Wood & Salt Tavern Debuts Liquor Menu and Cocktails

Cocktails have officially arrived at Wood & Salt Tavern, the newest Long Beach restaurant and bar from the duo behind “German Gastro Management,” the restaurant group comprising Central Los Angeles German restaurant and beer garden, Wirtshaus, and modern German eateries in Mar Vista and Long Beach, Rasselbock Kitchen & Beer Garden.

The now one-year-old Bixby Knolls neighborhood restaurant concept will serve its new liquor menu which highlights classic drinks constructed Wood & Salt-style. Wood & Salt Tavern joins Rasselbock Kitchen & Beer Garden’s Mar Vista location as the second restaurant from the team to offer a full bar.

Wood & Salt Tavern’s new Liquor Menu will include a tight list of signature cocktails along the lines of a pineapple basil Lemon Drop (with pineapple-basil infused vodka and a pineapple sugar rim), or the bar’s “Oaxacan Sour” (mezcal, tequila, lemon juice, Aquafaba, agave). 

Diners and drinkers will choose their liquor from a domestic and international selection of small-batch spirits, with about two dozen choices of tequila, mezcal, gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey – including Kentucky-, Kansas City-, or Northern California-made bourbons, Takamine Koji Japanese Whiskey, and The Dalmore Scotch. Vermont-made gin sits neatly above a Belgian vodka and a Venezuelan rum, with a handful of Los Angeles-based spirits brands, also represented in those categories.

The newest full-service restaurant and bar from the hospitality group, Wood & Salt Tavern’s September 2020 soft-opening marked a departure from the team’s German-themed restaurants with its menus described by the group as "modern California" cuisine. 

The concept encompasses a wood-fired grill turning out proteins like meat, fish, and seafood, plus handmade pasta crafted daily, in-house. Shareable plates, salads, sides, and desserts round out the menus which feature a number of vegetarian and gluten-free options. In addition to cocktails, the restaurant also boasts a specifically curated and more global beer and wine list than is currently offered at the group’s German restaurant locations.

The restaurant’s new Executive Chef, Philip Mack, who joined the group after serving most recently as Chef de Cuisine at the Newport Beach location of FIG & OLIVE, introduced a new seasonal menu structure with the next rendition – Wood & Salt Tavern’s fall menu – to launch late-September.

With the return of indoor dining, Wood & Salt Tavern’s 2,000 square feet now hosts diners both inside and out, including new bar seating. The restaurant can accommodate guests in its indoor dining space while the covered, yet open-air, front patio also hosts patrons for daily dinner service and for the return of a weekday cocktail hour promotion, as does the expansive, recently-constructed rear patio. Similar to the group’s other establishments, all outdoor spaces are dog-friendly.

Wood & Salt Tavern’s regularly shifting food and drink menus, which change with the seasons.

Wood & Salt Tavern’s hours are currently Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 9:30 PM; Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday, 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The restaurant and bar host a cocktail hour promo Monday through Thursday, 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., and Friday, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. 

Wood & Salt Tavern is located at 4262 Atlantic Avenue (between E. Burlinghall Drive and Cartagena Street), Long Beach.