In Long Beach, there is an embarrassment of riches in the form of Thai and Cambodian noodle shops. There are also neighborhood-believed pizza institutions in nearly every corner of town. Taco stands and shops also have recently saturated the city. But what we need around here is dim sum and more craft cocktails. At the soft-opened Midnight Oil in downtown Long Beach, serial bar and restaurant owner Leonard Chan is betting on the genius pairing of both inside one concept.
“Dim Sum was always a big deal when we went out with family,” Chan tells L.A. TACO. “My mother had 10 brothers and sisters, and my father had two siblings, meaning these gatherings sprawled across multiple tables in large Cantonese restaurants in Chinatown and the San Gabriel Valley.”
However, Chan didn't intentionally combine these two great eating and drinking pastimes into one business. He is open about the fact that Midnight Oil was supposed to be a Japanese izakaya concept until he found a colleague of his who was also working on opening an izakaya down the street.