club is redecorated as The Tinsel Club, complete with 10 holiday-themed drinks and “6,000 tons of tinsel,” Ritson said. It’s a holiday tradition that started years ago and has continued each December with drinks like the “Rum Pum Pum Pum,” “Snow Place Like Home” and “The Griswald.”
Larsen said he wants to continue those traditions, but he was also drawn to the tiki bar concept because of its flexibility.
“Tiki can be rock and roll, it can be a little bit of hip hop, it can be family-oriented, it can be rockabilly, it can be a little bit of everything,” he said.
Ritson knows that selling a business comes with inherent tension. He said he wanted to leave The Bamboo Club in the hands of someone who wouldn’t betray his loyal customers.
“They’re part of the whole heartbeat of the business, and it’s always been a major consideration before I’d sell a business that the community didn’t get their place stolen from them,” Ritson said.