Wood & Salt Tavern Verified listing

Wood & Salt—Rasselbock owner and restaurateur Björn Risse's second Bixby Knolls restaurant—has taken a return to roots across the past year and post-pandemic.

"Wood & Salt is a neighborhood joint in Long Beach—we are one big community here, let's be honest. We believed what we missed here over the past few months was what we wanted to achieve all along from the get-go: approachable, but higher-quality food featuring pastas on the one side and the wood-fired meats and fishes on the other. That's why we're returning back to parts of the menu we had in the beginning."

This also means a return to Wood & Salt representing one of the best cocktail programs in Long Beach, headed by bar manager Gabriel Ducharme. It is one that should not easily be dismissed, with cocktail dinners becoming more regular and a masterful, rotating cocktail list becoming the norm.

"I like to call myself a People's Bartender more than a Mixologist's Bartender," Ducharme said, reflecting Wood & Salt's mantra of being elevated but approachable. "I make drinks with depth and complexity, but I like to make drinks that are for everyone. I don't mind recreating the wheel and being innovative, but I don't think everyone is seeking that kind of drink."

Ducharme's entry into cocktails was anything but glamorous, having served as a barback at Long Beach's Naples Rib Company and being thrown into the bartending position blindly one night. Though stressful, it inspired him to where he is today, with Wood & Salt's cocktail menu having pineapple-basil lemon drops and strawberry-peach margaritas sitting next to vegan Oaxacan sours and in-house barrel-aged Manhattans.

Photos and written by Brian Addison