As of November 2019, the corner area in a busy shopping mall at the intersection of PCH, Bellflower and Seventh Street had a high percentage of employees who quit their jobs. In under 24 months, the area, where Blue Burro now stands, had been home to one location that served chicken wings as well as another that offered tortas and organic tacos. The latter restaurant closed because it said that it lacked foot traffic. Considering the college-proximate location as well as the ever-busy neighboring spaces like Cha for Tea, Target, and Afters Ice Cream, people expected that Blue Burro would stick around with some cautious optimism.
In 2019, the interior arrangement was identical to the earlier few concepts where customers would order food over the counter and pick dining area tables on the side. The location had a theme with one shade of cheerful and bright blue right through, dotted with donkey portraits as well as interesting sayings like ‘Burritos Are Life’. It was one of those cheerful proclamations that would welcome customers to Blue Burro. The restaurant was dedicated to that theme back then.
It offered healthy-ish and Mexican-style comfort food as well as advertised that its shakes, fries and burritos were made from just the freshest components. The agua frescas and salsas were from scratch, although its signature beverage that came as milkshake, agua fresca or paleta had an eggshell blue shade. It was a sweet and smooth beverage, with a powerful cinnamon wave that came through after people sipped its vanilla rice flavored version for the first time.
The staffers would happily let customers sample the restaurant’s non-signature with rainbow hues. One employee regarded Blue Burro’s agua fresca with strawberry content as his favorite beverage, which tasted similar to a matured variety of Strawberry Quik.
It appeared that the owners based their restaurant concept around a photographable desert with a neon-blue color. The neighboring location Afters already had a popular ice cream product in the neon-blue shade. Nevertheless, the desert made many customers wonder what would make the Long Beach location stand out besides it. For starters, the restaurant served breakfast burritos throughout the day. Long Beach was a city with people who would crave breakfast burritos. It was in this city that Blue Burro started operations with a papery tortilla that barely held fluffy eggs, French fries, and salty proteins, plus other California-style products.
There were lighter products like rolled tacos as well as salads at the restaurant. One of its salads comprised grilled shrimp, romaine lettuce, angus steak, cotija, salsa fresca and special sauce. Served in threes or fives, the rolled tacos at Blue Burro were crispy Mexican dishes that contained shredded beef buried under a heap of cut romaine, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese and a drizzle of cotija. People described it as a stunningly layered mess of a product.
Blue Burro had crave-worthy burritos, Instagrammable neon-hued beverages, and other products priced well under $10 two years ago. Therefore, people expected that Blue Burro would at least stay here for a short time.
