Roe Restaurant to open (again) in Belmont Shore

Chef Arthur Gonzalez said he is weeks away from realizing his goal of opening a new seafood place, called Roe Restaurant, in Belmont Shore after experiencing so many challenges there that he ended up opening an entirely different restaurant since his first attempt four years ago.

“We’re starting to come down to crunch time,” Gonzalez said.

Late last week, the future home of Roe Restaurant was still a dusty construction site in the space next to its sister enterprise Roe Xpress, a fish market selling dishes prepared from the likes of salmon, mahi mahi, yellowtail and octopus, as well as a place where clam “chowdah” is spelled with Boston accent even though Hatch chiles are part of the recipe.

Gonzalez said he expects Roe Restaurant to be ready for its soft opening in about four weeks.

“I don’t want to be a trendy restaurant. I want to be here for 30 years,” Gonzalez said. “Long Beach is becoming a great culinary city and we want to be at the forefront of that.”

Roe Xpress and the future home of Roe Restaurant can be found on the far side of Belmont Shore, around the crossing of E. Second Street and Bayshore Avenue, near the bridge linking that neighborhood to Naples Island.

Gonzalez and his longtime girlfriend, Vanessa Auclair, opened Roe Xpress’ predecessor in June 2012 as Roe Fish Market & Restaurant in June 2012 and from the begiing, the plan existed to build that business into a full-blown restaurant. That dream, however, was initially stymied by the expensive reality of bringing the restaurant up to code.

Gonzalez said the building needed new grease traps, not to mention plumbing and electrical work.

Roe Fish Market closed its doors in 2013, and Gonzalez ended up selling his wares out of a food truck.

“It was a way to keep the brand alive and find more investment,” he said.

Although his food truck days over, Gonzalez said Roe keeps a presence at farmers markets in Cerritos, Bixby Knolls and near Alamitos Marina.

Gonzalez didn’t find that needed investment until after he and Auclair opened another restaurant Panxa Cocina, in late December 2014 at 3937 E. Broadway in the Belmont Heights neighborhood of Long Beach. Panxa Cocina serves a style of cuisine Gonzalez calls “old Mexico meets New Mexico” and the recipes reflect the lessons he learned working at restaurants in Santa Fe.

Panxa Cocina is also where Gonzalez had a run-in with Rod Frontino, who owns Belmont Shore bar Dogz Bar and Grill. That meeting led to Frontino and other investors putting together enough money for Gonzalez to give Roe a second shot.

Roe Xpress opened in December, and an amount exceeding $1 million has been spent to prepare Roe Restaurant for its opening.

Whereas Panxa Cocina’s menu draws upon the culinary heritages of Latin America and the Southwest, Gonzalez said he often draws upon Asian influences when crafting seafood recipes. And although he’s not prepared to divulge what may become signature dishes at Roe, he said he looks forward to serving seafood cooked on a wood-fired stove.

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“We’re really excited about that,” he said. “We’ll have some homemade pasta. All our bread will be made in house.”