The Brief

In a region packed with doughnut shops, Moonbridge Doughnut Studio in Long Beach stands out from the crowd with its eclectic designs, including edible berry crumb Labubus and a series inspired by author Roald Dahl.

I’ve had my eye on Moonbridge, which is on the corner of East Spring Street and Palo Verde Avenue, for more than six months — ever since images of its doughnuts inspired by the TV show Avatar: The Last Airbender popped up on my Instagram feed in February.

So I headed to the shop early Thursday morning to satisfy my hunger — and curiosity — and to see if the treats are worth the hype.

Co-owner Anabelle Brown told LAist the look and feel of Moonbridge are as if famed director Wes Anderson had a quirky little sister who went to art school and then opened up a doughnut shop.

For Roald Dahl week, the James and the Giant Peach doughnut featured a tiny peach plopped in the center and chocolate insect-shaped decorations to represent the main characters.

An “Ube Wan Cannoli” doughnut, with a chocolate-covered pretzel that looks like a lightsaber, combined tributes to the Star Wars movies and Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

And in an homage to Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, the “Soots in Cahoots” doughnuts were covered in colorful stars and three soot sprites from his movie Spirited Away.

“We tried to not only be, like, aesthetically pleasing but really try to communicate our story,” Brown said, adding that the story of the shop is “very heartfelt for us.”

She noted that she and co-owner Kim Gros were intentional about opening the shop in Long Beach “because our stories connect so much in this area,” including other shops owned by Brown’s family.

Anabelle Brown, co-owner of Moonbridge Doughnut Studio in Long Beach.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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How Moonbridge came to be

Brown was approached by Gros a few years ago with her concept of opening an artisanal doughnut shop with quality coffee that could bring a lot of joy to customers, in part, by incorporating pop culture into the fare.

Brown, who has a background in baking and art, said she felt confident exploring ideas for new designs and flavors, but doughnuts were a new medium.

Brown, who is Cambodian American, comes from a long line of doughnut shop owners. Five of her relatives run shops in California and Arizona, including the Long Beach bakery Simone’s Donuts. The business’ namesake is Brown’s grandmother.

Co-owner Anabelle Brown grabs doughnuts for a pair of customers at Moonbridge Doughnut Studio in Long Beach.

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Makenna Sievertson

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Doughnuts are a big part of the L.A. County landscape, which can be traced back to one man who came to California from Cambodia in 1975 and later bought a doughnut shop. He wound up sponsoring many Cambodians who came to the U.S. during a refugee wave in the late 1970s, and he taught them the doughnut biz.

Brown didn’t grow up working in her relatives’ shops. Her father took a different path. He became an architect.

But the “doughnut shop world,” as she put it, wasn’t completely foreign to her.

“This idea and this concept felt very accessible for me,” she said. “And it was just like, ‘OK, I just need to learn the way of, like, the doughnut shop.’”

Brown studied her family’s shops, something she called a “personal doughnut pilgrimage,” learning how to make the pastries all on her own.

Brown’s grandfather died while she and Gros were developing the concept of the shop, and Moonbridge became even more meaningful, she said.

Moonbridge, which officially opened in April 2024, is a “love letter” to the people who’ve come before, she said, while “trying to create a place that feels celebratory and joyful.”

Quirky creations

Moonbridge is best known for its creative pop culture themes, including a series of six doughnuts inspired by Mean Girls that launched Thursday. Some of the doughnuts are named after well-known quotes from the 2004 movie.

The “It’s October 3rd” doughnut is coated in malted strawberry milkshake icing, as is the “Get in Loser” option, which is also topped off with a tiny pink car.

As one Instagram user — @phoebe_eats — wrote in a comment: It's the collab "millennials all need to heal our heart."

I had to grab the “Burn Book” doughnut, a reference to a key plot point in the movie, made with salted malted vanilla icing and black-and-white letters that looked freshly affixed by Regina George, the queen mean girl herself.

The dough felt light and fluffy under all the icing, but it also wasn’t too sweet to discourage me from taking another bite.

“We still try to have certain flavors and items that feel nostalgic or classic, but just having our own Moonbridge twist to things,” Brown said.

Brown has taken songs or scenes from movies and TV shows and transformed them into doughnuts, including “Speed Demon” by Justin Bieber with a tiny car and the chocolate cake confession with Miss Trunchbull from the movie Matilda, which was coated in ganache.

Brown has a spreadsheet titled “reckless abandon mode” that includes all of Moonbridge’s new flavors, recipes and lineups, which she said helps keep her creative juices flowing.

How to taste it for yourself

Moonbridge Doughnut Studio

Where: 6344 E. Spring St., Long Beach

When: Seven days a week, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Please note: The themed doughnuts are available on the counter starting at 9 a.m., but you can also pre-order to make sure you don’t miss out.

The shop shares its upcoming lineup on Instagram, including a KPop Demon Hunters theme in about two weeks and Twilight at the end of October, as well as The Grinch and Nightmare Before Christmas in December.

Moonbridge's "Coffee & Cigarettes" doughnut includes java chip icing and an Italian breadstick with "ash" made of Oreo cookie crumbs.

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Makenna Sievertson

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LAist

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Alysa Liu’s comeback at this year’s Olympics — and her stunning gold medal win — has rocked the world of figure skating, making headlines due to her joy while performing and her commitment to mental health on and off the ice.

Though she primarily trained in Oakland, Liu, who’s also a psychology student at UCLA, has used a facility in Lakewood as one of her home bases away from home. The 20-year-old started training there as she came back from retirement and prepared to take the gold medal (not that that was necessarily her goal, to hear her tell it).

