[This story is a continuation of this article: “Drunk in love: Trademark Brewing, Primal Alchemy offer both casual and high-end Valentine’s Day options“]
Plenty of small family businesses across the country are run by couples, but these two Long Beach eateries reflect their founders’ shared interests, personal histories and dedication, expressed through their menus.
Noble Bird Rotisserie
The Price’s are the family behind Noble Bird Rotisserie, a restaurant located at the Long Beach shopping center, 2nd & PCH.
Sidney Price first met her husband Steve as a baby, their fathers being college roommates.
Years after reuniting as adults and starting a family, both of the couple’s young sons developed serious food allergies.
“We dreamed of the idea of opening a safe restaurant for our children very early on, but just in the casual kind of talks that couples have when they are really dreaming big and thinking about seemingly unattainable things,” Sidney told the Signal Tribune. “The idea really started taking shape when our oldest son was about 3 [and half years old] and we landed in the ER after a very terrifying anaphylactic reaction. We had spent several years putting our life on hold in hopes that our situation would change, and our son might outgrow his food allergies, and when that didn’t happen, we decided to change what we could about our situation and open a safe spot for us to eat as a family.”
Thus, the menu at Noble Bird Rotisserie is completely free of dairy, peanuts and tree nuts. While it’s impossible to eliminate every food someone may be allergic too, the restaurant makes the ingredients for each of its dishes clear so that customers can make safe decisions.
The star of Noble Bird Rotisserie’s menu is, predictably, its rotisserie chickens. Free range, sustainably sourced chickens are brined for 24 hours before being slow roasted and sold by the whole of half bird. Two flavors are available, Traditional and G-chicken. Traditional rotisserie chickens are seasoned with thyme, sage and lemon, while the G-Chicken flavor is a mix of orange, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, honey and Korean chili.
Noble Bird Rotisserie also offers sides, like seasoned fingerling potatoes or its unique Blueberry Black Rice, made with vanilla, cinnamon, allspice and star anise.
While Steve can be found helping out at Noble Bird Rotisserie some evenings and weekends, it’s Sidney who handles the daily responsibilities of the restaurant.
Under the Sun
Roller derby brought the couple behind Under the Sun together almost a decade ago, when Dawna Bass played a match for Long Beach Roller Derby, where she met fire dancing performer Chrissy Cox. Shortly after Cox joined the roller derby league herself, she and Bass were an item.
Those derby practices years ago, as well as Cox’s yoga classes, are where Bass and Cox first started sharing their homemade juice blends with friends.
[aesop_image img=”https://signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Screenshot-2020-02-20-at-10.01.05-AM.png” panorama=”off” credit=”Under the Sun” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” caption=”Cult Toast by Under the Sun, with cultured cashew cheese, baby arugula, blueberries and crushed almonds on almond based bread.” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]The couple later began selling their juices through local businesses, and eventually opened their own juice shop, Rainbow Juices, five years ago. Two years later, they opened the raw-vegan cafe Under the Sun at 244 E 3rd St.
“Keeping food in its raw form is a great way to keep its nutrients intact–– all of its living, thriving energy,” Under the Sun told the Signal Tribune in an email. “Also, in making raw food, one doesn’t need to add fillers and weird ingredients that were made by humans, it is literally all directly [from] plants in some form.”
The menu at Under the Sun includes wraps, salads, sandwiches and more using healthy and raw ingredients. For its sandwiches, the cafe makes its own Activated Almond Veggie Bread using almonds, vegetables, almond pulp and spices for a nutritious and gluten free option. Besides sandwiches, Activated Almond Veggie Bread is also used in Under the Sun’s toast based dishes. While customers can enjoy classic avocado toast at Under the Sun, its creative and seasonal Cult Toast piles cultured cashew cheese, baby arugula, blueberries and crushed almonds on to the nut based bread for variety.
While Bass creates new dishes for the cafe, Cox develops mixtures for different herbal tonics offered by Under the Sun, like its Sweet Cacao tonic, made with cacao, mesquite, vanilla bean, coconut oil, coconut nectar and almond milk.
“Dawna brings her ‘do it yourself (DIY)’, experimental attitude to the kitchen, creating raw food dishes, while Chrissy is the beverage expert, putting together ‘tonic latte’ blends containing different herbs or mushrooms,” Under the Sun told the Signal Tribune. “We also do all the behind the scenes stuff on our own–– social media, marketing, designing labels for our packaged foods, delivery, etc. As a local business, we are also pretty close with our employees and love and appreciate everything they do for us. Long Beach is a very special place and we are happy to be a part of this community.”
