Happiness is pickled eggs at a 100-year-old bar in Long Beach

I like to make up fantastical stories for people I see at dive bars. My current favorite is Joe Jost’s, the nearly 100-year-old bar in Long Beach. He utters the words “pickled eggs” and “100 years old” and, despite the plate of lok lak and the bowl of rice noodle soup we just finished, I can’t resist. It’s a makeshift sandwich with a pickle spear nestled into a split Polish sausage and a slice of cheese on two pieces of rye bread smeared with hot mustard. But with alternating bites of sandwich, pretzel and egg and sips of ice-cold root beer while the sounds of the bar lull me into a pleasant afternoon haze, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.