Do you dread turning on the oven in the summer heat? Then don’t! Let us serve you dinner this summer beginning July 30th! We’ll be open from 7am-3pm everyday AND 5pm - 9pm Monday-Friday through September.
We are so pleased to have been voted best brunch and breakfast by Long Beach Home and Living.com.
They had close to 500 nominees, 88 different categories and 86,207 votes!
Here are all your Best of Long Beach 2017 Winners!
Currently, the art hanging at the Black Bird Cafe is a small representation of the 2017 LB Open Studio Tour. The LBOST is an annual event, sponsored by the Arts Council for Long Beach and is part of Long Beach's celebration of "October is Arts Month."
This is a free event to the public and an opportunity to meet local artists in their working environments. This year, the tour will be on Saturday and Sunday, October 14th & 15th, from noon to 5 p.m. Please visit the website, www.LBopenstudiotour.com for a full artist list, samples of artists' work, live music schedule, and tour map.
Artists participating in the Blackbird LBOST show are:
Lisa Wibroe, Studio #1
Tina Burnight, Studio #1
David Early, Studio #3
Tani Taylor, Studio #5
Nora Chen, Studio #7
Jaime Sabatte, Studio #10
Jamie Sandberg, Studio #12
Susan Erikson Hawkins, Studio #13
Akinsanya Kambon, Studio #14
Dustin Gimbel, Studio #15
Barbara Hass & Matt Evans, Studio #15
Robyn Feeley, Studio #18
Mary Grace, Studio #19
Nita Ward, Studio #20
Kathryn Heaton, Studio #20
Aia White-Podue, Studio #21
Marka Burns, Studio #22
Dennis Simmons, Studio #23
Dorte Christjansen, Studio #24
Moira Hahn, Studio #24
Jennifer Warren, Studio #25
Kirsten Anderson, Studio #27
John White, Studio #29
Steve Marr, Studio #31
Ron Yeo, Studio #31
Ramon Rodriguez, Studio #32
Debbie Rodriguez, Studio #32
Cody Lusby, Studio #34
Annie Clavell, Studio #36
Maureen Vastardis, Studio #36
Vivian Wenhuey Chen, Studio #37
Happy New Year! Here are our current specials!
We love to support local artists and you'll notice that our artwork changes. Currently we are featuring the work of Verónica Blohm:
I find each blank canvas to be an invitation to palpable infiniteness. How can I refuse? In painting I find a quiet, joyful place for my thoughts to become shapes and light. My intent is to transform feelings into lines and passion into color, and best offer beauty, fullness and pause for the viewer. I portray in pictures the subtle intensity which I believe is life: a fix of sensations, a breath of feelings: for my enjoyment and for those willing to come along.
Oil has proven to be the best media with which to represent what I appreciate: it is as rude and as soft as one wants it to be, which is really what I think all experience on this earth is about.
Verónica Blohm - Bio:
Venezuelan born of german descent, Verónica grew up between Caracas and the venezuelan state Guárico, and from early age was taught to connect with nature. This connection would later prove to be Blohm's best teacher and inspiration. Graduated from the Caracas' Design Institute, Verónica broadens her carrier and courses one year at la Escola Massana in Spain, while exploring Catalunya's Costa Brava and the south of France, mountain climbing almost every rock between the two countries. Verónica starts participating in street bazaars, live painting in the Barceloneta and finds a warm welcome for her art. Later moving to Berlin, she would indulge in the city's art movement and life style. Getting involved in social activities in squats turns out to be very fulfilling .
Blohm continues to draw in public spaces like bars and flee markets and sells on the spot, daydreaming of leaving her office job. For two years Poland becomes a refuge from the ''big bad city'' and Swieradów Zdrój, a small polish town, her quiet spot where to retreat. Contrast has kept her going and in 2012 establishes in Panamá and creates her workshop 'Atelier Escarlata' in a small town called Pedasí on the Pacific Coast, from where she works now.
In Pedasí Verónica also enjoys volunteering every Friday at a local NGO called the Azuero Earth Project offering activities to local kids, teaching them about connection to nature and self, through art and creative means.
With Springtime already upon us, here at Blackbird we’d like to take a moment to encourage all of our friends to focus their attention on wellness and community. There are plenty of important local groups that concentrate on getting/staying active, whether you’re walking, running, our even going on a scavenger hunt.
Bixby Knolls Strollers
Bixby Knolls Runners
The Cal Heights Pavement Pounders
Bixby Knolls Scavenger Hunt
New Year’s Resolutions are promises we make to ourselves, why do so many of us resolve to do something we don’t really want to do? We pick life changes we’ve been avoiding – like losing weight – discounting the enjoyment of a loaded pizza or decadent dessert shared with friends. This year, make resolutions you’ll enjoy keeping, and revisit them often. Resolutions are all about improving – even the resolutions themselves.
