Soul in a Schooner

Playing the long game at Joe Josts in Long Beach — The Los Angeles Letter Vol. V

1924 was a bustling time in Long Beach, California. Oil had just been discovered on the remaining portion of Rancho Los Cerritos that would become Long Beach. Before the oil boom, Long Beach was primarily a downtown, with a seaside amusement park surrounded by farms and cows. Today, Long Beach is about 22 miles from Los Angeles International Airport.

Oil brought money and development, and in 1924 a Hungarian barber opened an eponymous barber shop called Joe Josts on Anaheim Street. In the back of the barbershop was a pool hall and poker room. During the Depression, Joe served beer, sandwiches, and pickled eggs. When the health department made him choose between the barbershop or the bar, the bar won, and it sits today as the longest continually operating bar West of the Mississippi. I’ve read they have served over 14,000,000 schooners of beer, 4,500,000 sandwiches, and 6,000,000 pickled eggs. They sell something like 12,000 eggs a month and 10,000 sandwiches.

The main room is dominated by a large bar with two dozen stools and tight wooden booths. You can spot Kevin Costner and the late Whiney Huston in one of those booths in the movie The Bodyguard. There are still pool tables in the back room and some reserved tables for lunch on Fridays, which I’m guessing belong to regulars.

The beer is the thing here. It’s the coldest beer you’ll ever have. Their iconic 20-ounce schooners are chilled, and the kegs are kept at 29 degrees. They have standards like Bud, Coors, Busch, Shiner, and a host of rotating taps. For a long time, Pabst Blue Ribbon (“PBR”) ruled the taps at Joe Josts. PBR would have likely fallen into the waste bin along with Falstaff and Hamm’s, except for some wily distributors that started selling it to new customers at a discount. In the 1990s, the hipsters followed. They forgot to let long-time loyalists like Joe Josts in on the deal, so the family cut ties with PBR and anointed Busch as the new king of beers.

The schooners are made of heavy glass. This keeps the beer cold longer. It also gives you a workout, and with all that lifting, you may be hungry.

A Special with a pickled egg will set you back less than five bucks. Joe’s Special is split Polish sausage on rye bread made right behind the bar in front of you. The bread is wrapped around the sausage with mustard, swiss, and pickle. The Special is less of a sandwich and more of a thing in and of itself. It’s just a little dart but offers a symphony of flavor. The sandwich offers a savory, tangy, and slightly spicy experience, with smokiness, creaminess, and refreshing crunch.

Accompanied by pickled eggs that are an unearthly shade of green from the pickling spice and yellow peppers and served with pretzel sticks in those paper boats you might find at a little league snack shack. This was an efficient workingman’s lunch in the Depression, and the tradition continues.

There are liverwurst, egg salad, and plain cheese sandwiches, but I have never passed on The Special.

Then there are the peanuts. They’re called Marmion Peanuts after the family that began roasting them in Long Beach in 1907 until vandals in the 80s destroyed their store. Joe’s grandson, Ken Buck, who runs the bar, bought the roasting machine, and they roast 400 pounds weekly in the backroom.

Also behind the bar are stacks of their iconic t-shirts. All are adorned with their schooner logo, and I have spotted them from San Francisco to San Felipe. They print new shirts for the holidays, and they sell out quickly. The Christmas shirts are favorites, and if you find your way to Joe Josts on December 1st, you can witness the Antler Lightening, another bar tradition. Above the stacks of t-shirts, near the ceiling, is an old pair of deer antlers adorned with old-school Christmas lights. There are usually a half-dozen young men wearing Joe Josts t-shirts pulling beers behind the bar. One will power up the lights after asking customers for their best guesses of how bulbs will light up, the winning guess wins a free beer.

While not much has changed at Joe Josts since 1924, the world and Long Beach certainly have. The port in Long Beach is rivaled only by her rival across the channel, the port of Los Angeles, and oil is still pumping, but Long Beach has become a city diversified economically and demographically. Long Beachers quickly remind visitors that they are their own city, not another suburb of Los Angeles.

I met a man sitting on the bar stool beside me at Joe Josts. He was a lifelong Long Beacher. He owns a meat company that sells steaks and chops to Long Beach and Los Angeles restaurants. He owns the buildings his company operates in too. I’m guessing he’s done ok.

He was another guy in a bar with a colorful life. He loved his wife and his family; he loved Joe Josts and Long Beach. He felt connected to something bigger on that bar stool.

Amidst our conversation, he reminisced about his rebellious youth. With mischief in his eye, he revealed how he used to skip high school to shoot pool in Joe’s backroom. I didn’t have to imagine it because the place looked the same. Dimly lit, the clattering of pool balls, and the love of the family, you choose for yourself. The man told me he learned more at Joe Jost’s than in school.

That’s why he keeps coming back. Because he’s grown old and most of his friends are gone now. He can drink with their spirits here. Time keeps marching outside, but not in this bar.

Of course, this place isn’t for everyone. It’s not in your Michelin Guide; there is no silverware, but plenty of paper napkins. If you’re unsure if Joe Josts is your cup of tea, it likely is not. I recommend getting there by 11 AM if you want a seat.

Joe Josts

https://joejosts.com/

2803 E Anaheim St, Long Beach, CA 90804

10 AM - 10 PM Most Days

(562) 439-5446