Love locks, wine, cheese, coffee and an anniversary – Press Telegram Leave a comment

Long Beach

Shoreline Romance

Long Beach’s Shoreline Village was the first California “Love Lock” location, paying tribute to Paris’s Pont des Arts.

Love locks is a modern custom where sweethearts permanently seal their love by putting their names on a padlock, locking it on a public structure, and throwing away the key.

The Instagram-worthy love-lock venue in the Village is complete with the marina and city skyline as a backdrop.

“There are four stores in the Village that carry that carry love locks: Raindance, Pirate’s Cove, Queen Mary Couture, and The Beach House (open only on weekends),” according to Shoreline Village’s assistant property manager Claudia Ayala.

“We came up with the ‘Love Locks’ idea after seeing this couple, the Jewetts, post about how they met and were married in Shoreline Village over 30 years ago,” Ayala said. “It is a tribute to the famous Parisian Love Locks, but also a way to involve the community in Shoreline Village. We launched it hoping it would be around at least a few months and now we’ve had to expand it due to interest.”

All that shopping and locking might fuel an appetite, and Shoreline Village has plenty of options.

`“We have several restaurants: The Yardhouse, Tequila Jack’s, Shenanigans Irish Pub & Grill, Tugboat Pete’s, Gilan Pizza and Grill, Louisiana Charlie’s, Parkers’ Lighthouse, and Queensview Steakhouse (located on the third floor of Parkers’),” Aylala said.

Coffee with Purpose

Wrigley Coffee, on the corner of Willow Street and Eucalyptus Avenue, celebrated its grand opening on Feb. 1. The shop is in the former Fox Coffee House at 437 W. Willow St.

The new coffee shop is a social enterprise providing everything expected of a coffee shop, but will also provide trauma-informed job training to housing insecure individuals in the community.

The space includes a small meeting room that local nonprofits can use for no charge and a smaller room with three desks that students can use for free, according to Riley Draghi, coffee program manager.

Wine/cheese

Gelson’s Supermarket, with a Long Beach store at Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway is offering a virtual wine tasting experience.  Proprietor and winemaker Daniel Daou of Paso Robles’s DAOU Vineyard will present via Zoom at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10.

A Rosé and a Cabernet Sauvignon will be paired with a custom cheese and charcuterie plate.

Special pricing for the wines and plate is offered and the last date to sign up is Feb. 6. Items can be picked up at the store on either Feb. 9 or 10.

Details at gelsons.com/events/view/an-online-tasting-with-daou.

SteelCraft Milestone

SteelCraft Long Beach at 3768 Long Beach Blvd. (at Bixby Road) is celebrating its 5-year anniversary, from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 5, with a “Taste of SteelCraft.”

A $35 advance sale ticket (via ) gets attendees a chance to nibble at: Hangry Belly, La Taqueria Brand and Waffle Love, along with a drink ticket for either Smog City Brewing or Steelhead Coffee.

There also will be live music, raffles, a plant workshop and a kid’s craft area. The outdoor urban eatery is composed of repurposed shipping containers. The Long Beach location was launched as a tribute to the local shipping industry. The concept has since expanded to Bellflower and Garden Grove and cities across the country have expressed interest in the concept.