Vintage LBC

The Vintage LBC comes off as a cheese shop—and indeed, it is. But it is much, much more than that. Owner Vanessa Harmon—along with her chef-slash-general manager Allison Porzner—have crafted a stellar bistro. wine bar, and cheese shop that’s a great place to get down on wines’n’cheese. A definitive space for salads’n’sweets. And, of course, a great place to buy cheeses, tinned fish, bread, crackers, accoutrements, and other market goods.

And while it may have become a Bixby Knolls staple, The Vintage LBC is ready to become, well, a Long Beach star. (Not just because it includes “LBC” is in its name either; that stands for “Libations, Bites, & Cheese.”)

Like many small business owners, Vanessa is a busy woman juggling responsibilities while wearing multiple hats. She still has a day job (as a paralegal). She is a single mom (whose daughter’s first year of middle school just started). And, of course, she is the owner of The Vintage LBC. But before she took on that last job and responsibility, she was just dreaming of a cheese shop.

“I have a background in fine dining and I am simply a lover of food—especially cheese,” Vanessa said. “I told my friend once, as I was stepping out out of Cheese Addiction in Bixby Knolls: ‘I would love to own a cheese shop like this.’ And kid you not, no more than a month later, that same friend called me to tell me the space was up for sale.”

The retail part was something Vanessa could incorporate but for her, the dream was far more of a wine bar. A place where people would sit. A space where cheese is served just as much as it is purchased for home. And a place to exercise her culinary and hospitality leanings. And the bones of Cheese Addiction proved just right.

Many lamented the end of Cheese Addiction, which closed both its Belmont Shore and Bixby Knolls locations in 2022. However, it did open a new door for cheese in Long Beach. Oh La Vache used the gap to open on Retro Row, where it keeps strictly market-and-sandwich-shop. And then there’s The Vintage LBC, which is its own unique brand of beer’n’wine bar, bistro, cheese counter, market, and hang-out space.

Written and photos by Brian Addison.

For the full feature on Vintage LBC, click here.