{"id":1799,"date":"2016-08-09T01:17:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T01:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/food\/great-society-mead-cider-house\/"},"modified":"2016-08-09T01:17:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T01:17:00","slug":"great-society-mead-cider-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/great-society-mead-cider-house","title":{"rendered":"Great Society Opens to a Full House as SoCal’s First All-Cider and Mead Pub in Long Beach"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

Photos by Asia Morris.<\/em><\/p>\n

The morning after Great Society Cider & Mead\u2019s soft opening last week on Thursday evening, Bixby Knolls resident and co-owner Otto Radtke told the\u00a0Long Beach Post<\/em>\u00a0he was struck by the huge turnout, which resulted in a line out the door, trailing around the soon-to-be-finished patio space, and a few more things added to his to do list, including hiring more people, purchasing more equipment and ordering more glasses.\u00a0Certainly not a bad way to open as Southern California\u2019s first all-cider pub in downtown Long Beach.<\/p>\n

Radtke, who co-owns the new establishment with his wife Brenda, used to run the Alpine Village in Torrance, known for its Oktoberfest, where he organized festivals and stumbled upon cider as he selected the brews for those events. At the same time he started ordering ciders, he had developed an allergy to hops and was seeking an alternative. Cider quickly became the aficionado\u2019s new obsession.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a huge range of flavors; it\u2019s crisp and refreshing so it doesn\u2019t leave you generally feeling poorly like sometimes a beer can,\u201d Radtke said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m one of those guys that likes to explore new things, so this was like a whole new world opened up. I felt like I\u2019d seen it all in the beer and I wasn\u2019t ready for another IPA or stout\u2014I was ready for cider.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

Radtke, who makes small batches of cider and mead at home, believes that Los Angeles hasn’t been exposed to a lot of good cider, yet. Much like how the craft beer scene began, he says cider is in a nascent stage here, and it’s only a matter of time before the fruit-based beverage blows up. The couple are pushing a movement toward the growing popularity of both cider and mead with Brenda\u2019s propaganda-esque murals located within, urging the curious drinker to join in.<\/p>\n

Radkte brought in multiple taps from what he says are the two Los Angeles-based cider makers, 101 Cider House and Honest Abe Cidery, noting the tart and dry Grand Opening Gose specially made by 101 for the occasion. He hopes these two cideries are just the beginning of a local cider scene with at least a few more options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys need to be represented and hopefully more guys pop up and I\u2019ll give \u2018em taps, too,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope eventually there will be enough that I won\u2019t even have enough taps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

Aside from the local cideries, Radkte says he\u2019s especially excited about Shacksbury Cider\u2019s Arlo and Wandering Aengus\u2019 Oaked Dry, two houses on tap that he says make cider \u201creal true to fashion,\u201d meaning with heirloom apples\u2014a very bitter fruit ripe with tannins in its skin. They\u2019re not too pleasant to bite right into\u2014Radkte says they\u2019re often called \u201cspitters\u201d\u2014but they can make a heck of a beverage once fermented.<\/p>\n

Great Society Cider & Mead\u2019s 20 taps also boast a surprising variety of meads, as in, if you think the historical honey-based beverage is supposed to be as thick as it is old, you have yet to tap into its more recent developments. The new business owner has brought to Long Beach something new and exciting that requires more than a few visits to really gain a decent understanding.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately we\u2019ve been inundated by mass market stuff that really just has the one flavor profile, which is sweet, and the range out there is so dramatic,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople are playing with all kinds of different flavors. And so that\u2019s probably the biggest thing when people come in and they don’t know much about it, that\u2019s probably the biggest thing they\u2019ll be shocked by and that\u2019ll probably bring them back. Because like me, they know that there\u2019s this world they can explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a frequenter of Padre or Vons, or generally the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Broadway, you may have noticed the change in signage, where \u201cIndependent Cider House\u201d used to be visible, \u201cGreat Society Cider & Mead\u201d has taken its place. A delay in opening gave the team some extra time to really think about the name of the establishment, as well a glance into the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependent was something that we kind of settled on, and we thought it was alright, but it wasn\u2019t evocative to me,\u201d Radtke said. \u201cAnd eventually we want to start producing our own ciders and meads, and there might be a couple trademark issues with other existing breweries throughout the country. So nobody\u2019s got the name and we picked it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Radtke says part of Great Society\u2019s job is to help educate people about the cider world. In an effort to do just that, the house will host events like its most recent shindig last Saturday, which also happened to be National Mead Day. For the occasion, Radtke had one of the only mead-makers he knows in Los Angeles visit the joint to speak on the honey-based beverage and go over a few special pours. You can expect not just a solid lineup of ciders and meads on tap, but upcoming dinners and meet-and-greets with the cider makers where patrons can learn more.<\/p>\n

\"DSC<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve seen every geek about cider [here] already, there\u2019s about ten of them,\u201d Radtke joked about the successful soft opening.<\/p>\n

Before your cider and mead tasting session leaves you spinning, Great Society also has a stellar menu created by chef Rusty Kossler, who inspired Radtke to open more than just the originally planned sausage and cider house. Radkte, whose main focus is the cider, still spoke proudly of Great Society\u2019s team-developed menu, composed of a classic Cider House Burger, with bacon-onion jam served on a pretzel bun, to both vegan and gluten-free options like the Roasted Ponzu Brussel Sprouts and Maple Smoked Cheddar Mac & Cheese, and so much more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that in the future I can integrate the front of the house into the menu suggestions and we can constantly keep evolving and changing and turning people onto what we\u2019re doing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For more information about Great Society Mead & Cider visit the Facebook page here<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n

Great Society Mead & Cider is located at 601 East Broadway.<\/em><\/p>\n

{FG_GEOMAP [33.7694913,-118.18479739999998] FG_GEOMAP}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The morning after Great Society Cider & Mead\u2019s soft opening last week on Thursday evening, Bixby Knolls resident and co-owner Otto Radtke told the\u00a0Long Beach Post<\/em>\u00a0he was struck by the huge turnout, which resulted in a line out the door, trailing around the soon-to-be-finished patio space, and a few more things added to his to do list, including hiring more people, purchasing more equipment and ordering more glasses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":67179,"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":[908],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-great-society","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799","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=1799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1799"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}