A beautiful mid-century building on Retro Row, with large gaping windows and natural, exposed Alder wood—once the location for small children to run about before entering grade school—will soon house two of Long Beach’s most iconic eateries under one harmonious roof.
Kerstin Kansteiner is set to open Alder & Sage in just a few weeks, which will combine the hand-brewed coffees and teas from Portfolio Coffeehouse with the organic, sustainable breakfast and lunch ideas from Berlin Bistro and add one more long-awaited element: a full dinner menu equipped with spirits to pair with meals.
“It feels like a good match and the building is really made to do this,” Kansteiner said. “We can have pockets where somebody can just sit down and work away on their laptop and have a cup of coffee and then somebody can have an amazing meal right over there. I think the neighborhood is very receptive and I feel like that’s kind of my home turf. I’ve been here forever.”
When Kansteiner was forced to close the doors to Portfolio Coffeehouse on 4th Street after 32 years back in July, she had no plans to revitalize the beloved coffee shop.
“I couldn’t even fathom moving Portfolio or doing this again,” Kansteiner said. “I didn’t even look, I never asked a realtor and never looked around. I was just done and done.”
“I just felt like, you know the space deserves some saging after the experiences we had with Portfolio. So it seemed like a good fit…”
Kirsten Kansteiner, owner of Alder & Sage
To the relief of the many loyal customers she’s gained over three decades at Portfolio and 12 years at Berlin Bistro in Downtown Long Beach, Kansteiner was approached by a realtor with whom she’d done business before. A preschool was closing on 4th Street and Cherry Avenue, and the building—which Kansteiner had never even noticed before—was about to become available.
It took months of consideration: Kansteiner said she “felt so burned” from the previous experience at Portfolio. Ultimately, the large windows, natural elements and, most importantly, the idea of returning to Retro Row grew on her.
The downtown location of Berlin Bistro served its last plates of wild baby arugula pomegranate salad, salmon flatbread, artisanal burgers and more on Oct. 18. As chefs carefully crafted the menu for Alder & Sage, patrons at Berlin Bistro were surprised with sneak peeks of dishes that may appear on the new restaurant’s menu.
The menu at Alder & Sage, which will nearly double the current menu at Berlin Bistro, will be cooked in a kitchen finally fit for the iconic entities coming under one roof.
“[At] Berlin our kitchen was tiny there. So it was never conceived to actually queue the amount of food that we did there,” Kansteiner said. “It was just short of a miracle [what] they performed in the kitchen. It was meant to be a small coffeehouse kitchen.”
Breakfast and lunch will not lose their flair at Alder & Sage, as Chef Robert Fry, who crafted dishes for Berlin Bistro, teased a new breakfast burrito on Sept. 14, now slated for the new menu. It was the first dish that Kansteiner insisted they attempt for the new restaurant.
“I thought … we’re gonna go over this burrito item a million times so we’re just gonna have to taste test a million burritos,” Kansteiner said. “But literally, the first burrito he [Chef Robert] made was so fantastic. I was like, ‘Wow, this thing!’ I mean, I couldn’t believe it. So I’m very excited… and then we specialed it and we ran out.”
The burrito plays with spicy and sweet elements: habanero maple pork sausage, farm-raised eggs, Weiser potatoes, caramelized onions, Fiscalini cheddar, avocado and a homemade chipotle salsa.
Lighter dishes include a wilted spinach and cabbage salad with seared ahi tuna as well as a traditional Egyptian dish of grapes, sunflower dukkah, sunflower sprouts, watercress, saba, basil oil and locally made bread.
The restaurant will close around 4 p.m., according to Kansteiner, then re-open for dinner service an hour later.
For dinner, Alder & Sage will pull out all the stops. The open kitchen will allow patrons to see chefs preparing fresh seafood each night, including oysters and sashimi. Guests will be able to enjoy their food inside the mid-century building facing Retro Row with full table service, or they can eat at one of the fire pits that will adorn the large outside patio.
The Alder wood that the building is made of, which inspired the restaurant’s name, was stripped of its yellow paint by Kansteiner’s husband and left in its natural state. The second part of the restaurant’s name came from Kansteiner’s past.
“I just felt like, you know the space deserves some saging after the experiences we had with Portfolio,” Kansteiner said. “So it seemed like a good fit and because it’s mostly an outdoor venue—I would say it’s a third inside and two-thirds outside—it just kind of just evokes a really natural environment and I really liked that.”
Longtime patrons of both Berlin Bistro and Portfolio Coffeehouse are likely to see familiar faces when they come to Alder & Sage. Kansteiner made it a point to combine both staffs during her homecoming, saying, “it’s all about community.”
Alder & Sage is hopeful to open the day after Thanksgiving, according to Kansteiner. The restaurant will be located at 366 Cherry Ave. Hours have yet to be announced. Head to @Aldersage on Instagram for updates.
