Long Beach Black Lagoon Bar is extra Ordinarie
Long Beach cocktail bar The Ordinarie transforms into a submersive Halloween popup. Read all about it below, and check out the photo gallery at bottom.
Many are the bars and cocktail lounges offering Halloween overlays this season. Among the most enjoyably immersive – or in this case, submersive – is The Black Lagoon Halloween Cocktail Popup, currently running at The Ordinarie in Long Beach. The venue is decorated floor to ceiling with myriad lights, curtains, props, paintings, standees, balloons, and even an animatronic or three. The cumulative effect goes beyond a simple overlay. Rather than a decorated bar, The Ordinarie Black Lagoon Popup feels like a fully themed venue.
Those who enter are not likely to be terrified by the skulls, skeletons, and creepy clowns lurking within the dark environs, but they will enjoy distinctive treats while being serenaded by local performers. And unlike joints that offer a far less impressive environment for a price, there is no cover charge. Coupled with free parking, that makes this a very affordable excursion into the depths the of Black Lagoon.
Black Lagoon Halloween Cocktail Bar Review: Venue
After parking in a nearby lot (free for two hours), it is about a one-block walk along The Promenade N. to The Odinarie. The outside decorations (giant balloons of the Grim Reaper and Frankenstein’s Monster) identify the Halloween bar, but their generic nature gives little indication of waits inside. More inspiring are the handmade decorations on the outdoor check-in desk. If you arrive after 3:30pm, no reservation is required, but there might be a slight wait. Upon entering, you receive a ticket specifying your time interval (two hours), but no one’s in a hurry to get rid of you unless things get really busy.
Walking inside the Black Lagoon bar is like entering the darkness of another world, leaving the bright sunshine of Long Beach far behind. Black netting obscures the ceiling, creating a sense of a shadowy grotto, bathed in low-key purple lights, filled everywhere with Halloween iconography. Much of the decor (clowns, skeletons, Chucky) does not align with the Black Lagoon theme, but at least the huge tentacle painted on the front window suggests an aquatic setting. More importantly, The Ordinarie Black Lagoon Popup not just a bar draped in a few spiderwebs; it’s a complete makeover that practically screams, “Halloween fans, you’ve found your home away from home.”
Wherever you end up sitting, you will want to make a complete circuit to see every spooky sight. Other decorations include skeletal bats, creepy paintings, old horror movie posters, and Michael Myers guarding the men’s room. Those with weak bladders, beware!
The bar is gorgeous. Again, the heavy layer of lighting and decoration creates the perfect mood, and the profusion of black curtains is augmented by bats dangling overhead, further submerging you into this mysterious grotto*. At one end of the bar, an animatronic Stripe from Gremlins wags his head back and forth. Behind him is the one glimpse we caught of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a small bust nestled against the brick wall.
- Our inner film geek feels compelled to note that the grotto scene in 1954’s The Creature from the Black Lagoon features a memorable 3D shot of a bat dive-bombing into the camera lens.
Near the bar is a small performance space haunted by skeletons, an inflatable Gomez Addams, and an animatronic Frankenstein Monster. During your two-hour time allotment, you will hear local artists performing somewhat seasonal offerings, maybe not novelty songs like “The Monster Mash” but more along the lines of “Superstition.” Leave a tip and make a request for your favorite!
Black Lagoon Halloween Cocktail Bar Review: Menu
You can satisfying both thirst and hunger during your two-hour stay. Unlike many haunt-themed bars, The Ordinarie Black Lagoon Popup offers not only creepy cocktails but also a pretty decent selection of seasonal food options (pumpkin soup, “deviled” eggs).
We ordered a Black Tide cocktail and a Vegan Patty Melt. The latter was delicious. It comes with either salad or fries: we chose the former; Mrs. Hollywood Gothique went with the latter. Both were great, creating a satisfying meal that helped soak up the spirits boiling in our bloodstream.
Those spirits emanated not so much from the afterlife as the cocktail menu. One drawback of the Black Lagoon’s Halloween bar is that its seasonal cocktails are made in batches, so you cannot customize your order; if try to go off-menu, the bar may lack ingredients needed to meet your request. This is especially troublesome for casual drinkers like Mrs. Hollywood Gothique, who prefers fruity cocktails on the sweeter end of the spectrum, uncontaminated by absinthe, falernum, bitters, and wine liqueurs.
Boldly taking a risk, we ordered the Black Tide (a mescal-based drink including fruit juice, bitters, and absinthe). Its complex flavor profile made it an interesting experiment for us, but ultimately the smoky mescal taste was not to our liking. We suspect mezcal fans will go for it big time.
Cocktails are served in souvenir receptacles (which are for sale), including a mermaid mug and a Black Lagoon Mai Tai glass. Our Black Tide came in a “Frownder Mug,” resembling an angler fish (without its lure). The mug is so heavy it could be used for a potted plant, and it’s ugly in a weirdly fascinating way, which reminded us of Delany Davidson’s creepy song “Big Ugly Fish.”
Black Lagoon Halloween Cocktail Bar Review: Conclusion
The Ordinarie Black Lagoon Popup is not the best Halloween cocktail experience in the Los Angeles area, but it is the most affordable and accessible for those who wish to dine and drink in a pleasantly sinister seasonal environment. It is not a custom-made, theme-specific experience along the lines of The Set’s Evil Dead Speakeasy; it’s more of an elaborate Halloween overlay – one so completely top-to-bottom that it feels immersive, filling every shadowy sightline with delightfully dreadful decor bathed in eerie purple hues. With good food, ambitious cocktail combinations, and live entertainment, it easily and enjoyably filled our two-hour time slot – so much so that we could barely drag ourselves out in time to reach the parking lot before our meter ran out.
In the end, we would have preferred more Creature in our Black Lagoon – along with more cocktail options in the bar. Nevertheless, we enjoyed diving into The Ordinarie’s Black Lagoon bar. Who knew that bright, sunny Long Beach could go so dark?
Ordinarie's Black Lagoon Immersive Halloween Cocktail Popup
Rating Scale
0 – Poor
1 – Mediocre
2 – Fair
3 – Good
4 – Great
5 – Excellent
Free parking, no cover charge, good food, themed drinks, live entertainment, and enough decorations to fill a Spirit Halloween Store. What more could you want? Well, more Creature from the Black Lagoon and more bespoke cocktail options. Nevertheless, we give this a four-star rating: Highly Recommended.
Note: The Odinarie is located a couple of miles from the Queen Mary, which makes this the Black Lagoon bar a good place to visit before or after attending Dark Harbor.
The Black Lagoon Halloween Cocktail Pop up is open daily through November 2. Hours are 11:30am to 1:00am. Children are welcome until 9pm. Reservations are required until 3:30pm; after that, it is walk-in only. Time is limited to two-hours per table. No coverage charge. Free parking in Lot C on Third Street, across from the Promenade. The Odinarie is located at 210 The Promenade N., Long Beach, CA 90802. Call (562) 676-4261 for more information, or click here.
Black Lagoon Halloween Bar: Photo Gallery
Click on any image to open the gallery for a step-by-step tour through the The Ordinarie Black Lagoon Popup…
