\u201cGiving [people] another opportunity to be here in a different context is really, really special,\u201d\u00a0 Erin Wilson, the director of development at Rancho Los Alamitos, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wilson and Development Assistant Merinelle Marchione opened The Little Adobe on June 21, but they started dreaming of a cafe at the rancho long before that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marchione has imagined opening some sort of restaurant at the rancho since she started working there nine years ago. When Executive Director Tim Roberts asked her to help brainstorm ideas to make better use of the catering kitchen last year, it was the perfect opportunity to bring her ideas to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In November, they started hosting monthly coffee pop-ups in partnership with The June Brew<\/a> to see if people would be interested in a cafe at the rancho. The positive response was overwhelming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust seeing the vision come to life, that’s been really fun,\u201d Marchione said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The story of Rancho Los Alamitos<\/a> begins with the Gabrielino-Tongva people. The sacred village of Puvunga, the site where the Tongva people say they were created, was located where Cal State Long Beach and Rancho Los Alamitos now sit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1790, Manuel Nieto received 300,000 acres of land from the Spanish Crown, though this was later reduced to 167,000 acres. He eventually divided the land into five sections and one of those sections became Rancho Los Alamitos. John William Bixby bought the land in 1878, and it was a working ranch until the family gave it to the city of Long Beach in 1968.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marchione, who is in charge of the menu, hopes to connect the food back to that history. She said in the future she would love to incorporate recipes from the Bixbys\u2019 ranch cook Lydia Shinkle and traditional Tongva foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current menu<\/a> features quiche, peanut butter or avocado toast, a breakfast sandwich on an English muffin, a turkey or ham sandwich, and an arugula salad. You can also grab pastries and coffee to go if you\u2019d rather stroll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wilson and Marchione know that the location at the rancho will draw customers in, but it\u2019s the food that will get them to come back. They are prioritizing quality, locally-sourced ingredients and are constantly trying to improve their product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe want to reflect the quality of not only our current standards as an organization, but the standards of the Bixbys and the other folks who lived here and called this place home,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cTheir standards were very high, which is why this place still stands today, hundreds of years later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wilson has loved seeing the role The Little Adobe has played thus far in furthering the mission of the rancho.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two women came into the cafe last Sunday and stayed at the rancho hours after they finished eating. They had their breakfast, then explored the rancho as they chatted. The women came back to the cafe for some coffee later, then walked around some more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Little Adobe exists for moments exactly like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Little Adobe is next to the museum store at Rancho Los Alamitos, 6400 E. Bixby Hill Road. The cafe is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of each month. <\/em>Reservations<\/em><\/a> are required before 1 p.m. You can learn more about visiting the Rancho <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’re looking for a serene morning, this might be it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":89326,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","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":[32365],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32346],"class_list":["post-89360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eat","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89360","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\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89360"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89360\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89366,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89360\/revisions\/89366"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89360"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=89360"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=89360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/08123656\/06-23-2026-rancho-52101-624024-xvunfoa9-978628-l1KESzvq-1024x739.jpg\")
What is the ranco?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/08123705\/06-23-2026-rancho-47701-833140-i3uuzxz8-474153-rlBW3Lyp-1024x689.jpg\")
The menu<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/10081705\/sand-wich-ranco-pxl-20260705-202851778-714106-m51mrv8q-386671-GOAFHLXM-1024x918.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/img.lbpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/07\/10081549\/los-al-pastries-pxl-20260705-210045958-523172-gs8hq96b-664379-k14Fwx94-1024x952.jpg\")