Tucked into a small neighborhood off the corner of Market Street and Dairy Avenue, Long Beach’s newest brunch restaurant, Dairy Market by Breezys, is serving up classic breakfast items like steak and eggs, breakfast skillets, pancakes, French toast, and breakfast sandwiches.
Dairy Market by Breezys had its grand opening on Friday, June 27, but the story of the small restaurant begins long before owner Bryan “Breezy” Torres started his business.
The original Dairy Market was a staple mom-and-pop shop in the neighborhood for a long time, selling various grocery items. Around 2016, the owners, Maria and David, turned half of the store into a Mexican restaurant, which remained open until they closed within the last year.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Torres said, adding that he wouldn’t have been able to do all the work they did himself.
After the original Dairy Market and Restaurant closed, the owners contacted Staged and Sold, the interior design business run by Torres’s fiancée, for help staging the building for sale. For Torres, this turned into a deal he couldn’t refuse.
Torres, who moved to Long Beach three years ago from the East Coast, went to school for marketing and always knew he wanted to own a restaurant. When the opportunity to open Dairy Market by Breezys came about, he decided to go for it, though he had originally wanted something on a bigger street.
“I think the more I started doing it, the more I fell in love with the design of it, and it was just like, ‘You know what? Let’s just give them something that they haven’t seen before,’” Torres said.
Torres kept the Dairy Market name to honor Maria and David’s hard work and celebrate the role the restaurant has played in the neighborhood for so long, but he added “by Breezys” to make the space his own. Torres has been known as Breezy since middle school, when his friends gave him the nickname for being the fastest on the track team.
When Torres took over, he completely revamped the space, taking it from a small market with a homey feel and hand-painted signs to a light blue barn-style exterior with an inflatable cow on top and a chic interior.
Signature dishes include Breezy’s Breakfast Burger (an eight ounce Wagyu burger with an egg, ham, cheese, truffle aioli and a side of fries) for $22, Steak & Eggs for $35, the Scratch Skillet (two eggs, a choice of grits, house potatoes or smothered hash, a choice of protein, and toppings) for $20, and Breezy’s Tacos (3 tacos with chorizo, scrambled eggs, pico de gallo, cheese and avocado aioli) for $15.
Torres invited Mayor Rex Richardson and Councilmember Tunua Thrash-Ntuk, who represents the 8th District, to celebrate the grand opening on June 27.
“From the moment I knew I was gonna open it, I knew I had to have them here, because that means a lot,” Torres said.
While starting Dairy Market by Breezys, Torres wanted to include the community as much as possible. All of his 22 employees are people who live within 5 to 10 minutes of the restaurant.
While Torres is proud of his business and his product, which he pointed out is never frozen, his favorite part of owning Dairy Market by Breezys is the people.
“I feel like a lot of these employees and the community as well, they’re all amazing humans. I think the local area, from what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, just hasn’t gotten the best reputation, but I’ve seen none of it,” Torres said. “I want to highlight that the people are amazing on the Northside.”
Dairy Market by Breezys, 5450 Dairy Ave., is open Tuesdays through Sundays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.