1. Resolve To Give. A study from Harvard Business School documented that helping others financially brought donors greater happiness than if they’d spent the money on themselves. If you can’t give financial gifts, give time. If you don’t know who to help, try VolunteerMatch.org or GreatNonprofits.org, and type in Long Beach, CA. You’ll find everything from Algalita Marine Research and Education to Special Olympics Southern California or the Red Cross.
2. Resolve To Share. Buried beneath hectic schedules, we think we’ll spend time with friends or family when we have a chance, but chances never materialize. A study from Brigham Young University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that differences in longevity between people with strong social ties and those without equated to health differentiations between nonsmokers and smokers. Set time aside for outings, visits and conversations.
3. Resolve To Educate. Education is the foremost determinant of health, longevity and happiness, according to a National Bureau of Economic Research paper. That education doesn’t have to be formal, however, or one way. Learning or teaching
anything new counts as long as you’re fully engaged. Resolve to take that first class to earn your MBA. Learn to file your own taxes in February. Read the latest historical biography, or help someone else study. It all counts.
4. Resolve To Wait. Despite a world feeding on split-second decisions, resolve to wait before acting. In “Wait: The Art and Science of Delay,” Frank Partnoy – professor of finance and law and co-director of the Center for Corporate and Securities Law at the University of San Diego – advocates assessing real versus seeming deadlines. Delayed decisions are often wiser choices that we’ll feel better making. Resolve to give yourself 5 minutes before hitting Send, and one day, you just might want to thank him yourself.
5. Resolve To Persevere. Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill advised, “Never, never, never give up.” He also said, “Never give up on something that you can't go a day without thinking about.” Too often, we’re defeated when a first attempt fails. Statisticians write formulaic tomes on the likelihood of first-try success, with a drastically simplified equation expressed as E = p+(1−p)(E+1) = 1+E(1−p). Put far more simply, resolve to try again – and another time after that. Repeat as needed.
Happy New Year!
Here are some reference links!
http://greatnonprofits.org/city/long-beach/CA
We are Open New Year's Day!
But we are sleeping in til 9:00am.
Open 9:00 am to 3:00pm
Every year the Long Beach Post compiles a list of Best things in Long Beach; from brunch to whiskey to hand-crafted gifts.
This year the BlackBird was selected as a best brunch spot! This is very exciting and we would love you to vote for us - www.lbpost.com.
This year's list includes many other Cal Heights/Uptown businesses which is another cause for celebration. Those businesses include Steelhead Coffee, Roxanne's Bar, EJ Malloy's, The Bake N Broil and Long Beach Creamery to name a few.
Get out there and vote!
Happy Holidays from all of us at Blackbird Cafe! We would like to extend a warm invitation to you, your family, and your friends to come down and enjoy a warm delicious breakfast or lunch with us this Winter season. We are even open for our usual hours on Christmas Eve. And in keeping with the Christmas spirit, we’ll be giving away free cookies all day. We will be closed on Christmas Day so we can spend time with our families.
This cold holiday season, it’s important to focus on the people who mean the most to you. We encourage you to spend time together over a quick meal, a cup of coffee, or a glass of holiday spirits; perhaps a mimosa or bloody mary, in the midst of all the holiday bustle will surely warm your heart. Also, we have gift certificates for sale, in case you’re still searching for the perfect stocking stuffer.
Everyone here at Blackbird Cafe wishes you a happy holiday season and looks forward to celebrating with you.
For the past month or so, members of the Blackbird family have been spending their Friday evenings together at the Victory Zone Gym in Signal Hill. In light of this blossoming tradition, we’d like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of team building and maintaining healthy and mutually beneficial relationships within a work environment.
Becoming friends with your coworkers is an important step and will not only make work more enjoyable, but will also boost the work performances of both you and your peers. When building a strong team, whether you’re a jazz musician, a professional athlete, or a member of a restaurant staff, participating in activities outside of work with your teammates and establishing common interests will enhance the process; the strongest work relationships exist consequent of coworkers knowing and caring for one another.
Here at Blackbird, we believe in living happy, healthy lives; so in that spirit, Debbie, owner of the Blackbird, decided that an end-of-the-week trip to the gym would be a great place for the team to take a load off (in a positive way). There are also rumors of bowling nights in the near future! So go ahead, take the important step of becoming closer with your coworkers, it will improve your work relationships, productivity, and who knows what else? It might even earn you a new friend for life. Stay happy and stay healthy!
"Brunch is cheerful, sociable and inciting [...] It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.”
