LB Bistro opens in Long Beach

Matt Hisiger had been thinking about his next project for a while. The chef had opened LB Social in 2016 and was now an established part of the Long Beach dining scene, but he knew that the city’s demographics were changing — the influx of NYC transplants, the average home price north of $750,000, luxury apartments going up on the water.

Three things happened within a few days: Hisiger ran into Julio Velasquez who had cooked for him when he owned Panama Hatties in Huntington and who had gone on to lead kitchens at Bistro Cassis in Huntington, Aperitif Bistro in Rockville Centre and Sage Bistro Moderne in Woodbury. Then he heard that Steven’s Pasta had closed and the space, two blocks east of LB Social, was available. And a couple of French customers at Social told him, point blank, that he should open a bistro.

In short order, he hired Velasquez, signed the lease for Steven’s and started to work on LB Bistro.

His next order of business was calling Adam Goldgell, the old friend and veteran LI chef (now living in Florida) whose Sugo was the predecessor of LB Social. “I asked him how many French cookbooks he had,” Hisiger recalled. “Adam said, ‘about a thousand’ and I said, ‘start looking for recipes.’ ” Meanwhile, his wife, Karen Hisiger, got busy with the design, recognizably bistro, but not slavishly so, with bold tile work and wallpaper offsetting the mostly black-and-white décor.

In May, everything came together with the opening of LB Bistro.

Velasquez’s menu is a study in bistro classics: onion soup, seafood plateaux, steak tartare, foie gras, tuna Nicoise, moules marinière, steaks with a choice of classic sauces (Béarnaise, au poivre, Bordelaise, chasseur), coq au vin, beef Bourguignon, sole amandine and bouillabaisse. And there are a few twists too: small bites of croque monsieur, roasted bone marrow, a burger with bacon and Gouda. Starter prices range from $14 to $26, mains from $31 to $44.

The signature cocktails have a french flair, from the French 77 (gin, lemon juice, elderflower liqueur, Champagne) to framboise-tini (vanilla vodka, pineapple juice, Chambord, Luxardo cherries). Most of the bottles on the brief, all-French wine list are under $50; there are a dozen available by the glass as well as six craft beers plus Miller Lite and Stella Artois.

LB Bistro, 150 E. Park Ave., Long Beach, 516-992-0014, lbbistrony.com. Open Tuesday to Sunday 4 to 9 p.m.