{"id":90131,"date":"2026-10-06T15:23:46","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T22:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/?p=90131"},"modified":"2026-10-06T18:06:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:06:36","slug":"wrigley-long-beach-pbs-pub-craft-beer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/eat-see-do-2\/eat\/wrigley-long-beach-pbs-pub-craft-beer","title":{"rendered":"A rejuvenated Wrigley bar is all about good beer and good neighbors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include the names of long-time bartender Letty Johnson and co-owner Kartik Balasubramanium.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christine Cabrera and her husband Eric Dennis never planned on owning a bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brewing beer was just a hobby for Dennis, but his beer was good enough that friends started suggesting he open his own bar. So when the opportunity to look at PBS Pub<\/a> \u2014 which had been on the market for several months \u2014 arose during the pandemic, they took it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were nosy people stuck at home,\u201d Cabrera said. Cabrera and Dennis have been living in the Wrigley neighborhood since 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the bar was not in great shape and \u201csmelled really weird,\u201d on the day they went to check it out, Cabrera said they saw something special in the place. The back patio was a particularly strong selling point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe saw a place that we could turn into something for our neighborhood,\u201d Cabrera said. In 2021, the couple, along with their long time friend Kartik Balasubramaniam, purchased PBS Pub and spent the better part of the year rebuilding it with the help of their family and friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The back patio at PBS Pub is the place caught the eye of owners Christine Cabrera and her husband Eric Dennis. They’ve turned it into a dog-friendly space in Long Beach on Monday, October 5, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charlie Thompson, a Wrigley resident who has been a regular at PBS Pub since Cabrera and Dennis reopened it in 2022, said the bar is the kind of place he wanted to see in the Wrigley neighborhood for a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI’m not much of a wisher or a prayer, but I remember thinking like, \u2018I want to just walk to a place where it’s a neighborhood place.\u2019 So I used to wish for it,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PBS Pub & Co. has a long history dating back to 1950, though there isn\u2019t a clear picture of what the full history looks like. It\u2019s had several names over the years, including the Dew Point Inn and Ryan\u2019s Roost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name PBS Pub comes from Paul, Beth and Skippy who owned the place in the \u201980s. Skippy was a dog who would often jump up on the bar and steal customers\u2019 beers if they left them unattended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The original iteration of PBS Pub served mostly Navy men. According to Cabrera, Paul and Beth had two colored chickens, one red and one blue, and patrons would bet on where the chickens would poop on a grid of numbered squares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The yellow entrance door of the PBS Pub in the Wrigley neighborhood of Long Beach on Monday, October 5, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At one point, the bar gained a reputation for being a very rowdy place where people could do whatever they wanted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur first year was awful,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cPeople were still grappling with [the fact that] this is not the same bar.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To undo that old reputation, Cabrera and Dennis incorporated more themed events at PBS Pub. Their most recent have included an ’80s prom night<\/a>, a Wrigley pub crawl and a fundraiser to support female veterans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letty Johnson has been a long-time bartender at PBS Pub \u2014 before Cabrera, Dennis and Balasubramaniam took over. Cabrera said they eventually rehired Johnson and made her a part-owner of the pub.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe has been critical to the pub\u2019s success,\u201d Cabrera said in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve also worked to expand the beer selection. PBS Pub has one of the largest curated beer collections in the city with roughly 70 beers available at a given time, including 27 on tap. Several of those beers are kept in stock because different regulars love them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Cabrera and Dennis know their regulars: they always have Miller Lite for Sunny, Miller High Life for Thompson, and the kiwi strawberry Jiant Hard Tea for Jose. Another regular, Dr. Bob, loves the Beachwood Hayabusa so much that other PBS Pub customers know it as \u201cthe Dr. Bob beer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Bob also has a special chair and beer koozie with his name on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A chair at PBS Pub is set aside for “Dr. Bob,” a regular at the Long Beach establishment, on Monday, October 5, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One year, for Thompson\u2019s birthday, customers and staff came into the pub dressed as him, copying his signature navy blue vest and hat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy cousin Danny says I\u2019m the mascot [of PBS Pub], but I think Bob is the mascot,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabrera said some customers have even bought a house nearby because they appreciated the camaraderie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love the community that we have collectively built,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cThat is why we are here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PBS Pub & Co., 464 W Willow St., is open Monday through Wednesday from 2 p.m. to midnight, Thursday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., and Sundays from 11 a.m. to midnight.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After taking over in 2021, owners Christine Cabrera, Eric Dennis and Kartik Balasubramanium have made the 76-year-old PBS Pub feel new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29035,"featured_media":90141,"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":"After taking over in 2021, owners Christine Cabrera, Eric Dennis and Kartik Balasubramanium have made the 76-year-old PBS Pub feel new.","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-90131","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\/90131","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\/29035"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90131"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90166,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90131\/revisions\/90166"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90131"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=90131"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=90131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}