eastvillage What does Downtown Long Beach taste like? Wednesday’s third Taste of Downtown Long Beach, held along street-fair-ready First Street in the East Village, provided only some small clues—but did put to rest the area’s old reputation for car exhaust and Albertson’s roasted chickens.

Instead, there was bread pudding from Auld Dubliner, Dungeness crab cakes from Parker’s Lighthouse and hummus veggie wraps from the Village Grind. And there was more where that came from—although, unfortunately, not a lot more.

Although the sponsoring Downtown Long Beach Associates invited restaurants from the 710 Freeway to Alamitos Ave., only eight establishments participated. That’s down from 14 at the previous two Taste of Long Beach events—one on the waterfront in March and another on Pine Ave. last September.

Nonetheless, there was still plenty of opportunity for discovery, as many of the restaurants that did participate did so for the first time. They included Utopia, VG, and District Wine, as well as recently-opened establishments such as Renaissance Hotel’s new cocktail lounge, sip, and downtown’s first Indian/Pakistani restaurant, Kabob Curry.

Lines were long—a reflection of the quality of the food, yes, but also of the lack of choices available. It was a little sad not to see such quintessential East Village restaurants as Crème de La Crepe, Zephyr and Sipology Coffee.

A comprehensive compiling of Downtown’s eclectic restaurants might still remain elusive for the DLBA—despite its nomadic movements to encourage new participants—but it’s no matter. An affordable mid-week traipse through even an incomplete list of the East Village’s savory offerings (plus live jams from last year’s BuskerFest winners) beats Pine Ave.’s full showing of its pumped-up corporate fare.