Walk 4th Street on the fourth Friday of the month and the block between Temple and Cherry does something most Long Beach streets don't after 7 p.m.: it stays open on purpose. Shop doors stay propped, a band sets up outside a coffee counter, someone's kid rolls past a lit-up vintage window on a skateboard. This is Fourth Fridays on Retro Row, and this month's edition lands September 25, five days from now.
What's changed since the last one isn't the format. It's who's pouring the drinks.
The Night Retro Row Didn't Need a Grand Opening
In April, Orange County brewery Everywhere opened a shared taproom with neighborhood coffee spot Good Time at 2122 E. Fourth St., a single space that pours coffee in the morning and beer at night. The wait for that space to open ran back to August 2023, when the business filed for a conditional-use permit (city records list it as CUP23-018) to allow beer sales inside an existing commercial tenant space. City inspectors didn't sign off until the afternoon of March 27, 2026, which is the kind of timeline that explains why a shop can announce itself for years before you actually see a line outside it.
When the line finally showed up, it stretched down the block. Co-owner Daniel Muñoz described the moment to the Long Beach Post in terms that had nothing to do with beer volume:
"Putting the good back into the world that you want to come back to you."
That's not a soft-launch sentiment. It's the sentiment of someone who already knew what crowd he was walking into.
What Fourth Fridays Actually Runs On
The event itself isn't complicated. It runs from 6 to 9 p.m. along 4th Street, stretching from Temple to Cherry, with shops staying open late, local vendors and artists setting up, and live entertainment filling the gaps between storefronts. A free shuttle through a partnership with DRIVER and free bike valet from Pedal Movement matter more than they sound like they should, given that parking on this stretch is limited and competitive on any night people are trying to get somewhere fast.
The schedule doesn't run on a rigid clock. A Fourth Friday landed on March 27 this year, and a "Summer Solstice Edition" ran on June 27 instead of the usual slot. What stays constant is the format: once a month, the street becomes a shared evening destination where a business that's been on the block for four decades and one that just hung its sign get the same foot traffic on the same night.
That consistency is the actual mechanism worth understanding if you're trying to figure out why a brand-new taproom didn't need years to build a following the way older shops did.
The Businesses That Give the Night Its Shape
None of this works without the anchors that were already there before Everywhere signed a lease. A few of the ones you'll pass on a Fourth Fridays walk:
- The Art Theatre, opened in 1924 as a silent movie house with an orchestra pit and pipe organ, still screening first-run films, documentaries, comedy, and concerts.
- Meow, opened by Kathleen Schaaf at 2210 E Fourth St. in 1986.
- Lola's Mexican Cuisine, at 2030 E Fourth St. since 2008, run by Brenda and Luis Navarro from day one. The restaurant did well enough here that the Navarros opened a second location in Bixby Knolls in 2016.
- Pigeon's Roller Skate Shop, the hub of Long Beach's roller skating community since 2013, still run by owner Shayna "Pigeon" Meikle.
- Third Eye Records, currently at 2234 E. 4th St., where owner Gary Farley landed after starting out selling records from the back of a friend's boutique in 2012.
- Oh La Vache, an artisanal cheese and charcuterie shop that owner Erica opened as a pandemic-era pivot, built around staying connected to food without taking on restaurant hours.
Every one of these places has its own origin story and its own reason for staying put. What they share is a single night, once a month, where they're not competing against each other for the same slice of foot traffic. They're all just open.
Why the New Taproom Slotted In Instead of Muscling In
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you only see the line outside Everywhere and assume it means the street is changing fast. A new business on most commercial strips has to build recognition one customer at a time, competing for attention against places that already have loyal regulars. Fourth Fridays removes that competition by design. Because the event puts every storefront on the same three-hour window with the same crowd walking the same three blocks, a taproom that opened in April gets to stand shoulder to shoulder with a theater that's been running since 1924 and a record shop with a decade of neighborhood history behind it, on equal footing, on night one.
That's why Everywhere didn't need a slow build. It walked straight into an audience that Fourth Fridays had already assembled for everyone else on the block. The event isn't just entertainment scheduling. It's the reason old and new businesses on Retro Row have been able to coexist instead of racing each other for the same customers.
What Else Is Filling the September Calendar
Retro Row isn't the only reason 4th Street corridor regulars have had a busy September. Just over a week ago, Burger Bash 2026 packed the Selva parking lot with a stacked lineup of competitors, part of the same citywide food calendar that's kept Long Beach's restaurant scene loud all year. Earlier this year, that same calendar ran the Long Beach Grand Prix Fixe, a bracket-style chef competition decided by diner votes that advanced Chef Jordan Domingo and Chef Jessie Franco to the semifinal round.
None of that overlaps with Fourth Fridays directly, but it's worth knowing if you live close enough to Retro Row that your weekend plans are actually competing with each other. September has been a month where the neighborhood's calendar filled in faster than most, and the fourth Friday is just one date on a longer list.
If you're already two blocks from 4th Street, none of this is news to you by the time you read it here. But if you're the person who keeps meaning to walk down on a Friday night and hasn't yet, September 25 is a reasonable night to finally do it. Bring cash for the vendors, leave the car if you can, and don't expect the format to be any more complicated than it's ever been.
Retro Row isn't building itself into something new. It's proving, one Fourth Friday at a time, that a good format outlasts whoever's currently standing behind the counter.
For those thinking longer term about what it means to live inside a neighborhood with this kind of rhythm, Charlotte Kornik works with buyers and sellers across Long Beach who want a real read on how a block actually functions, not just what the listing photos show. Reach out for a private consultation and exclusive access to what's available before it hits the wider market.
