12:00pm | 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 Interior Design Store: Iguana Imports
There is a strange comfort to Iguana. Perhaps it is the eccentric eclecticism. Or maybe the sheer size of the place.
Or even better: perhaps it just reeks of Long Beach. It doesn’t conform to any particular style or era. It lacks cohesiveness that makes it a place where everyone can find something for their home – despite whether they are aiming for BoHo or Bauhaus, frat house or formal 60s dining room. It lacks pretentiousness even more than it does cohesiveness. It’s… It’s just home.
Tom Reed and Jorge Valdez, partners in both business and life, have been running their interior design store since 1993. In other terms, long before Broadway became the comfortable row of cafes, neighborhood bars, and local food-eries. They’ve seen this city go through a lot and yet, they manage to keep on.
“I’ve seen a lot a change from this corner [Loma and Broadway],” Tom said, staring out the window. “I’ve noticed that the more comfortable folks stay that way and no one new is coming in. The younger crowd working here and getting educated here – the ones actually making a difference – are finding it harder and harder to stay.”
His melancholy should not be misdirected. He smiled, put his hand on my shoulder, and didn’t say a word because nothing needed to be said: he knew the same thing was repeated when he opened up shop almost twenty years previously. He has faith in Long Beach, even in the roughest of patches. And so do we.
Iguana, 3440 East Broadway, (562) 433-1713
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