Ficklewood Ciderworks, Long Beach’s First Cidery, Is the Place You Want to Be
While Ficklewood Ciderworks is currently closed, they are partnering with local businesses BrewWings and Maritime Bicycle Courier to provide delivery and curbside pick-up opportunities for cider and grocery essentials. Until they fully open again for the community to enjoy, order a taste of their refreshing cider to try at home!
If you are not all that familiar with hard cider, don’t be intimidated—it’s a lot more familiar than you think. Think of cider as the distant cousin of white wine and beer that doesn’t garner nearly as much attention than it should. In essence, creating cider traditionally uses a process similar to winemaking: crushing fresh fruit juices and fermenting it. Chances are, you have never been to a cidery—not because you don’t like them, it’s just that they are just few and far between. Fortunately, Ficklewood Ciderworks is the element missing that completes Downtown Long Beach’s bustling Arts District.
At Ficklewood Ciderworks, you can expect a welcoming environment—a “living room of Long Beach,” if you will. It’s an open space that feels like a neighborhood hangout. Created by two Long Beach natives, neighbors Joe Farrier and Stefan Enjem decided to turn their passion project into a real space for people to gather and take part in what they’ve created.
“We take the modern and traditional elements of cidering and blend it to create our own unique take on what we feel a dry cider should taste like,” says co-founder Enjem.
Farrier and Enjem’s passion for cider also stems from their health conditions.
“I have Celiac, and Stefan is type 1 diabetic, so I can’t drink beer because of the gluten, and he can’t have a lot of sweetness, so we ventured into dry cider.” says co-founder Farrier.
Ficklewood’s ciders are the culmination of hundreds of hours of experimentation and creativity. From their original cider that blends three different apples to the more complex Moodyroot that incorporates beets, pistachios and blood oranges, Ficklewood will have a cider to surprise you in many ways.
Ficklewood is more than just a cider, it’s a home—in the same way the Hundred Acre Wood is to Winne the Pooh or Neverland is to Peter Pan. Ficklewood’s space carries the spirit of wonder and curiosity; it’s a former DMV from the 1930s with a major floor plan revamping, and it’s become a place of gathering for all the right reasons. With bar tops, tables and patio seating, it caters to the ever-fluid community that resides in Long Beach. Community gathering events are happening both weekly and monthly—trivia nights, paint and sip, yoga and more.
While Ficklewood Ciderworks does not have an in-house kitchen, it does have partnerships with a rotating selection of food trucks and quick deliveries from their restaurant neighbors like Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles, Panvimarn Thai and others.
At its essence, Ficklewood Ciderworks is the passion project of two Long Beach natives who had a dream of sharing their love for cider with their neighbors.
“It was no question, we wanted to find a place in Long Beach, and it was the only place we looked,” says Enjem, emphasizing the importance of their location. Long Beach Cidery
As the city’s first and only cidery, they made it a point to have elements of the place they call home incorporated into the space. From their floor-to-ceiling mural to the branding and unique tap handles, everything was a collaboration with local artists. Their “INCIDERS” Club is for those who are truly passionate about cider and want to enjoy special tastings, early access to future releases and have an opportunity to help develop new flavors.
Ficklewood Ciderworks
720 E Broadway
Long Beach, CA 90802 Long Beach Cidery
562.676.4497
Written By: Raphael Madrid
Photographed By: Sterling Reed Long Beach Cidery
