For 23 years Rock Bottom Brewery held down one of the Long Beach\u2019s hottest locations\u2014the northwest corner of Ocean Boulevard and Pine Avenue, the foot of the city\u2019s mercantile main street and perched to grab the attention of conventioneers and tourists as well as the faithful clientele of local business people.<\/p>\n
When Rock Bottom closed<\/a> in May 2020 because of COVID-19, it was the first major restaurant to shutter because of the coronavirus and it was a clear signal that the pandemic was going to have a significant impact on the physical and financial health of the city.<\/p>\n The restaurant\u2019s vacancy ever since its closure has been a dark spot at Pine and Ocean, serving as a reminder of the darkest days of the virus.<\/p>\n Now, signaling, perhaps, a brighter future for the abandoned space, comes the announcement that the Mexican restaurant chain, Xperience Restaurant Group, will reactivate <\/a>the 9,500-square-foot space with the opening of the adventurous, Baja-themed Solita Tacos & Margaritas<\/a> in the spring of next year.<\/p>\n Xperience owns many of the Mexican restaurants you\u2019ve heard of, outside of the beloved so-called holes-in-the-wall that serve faithfully traditional Mexican fare to devotees of the real thing.<\/p>\n Among the Cypress-based company\u2019s holdings are El Torito, Acapulco, Laguna Beach\u2019s stunning Las Brisas and a half-dozen others.<\/p>\n Xperience CEO and president Randy Sharpe is enthusiastic about snaring the Rock Bottom site. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more lucky to be able to pick up that corner,\u201d he said. \u201cThe ownership (at the Landmark Square building) interviewed us. They didn\u2019t want a ho-hum restaurant moving in. They wanted something unique and exciting, which Solita definitely is. We showed them that Solita would appeal not only to locals, but also tourists and conventions.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharpe wanted a location in Long Beach, he said, because \u201cLong Beach is exploding right now with great restaurants. It\u2019s exciting to see how much the city has changed with the high-rises going up and the conventions coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n If Solita\u2019s offerings aren\u2019t hole-in-the-wall offerings, they are certainly adventurous and unique.<\/p>\n