It’s part of a long history for the Rinks-Lakewood ICE, which has also hosted many champions and Olympians over the years, including Mariah Bell, Nathan Chen, Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon, and counts prominent figure skaters among their staff.

“ We're not unfamiliar with Olympic ties,” said Braden Overett, the skating manager at Lakewood ICE, though he also clarified, “that does not in any way diminish the fun and the coolness [of Liu’s win].”

Lakewood ICE’s place in this year’s Olympics

Working with her coaches remotely, Liu started to drill down on perfecting her skating while also attending classes at UCLA. And though she moved on to her home base at Oakland Ice Center as the Olympic training started to ramp up, the staff who worked with her at Lakewood ICE kept cheering her on.

Overett said that he loves highlighting the Olympic connections at the rink, which may not be obvious to everyone who skates there.

“It's always fun just to connect the dots, right?” Overett said. “It's like going to a restaurant and then you find out later it's your favorite actor's restaurant.”

Ashleigh Ellis runs the nonprofit Unity Ice Academy, which focuses on increasing access to figure skating for kids of all backgrounds at Lakewood ICE.

“ That's just very much how the skating world is. It's very small, you never know who you're going to run into at any time,” Ellis said. “ Could you imagine just being on the ice with a national champion and Olympic skater of any sort? It's just so inspiring for the kids to see that and be within the vicinity of that.”

And Liu wasn’t the only 2026 Olympic figure skater who's used the facility. Li Yu-Hsiang, the Taiwanese national champion who represented Chinese Taipei in Milan this year, also trains in Lakewood.

The rink’s coaches

The small world of skating means that even novice skaters can take classes from world-class skaters: 1976 Olympic silver medalist Dianne de Leeuw teaches there, as do national medalists (and future Olympic contenders) Starr Andrews and Josephine Lee.

 "To get to see them and to get to share ice with them just has a layer of magic that you can't replace and you can't get anywhere else,” Overett said. “ You see the turnover of generations, and it brings in a huge element of history.”

What Liu’s win means for the skating world

Ellis is already using Liu’s example to stress the importance of mental health to the kids and families she works with, like one parent who was worrying about her child taking two weeks off skating due to pneumonia.

“I was like, ‘Alysa Liu took two plus years off and she just won the Olympic gold. Do not worry about it this two weeks,’” she said.

A bipartisan bill aimed at protecting pets during disasters has been introduced in Congress, with a Southern California representative citing the rescue efforts of local organizations during last year’s L.A.-area fires.

The PETSAFE Act of 2026 — which stands for Providing Essential Temporary Shelter Assistance For Emergencies — would expand the use of emergency management funds so local governments can plan for evacuations that move animals to safety, as well as provide veterinary care and rescue equipment during disasters.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) helped introduce the bill earlier this month with several House of Representatives colleagues, including Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida and Democrat Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada.

Chu, who represents Pasadena and Altadena in the 28th Congressional District, said when the Eaton Fire tore through her district, many families delayed evacuations because they couldn’t bear to leave their pets behind.

She told LAist she’ll never forget seeing the cats, dogs and other animals with burned feet and singed fur who were being cared for by Pasadena Humane in the aftermath.

“But to think, if there is even one more thing we could do to keep our precious pets safe, wouldn't we want to do that?” Chu said. “So this PETSAFE Act could go a long way towards making sure that our loved pets can indeed survive a disaster.”

About the bill

Pasadena Humane teams looked for pets and wildlife in Eaton burn zones, dropping off food and water along the way.

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The PETSAFE Act now has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The bill would amend the Emergency Management Performance Grant program to increase the federal cost share for certain animal-related preparedness activities from 50% to 90%.

Supporters say this would lower barriers and make it more affordable for communities to roll out emergency protection plans for people and pets.

Specifically, the PETSAFE Act would allow state, local and tribal governments to use grant money awarded by FEMA toward pet supplies, crates, veterinary equipment, emergency generators and training, among others.

Pet owners whose homes are under disaster-related evacuation orders can be faced with an “impossible choice” — leaving their pets behind or staying home with them, which risks the owner’s own safety and complicates rescue efforts for first responders, according to Chu’s office.

The bill aims to address the challenges pet owners and first responders face without authorizing new federal spending, according to Mast’s office.

How we got here 

Chu said local shelters, including Pasadena Humane, and communities across California stepped up to care for all kinds of animals during the Eaton Fire, which ignited in January 2025.

Pasadena Humane helped more than 1,500 pets and wildlife during the fire and in the aftermath by providing shelter, medical care and emergency resources.

A horse was housed in the organization’s garage when Chris Ramon, Pasadena Humane’s president and CEO, ran into its owner walking down Raymond Avenue for miles.

“Part of me likes to think that this won’t happen again,” Ramon told LAist last month. “But the realist in me realizes … disaster preparedness is something that just is an ongoing conversation for us at Pasadena Humane.”

Chu also cited the work of the ASPCA, which helped more than 530 animals during the Eaton Fire, including goats, parakeets, pigs and a gecko, according to the organization.

She said local organizations did “tremendous” work and “lovingly cared for” the rush of animals affected by the fire.

“But what we would want to do is to make sure that there is an even better system for animal evacuation and ways to ensure that pets could be safe,” Chu said, adding that would relieve the burden on places like Pasadena Humane.

Other laws aiming to protect pets

This is not the first time last year’s fires have led to new legislation focused on protecting pets during emergencies.

A new state law known as the FOUND Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, was inspired by Oreo the Pomeranian, who reunited with its Pacific Palisades owner in an emotional, viral video during the Palisades Fire.

The law requires cities and counties to include procedures for rescuing pets during mandatory evacuations in their next emergency plans, which need to be updated every five years to qualify for FEMA assistance.