While trying to land the chef de cuisine job at Sky Room, Long Beach resident Max Pfeiffer decided to take a culinary risk.
He knew his interviewers wanted beef Wellington on the menu at the lavish, fine-dining restaurant on the 13th floor of the renovated Fairmont Breakers Hotel in Downtown Long Beach.
With that in mind, Pfeiffer chose to make the dish for the first time in his 17-year culinary career.
“It was kind of high risk, high reward but I guess it paid off,” Pfeiffer said.
Following that tasting, Pfeiffer was handed the role at the iconic Long Beach restaurant that first opened in 1938 before shutting down for renovations in 2018. Locals who spent countless special occasions dining in the eatery overlooking the Queen Mary have been eagerly awaiting its return, and now it’s here — with a new menu curated by Pfeiffer.
Although not originally from Long Beach — he was born down the coast in Laguna Niguel — Pfeiffer has lived locally for over a decade.
Behind the scenes, he’s long helped shape the Long Beach culinary scene.
During the pandemic, Pfeiffer helped Chef Phillip Pretty launch Heritage – Long Beach’s first Michelin Star restaurant.
After Pretty got the lease for the building, Pfeiffer said he helped paint the ceilings, prep sandwiches when the eatery was lunch only and launch the dinner menu.
Pfeiffer also worked as a line cook at Roe under local chef Arthur Gonzalez, who died of a heart attack in 2022. Pfeiffer learned “a lot about how to handle seafood” under Gonzalez’s leadership, he said.
Sky Room’s menu, developed by Pfeiffer and Executive Chef Jared Reeves, features numerous fine-dining seafood dishes. You can order a whole roasted John Dory to share for $105 or a butter-poached Maine Lobster for $58.
If you’re looking for an appetizer, Pfeiffer recommends the Dungeness crab cake — served with smoked trout roe and caviar butter — or the Hiramasa Kingfish crudo served with hearts of palm, pickled pear and saffron vinaigrette.
Pfeiffer said the California wagyu beef Wellington still “takes up most of my mental space,” but his kitchen now turns them out exactly 45 minutes after ordered.
The dish, offered at $165 with your choice of side, takes two days from prep to finish.
To begin prepping for the restaurant’s 5 p.m. opening, Pfeiffer gets to the hotel around 10 a.m. each morning.
His first stop is at the hotel’s downstairs restaurant Nettuno where he gets dough for the bread baked daily. He then begins working on big project dishes like butchering and making the sauces and stocks.
Pfeiffer first got his interest in cooking from a friend’s mom in high school. He said his parents didn’t have much time to cook at home since they were running a small business, but he took an interest in how his friend’s mom made sauces from scratch.
That curiosity stuck with him when choosing a career path.
In 2008, he moved near Cal State Long Beach to attend the university as a community college transfer. He graduated two years later and then spent four years in Cincinnati working at a rustic Italian restaurant named Sotto.
He returned to Long Beach in 2014 and has been living in the same house near Rose Park for the past eight years. He met his fiancée while working at the former James Republic restaurant on the corner of First Street and Linden Avenue.
After five years at Knife Pleat, a Michelin Star restaurant in Costa Mesa, Pfeiffer said he had “been waiting to come back to Long Beach.”
As with many Long Beach residents, he was eagerly tracking Sky Room’s renovation.
“I think the Long Beach dining community has been looking for something that’s not afraid to be a little bit more high-end, a little bit more fine dining,” Pfeiffer said. “I really think [Sky Room] is one of the best dining rooms in L.A. County right now.”
Although Pfeiffer doesn’t often interact directly with customers, he’s well aware of the Sky Room’s legacy and the memories attached to it.
“So many people have a history here,” Pfeiffer said. “It’s very cool to be a part of it.”
Sky Room, 210 E Ocean Blvd., is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Reservations are booked through February, but there is open seating at the bar.