Who said this? A man who deserves, at the very least, one collective raise of our Bloody Marys and Mimosas for a toast: Guy Beringer, the inventor of brunch. It was 1895 when Beringer, an English writer, published his article, “Brunch: A Plea,” as a response to the daunting, Sunday morning expectations that weighed on the “Saturday-night carouser.” He contended that “brunch” should consist of ''everything good [and] plenty of it, variety and selection,” which might’ve even included a hair-of-the-dog cocktail.
Looking out for our friends who've had a little too much fun on Saturday night is important to us. However, here at Blackbird Cafe, we do our best to employ the same fundamental benefits of Beringer’s “brunch” to all of our meals, no matter the time or day of the week. We’re here to serve the early bird, the weekend warrior, the health nut, we even have a dog-friendly patio for our animal lovers. At Blackbird Cafe, we consider all of our customers as being part of an ever-growing, food-loving family and we pride ourselves on offering a large variety of “everything good,” from our menu, to the local artwork on the walls, to our conviviality. Please join us for the good times ahead!
Source: William Grimes, "At Brunch, The More Bizarre The Better" New York Times, 1998
yummy!
You know Monday, Sept 7th is a Labor Day. We are open so swing by and say hello.
KTLA's Burrous Bites dropped by for a visit last year. We love how he immediately picked up on our local vibe and the Peanut Buttah Hunny's were a hit.
Today I had the pleasure of speaking with Debbie Rossetti-Colacion, the founder and owner of Blackbird Cafe, about a successful four years of being in business, some of her more creative dishes, and the benefits of being located in Historic California Heights.
Debbie grew up in Torrance and worked at the local Coco’s for nine years with her close friend Lydia, who is currently a server at Blackbird. Annette, also a Blackbird server, was once employed by Coco's as well; she was a trainer/coordinator. The three of them are humming a different tune today, with a blossoming business in an up-and-coming neighborhood that takes kindly to all things local. Debbie is modest and personable, not accepting my congratulations on the achievement without first mentioning her team, “Making a small business successful is a group effort; I owe a huge thank you to my staff for their dedication and support.”
She even admits that she isn’t much of chef, though she unquestionably has vision when it comes to food and beverages. Between the delicious “Mexiterranean,” two poached eggs sitting atop bacon, sliced tomato, and grilled English muffins, finished with diced jalapeño, basil feta cheese, and hollandaise sauce, and their very fun “Tropical Toast,” six halves of honey wheat bread dipped into a cinnamon coconut mixture, grilled with shredded coconut, and topped with seasonal fresh fruit and walnuts, I’m not certain that I could order a dish at Blackbird that doesn’t look like a work of art.
We touched on how Blackbird’s location has effected the business thus far. Debbie noted that, “Cal Heights is very up-and-coming and has been incredibly receptive to small, local businesses. The people here are diverse, friendly and community-minded.” She continued by emphasizing the importance of community and how it can help people achieve security and success.
I congratulated Debbie once more before our call ended and she, of course, stated again how grateful she is for the cafe’s reception among the local residents and how she couldn’t have done it alone. I could hear the bustle of the restaurant over the line, the hot griddle, the kitchen chatter, it was the sound of a thriving small business. Debbie asked me to extend an invitation to anyone who is reading this to stop by the Blackbird Cafe and celebrate their fourth anniversary. The food is delicious, the Bloody Marys are spicy and tall, and they’ll be giving away free cookies all day to celebrate their wonderful achievement.
by Nick Mayer
Quick shout out to Vintage Emporium, Orange Salvage, The Barber Shop, Holé Molé, Steelhead Coffee, Eddie’s Liquor, Paul Marc Fine Jewelry and all our neighbors on the corner of Wardlow and Orange. All of us here at Blackbird Cafe are thankful to be located in such a unique and cultured area of Long Beach. Local businesses make the world go ‘round, so we decided to take a moment to share our thoughts on the importance of going local.
Did you know that supporting small local businesses means supporting the environment? Local businesses generally exist in populated cities, as opposed to geographic borderlines, resulting in more local purchases, which require less transportation; this means a much smaller contribution to urban sprawl, habitat loss, and smog than larger corporations tend to offer. Did you know that small local businesses not only boast the highest national employment rate, but also give an average 250% more support to non-profit organizations than large corporations? Spend your money in a way that will strengthen your community’s economic base. Studies show that locally owned businesses, as opposed to federally owned corporations, will invest your money into other local businesses. Here at Blackbird Cafe, we purchase our meats, fruits, and vegetables from Ingardia Brothers Produce in Santa Ana, a local business formed in 1973; they establish lasting, economically conscientious relationships with independent restaurants, schools, hospitals, and Mom & Pop shops.
It is our hope that you continue to support local prosperity; in return, we pledge to remain diligent in sustaining a healthy and happy community. We are proud to be a local business, and we are proud of the local businesses around us. Thank you for choosing to be part of the family.