3:00pm | Editor’s Note: This is an expansion on our print coverage of the Best of Long Beach. Given our limited print space, we wanted to further share our experience at these amazing businesses via the many photos we took. We feel it not only allows the reader to better understand why each place was chosen, but provides the chance to spotlight local businesses visually. We will do one business every day until all 30 winners have been covered. Enjoy.
Best Bartender: Ashley O., The Sky Bar
And she presented – along with her utmost bemusement at her win – the Red Death.
This beautiful, blister-your-tongue concoction of Patrón Silver, crushed jalapeño, and Ashley Ochoa’s secret mix of fresh squeezed juices (all in-house), is the perfect cocktail for those who like a little heat (personally, Tapatio and lime make everything better in my world so this was right up my alley). Even before her win, I would frequent this rooftop bar just for this particular drink which to this day I cannot find an equivalent to.
Besides her exceedingly well-done amalgamations of alcohol, besides our bodies being perched at the top of the Breakers Building, even above the infamous Sky Room Restaurant, having the privilege of overlooking the entirety of downtown Long Beach lit up… Besides all these wonderfully intoxicating elements, Ashley – along with her fellow bartenders Alex Burger and Raymond Morquecho – exude a pure enjoyment for what they do that would make Dionysus smile in approval.
They smile, they laugh, they stand on the bar at midnight and – like a high-end version of the night you forget in TJ – pour free alcohol down anyone’s willing throat. They don’t get pestered, they don’t get frustrated, and as the night progresses, one realizes that the exceedingly positive energy they spew into the environment is supersedes the disorientation provided by the dazzling array of lights and lasers and urban beats via the DJ.
Our suggestion? Get there on the earlier end of your Friday and Saturday evening – perhaps 9 or 9:30, before the DJ sets up shop – to kick it back and get the party started before things actually start getting a little crazy.
Sky Bar at The Sky Room, 40 South Locust Avenue, (562) 983-2703.
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