Asian cuisine is an artistic experience at this Long Beach restaurant – Press Telegram

There is a great and very tasty tradition of art museums with restaurants that serve food arguably even more colorful than the works hanging in the galleries themselves.

In New York, the food at MOMA is so good that I sometimes went there for lunch without even looking at the works. In Washington, DC, home of many museums, the restaurant at the Museum of African-American History offers a journey through time through the last few centuries, served at food stands divided by time, content, and location. High above the Santa Monica Mountains, the Getty offers a meal with a dazzling view that stretches all the way to the ocean, and even seems to reach Hawaii!

And then there is union @ Compound — a restaurant tucked away on an equally hidden side street in Long Beach’s Zaferia neighborhood. It surprises from the first bite and fills your world with art from the moment you walk through the front door.

It’s a rather nondescript building, notable only for a neon sign that declares, “You are here.” There are indoor galleries. And there are outdoor artworks. If there’s a singular unifying theme, it’s that in every direction there’s something to look at, to contemplate, to wonder about. There’s gravel on the ground. There’s metal on the buildings.

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There’s a large space with wooden warehouse beams above. There’s concrete on the floors. There are angular, colorful artworks that you look at and seem to send you plummeting into a hidden, dizzying universe. There’s an information card about a community market, with the title “From Chaos to Cosmos.”

And if all that confuses you, at the back of the gallery is an industrial-looking bar that serves cocktails with names like The Mirrorball (Wheatley vodka with Lo-Fi sweet vermouth and celery bitters), The Doctor’s Order (coconut-washed 1776 bourbon and Sichuan peppercorn cinnamon syrup), and The Slow Burn and The Superbloom with seven ingredients each.

I had a glass of Boomtown Nose Job IPA, as much for the name as for the fact that, like art, I like my drinks to be understandable. (I wish they had a cocktail called a Hockney. Just because.)

And then there’s the food. It’s the creation of Eugene Santiago, chef and founder of Southeast Asian fusion pop-up Baryo. And by fusion, I mean FUSION In all caps and bold! There’s Middle Eastern tahini chili sauce. There’s Spanish papas bravas made with cassava and crème fraîche. Little Gem salad is dressed with Southeast Asian fish sauce. Roasted kale sprouts are accompanied by five-spice pork belly and maple butternut squash. And yes, there’s a burger—with American cheese!