Chowder Barge

All Aboard the Chowder Barge, LA’s Only Floating Restaurant | Eater LA

"Floating just offshore between San Pedro and Long Beach, I found a bobbing rig that promises one thing to newcomers and longtime regulars alike: a lot of clam chowder. Greater LA’s only floating restaurant, the Barge is celebrated for wildly inventive uses of its namesake chowder — from bowls to a double clam chowder (a chowder-filled bowl topped with fried clams), to burgers slathered in chowder and fries served with chowder as a dipping sauce — and dishes like the cult-favorite Rev’s Special, a messy but beloved chowder-covered burger. The operation leans into its quirky, storied past: the barge is rumored to have trafficked lumber, to have been used during the filming of the 1935 Mutiny on the Bounty, and may even be about 100 years old, with Leeward Marina owner Bob Perel said to have moved it to its current spot in 1988. Longtime customer-turned-owner Nyla Olsen (who helped run the place after Zack Connor and Susie Richman bought it in 2010 and then took ownership herself) and her son Kraig have overseen careful menu cleanups — hand-pressing burger patties, switching to fresh fish, and tightening the original chowder recipe — and relentless maintenance of the aging, max-60-person rig. Dining here means accepting the limits and charms of life on the water: a one-cook kitchen, two servers, occasional ballast issues that force guests to wait on the dock, and the frank reality that the marina sits where “the sewer meets the sea.” Regulars tend to be locals, port and refinery workers, and seniors, while others come for the novelty (or to see the table where Benicio del Toro sat in Inherent Vice). With an uncertain lease and encroaching port redevelopment, the family is exploring a mainland food truck to preserve the flavors, but for now the Barge remains open daily (lunch through dinner most days, with early service from 9 a.m. Friday–Sunday), moored inside Leeward Bay Marina at 611 N. Henry Ford Avenue, Los Angeles, California." - Brian Addison