Joe Jost's Bar's Famous Pickled Eggs | Los Angeles

The bartender's tasks: pouring drinks, cleaning glasses, making sandwiches and peeling hard-boiled eggs.

The bartenders at Joe Jost's, in Long Beach, peel a lot of eggs.

That's because this bar, one of the oldest west of the Mississippi, is far more famous for its pickled eggs ($1 each) than for its handful of beers on tap.

Opened in 1924, as a barbershop, the bar has been a mainstay of Long Beach life since long before you heard Snoop Dogg or Sublime for the first time. It may be called the LBC now, but back then, Long Beach was home to so many Midwestern immigrants, it was known as Iowa-By-The-Sea; Joe Jost's encapsulates that history.

The pickled eggs–punchy orbs full of the tang and heat of vinegar and yellow pepper–are one of our favorite bar snacks in the Southland. Served in a twist of deli paper, with a pile of pretzel sticks and a heavy-handed showering of black pepper, they're tailor-made for timeless bar snacking.

The bar's trifecta of pickled eggs, a "special" ($3)–soft rye bread slathered in mustard and wrapped around a Polish sausage, a pickle and a slice of cheese–and a schooner ($5-$6) of literally ice-cold beer, is far more than a meal.

Joe Jost's, 2802 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach; 562-439-5446 or joejosts.com