Most Cal State Long Beach students live for the weekend. Once we finish our last classes of the week, it’s time to go out and celebrate with friends. Long Beach, being the city that it is, has many options for students 21 and over to blow off a little steam. Places like Second Street and Downtown Long Beach have a handful of fun and exciting nightlife spots for students to get their drink on.
However, besides The Nugget Grill and Pub on campus, there really is nothing in the immediate area surrounding CSULB that serves as a young drinker’s watering hole. This is probably due to the fact that CSULB is surrounded by quiet neighborhoods.
This might change.
Taco Beach, a chain cantina restaurant that already has a location in Downtown Long Beach, has nestled itself right down the street from CSULB. Located off of Bellflower Boulevard in the Los Altos Shopping Center, Taco Beach has taken over the building that was once the Best Place Cafe.
Taco Beach is known for its fun atmosphere, food and drink specials. The new location was able to acquire a permit that will allow the restaurant to serve beer, wine and other spirits. Members of the Los Altos Center Adjacent Neighborhoods (LACAN) have made it known, however, that Taco Beach is not welcome to the local community.
Due to the new restaurant being located in such close proximity to the CSULB campus, LACAN is worried that Taco Beach will bring in a loud, rambunctious group of young twenty-somethings looking to have a good time. There is fear that noise, crime and drunk driving will increase in the surrounding areas. These sort of things could happen when college students start drinking, so Taco Beach has been barred from advertising directly to CSULB students for one year.
Students will not see any signs on campus, advertisements in any campus publications and sadly, no college nights or college drink specials. We poor college students could use the latter.
While this may initially hurt Taco Beach because it won’t be able to market directly to a major demographic, students drive by on Bellflower Boulevard often. Students use the bank, get food and shop in the Los Altos Shopping Center. They will see the Taco Beach sign. Once students find out there is a new place to get a drink that is so close to campus - a place where dorm residents can easily stumble to and from – then word will spread quickly.
Students are pretty good at sniffing these places out. Due to its proximity to campus, it can become the place to go after a group project or a basketball game. Maybe there is something Taco Beach can do to encourage its patrons to be respectful to the neighbors. It will be interesting to see how well the advertising ban on Taco Beach works. Like we said, we believe that in the long run, it probably won’t do much.
In fact, after a long day of producing the paper, the Daily 49er staff may want to head on down to Taco Beach for a few margaritas.