With the goal of landing somewhere between a fancy lounge and a local’s dive, a new Long Beach spot called R Bar is banking on the cool factor of a nearly 100-year-old building and private lockers to live up to its motto as “the local’s living room.”
“What we wanted to do is kind of an upscale dive bar type thing,” said Rakesh Desai, owner of the upcoming R Bar, which is set to open in February in an approximately 125 person-capacity spot in a 1919 one-story brick building that anchors a busy Pine avenue corner. It’s the first bar project for Desai, a Long Beach native who works in the financial industry.
With a garage door in the front that opens to an outdoor patio and a lighted “R” sign over the front door, Desai said he hopes to fill the gap between a dive and a more upscale spot like the nearby BO-beau restaurant.
As of mid-February Desai, along with project architect and designer Joshua Cool and operations manager Varouj Shekerdemian, were putting the finishing touches on the construction and offered a quick tour of R Bar, highlighting what they hope will make them stand out in a busy neighborhood that houses several other bars and restaurants.
It’s all in the name
The name not only stands for the first letter of the owner’s name, it’s also a play on words meant to sound like “our bar,” the trio said.
“It also insinuates that it’s our bar, a place of gathering as in our tagline, the local’s living room,” Desai said.
The U bar
One of the elements that they hope will make the spot more interactive is a U-shaped bar meant to get people to notice each other and talk. One topic of conversation might be the huge American flag painting that takes up a corner wall, but if you’re not interested in conversation there will be 19 TVs around the bar.
Locker room
With several businesses nearby, Desai also had the corporate crowd in mind with his new venue. So for those who have clients they want to impress over a few drinks, or maybe even for the professional barfly, there are lockers available at one end of the bar where people can keep their own high-end private bottles under lock and key.
The exact details are still being worked out, but for a monthly fee people will be able to rent the lockers, buy bottles from the bar and keep them there for private use.
Drinks and grub
One of the great virtues of all true dive bars is the cheap drinks. Plans are for well drink prices to hover around $4-$5 with fancier drinks around $7-$9 and beers ranging $4-$8.
Plans also call for chilled vodka and wine to be on tap as well as beers from nearby breweries.
The food menu will include pub grub like burgers and flatbreads as well as lighter meals geared toward the health-conscious, with items such as kale salads.
If You Go:
When: Opens end of February. Hours will be 11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily
Where: 106 W. Third St., Long Beach
Information: www.rbarlbc.com
