{"id":1092,"date":"2017-11-17T01:52:08","date_gmt":"2017-11-17T01:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/food\/long-beach-s-first-distillery-to-land-in-downtown-in-2018\/"},"modified":"2017-11-17T01:52:08","modified_gmt":"2017-11-17T01:52:08","slug":"long-beach-s-first-distillery-to-land-in-downtown-in-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/long-beach-s-first-distillery-to-land-in-downtown-in-2018","title":{"rendered":"Portuguese Bend, Long Beach\u2019s First Distillery to Land in Downtown in 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Photos by Asia Morris. The interior of Portuguese Bend Distilling at 300 The Promenade North shown during an unveiling Wednesday night.<\/em><\/p>\n

Luis and Brenda Navarro, owners of popular Long Beach eateries Lola\u2019s Mexican Cuisine and The Social List, have recently announced that they\u2019ve taken on a third local endeavor, to open the city\u2019s very first distillery in downtown, called Portuguese Bend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re treading into uncharted territory,\u201d Luis Navarro told the Post<\/em>. \u201cWith the experience that we have and knowing Long Beach and our customers and the community, we felt that it was the right time to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple didn\u2019t have to search far for a name; the Portuguese Bend area of Palos Verdes was central to rum-running activity during Prohibition. Now frequented by hikers as the Portuguese Bend Reserve, smugglers would use the area\u2019s caves and crevasses to store all kinds of spirits brought from Mexico, Canada and even New York.<\/p>\n

The name itself derives from an Azorean shore whaler, Jos\u00e9 Machado, who brought the hunting practice to the coastline bend following the closure of the San Pedro Bay whaling station on Deadman\u2019s Island around the 1860s, according to the Navarros\u2019 research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to identify with Long Beach and Long Beach does have a history of alcohol, so we have some heritage,\u201d said Simon Haxton, a friend of the Navarros, now a Portuguese Bend investor and \u201crocket scientist\u201d distiller with a background in engineering. \u201cPlus I\u2019m one-eighth Portuguese, part of my family came here from Madeira, so it has a nice tie-in to our identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

As far as what will be distilled, Haxton said the program will start off with white spirits, including a couple of gins, then varying types of rum and American sour ryes and they\u2019ll start putting the whiskey into barrels as soon as they can. Plans also include showcasing other little-known California distilleries.<\/p>\n

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Simon Haxton and Luis Navarro.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have some things that basically reinvigorate some of the ways we used to make alcohol in this country before Prohibition,\u201d Haxton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing a lot of research, more or less for about three and a half years and everything we\u2019ve done when we\u2019ve gone to visit distilleries, [we\u2019ve found that] nobody does it right, they\u2019re always missing the food element,\u201d Navarro said.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s likely to no fault of their own. Up until 2006 only breweries and wineries were allowed to have a restaurant on the premise, said Haxton. And it wasn\u2019t until the Craft Distiller\u2019s Act (AB 1295) passed in 2015 that distillers could sell their product directly from their distillery. Now customers can purchase up to three bottles, and sip on tastings and cocktails onsite.<\/p>\n

On top of the range of spirits to be produced future distillery patrons can also expect a full bar, a restaurant dubbed Willmore Yards Eatery serving 1920s-inspired American fare, cocktail-making and spirit acumen classes, a whiskey club and more.<\/p>\n

The future design of the interior is sure to attract some attention on its own, as well. Michael Bohn, senior principal at Studio One Eleven, sister company to Retail Design Collaborative (RDC) whose massive 34,000-square-foot headquarters<\/a> is adjoined to what will be the distillery, said the plan is to create a glass wall between their lobby on 3rd Street and Portuguese Bend, so both distillery patrons and RDC clients can get a good look at what\u2019s going on while in either space.<\/p>\n

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RELATED<\/small> <\/p>\n

Newly Opened Creative Office Space in DTLB Makes Revitalization of Former City Place Center a Reality<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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\u201cSo the idea of office and retail become blurred, and that\u2019s really what\u2019s happening with the future of retail,\u201d Bohn said. It\u2019s also about ensuring that the North Promenade area be an activated space.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also a vision to create a members-only speakeasy out of RDC\u2019s second-story conference room, which Bohn says they call the Perch. Guests of Portuguese Bend will be able to enter through a mezzanine and walk through a secret door that connects both spaces, entering a room normally used for meetings during an RDC work day, to taste different spirits after dark as they look over its workplace.<\/p>\n

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An interior shot of what will be Portuguese Bend Distilling in 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s taken a village and over three years of research and development for the Portuguese Bend team to reach this point of unveiling their plans to the public, as well as potential investors, Navarro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like everybody\u2019s really hungry for something like this,\u201d Haxton said, referring to the support they\u2019ve received from the Downtown Long Beach Alliance, developer of The Streets Tony Shooshani of Shooshani Developers and other city leaders and organizations. \u201cWe\u2019ve been getting a lot of help and we appreciate it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And come January, Haxton and the Navarros are going to hit the ground running in a major effort to open the Portuguese Bend Tasting Room, Willmore Yards Eatery with Portuguese Bend Spirits in production to be sold onsite and through wholesale distribution by summer 2018.<\/p>\n

Portuguese Bend will be located at 300 The Promenade North.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Luis and Brenda Navarro, owners of Lola\u2019s Mexican Cuisine and The Social List, have recently announced that they\u2019ve taken on a third local endeavor, to open the city\u2019s very first distillery in downtown Long Beach, called Portuguese Bend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":66557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[603],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-craft-culture","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1092"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}