A classic and classy view from the top

IT'S NOT often that a chap in tails and top hat greets you and escorts you to a bar's entrance. But that initial touch of class and hint of a romantic bygone era suggests that La Cantina del Cielo (The Bar in the Sky) is one of a kind. It's within the tower that crowns Long Beach's famed Spanish Renaissance-style landmark, the 1926-built Breakers, and seems to float above downtown Long Beach, with an eagle's eye view of the Queen Mary and busy harbor beyond.

Your journey to the top starts with a walk down the Breakers' 1940s-era cream-and-gold-leaf-trimmed hallway off Locust Avenue, past miniature models of historic Long Beach and a wedding chapel, to meet Martin, the top-hatted doorman. He takes guests up the most compact of vintage elevators to the former hotel penthouse, now Long Beach's special-occasion restaurant, the Sky Room, complete with jazzy weekend entertainment and a business casual dress code. For those who don't meet the Art Deco-style Sky Room's sartorial requirements, the bar is a welcoming alternative.

To enter the bar means climbing the steepest of staircases; there's a real "Vertigo" moment when you look down 16 stories before walking out onto the narrow, open-air balcony. "Wow" is the common reaction to the unexpected, all-encompassing view. Downtown Long Beach surrounds, and to the left, framed by a picturesque arch, are the now smokeless stacks of the Queen Mary and the port's main channel.

The decor is heavenly hacienda -- numerous wrought-iron fixtures, candles, Spanish tile and a space that oozes romance -- and changing weather conditions. On a recent Saturday night, a brisk breeze chilled ladies in strappy dresses. Some chose to sit at the small tiled bar; others picked a quiet corner banquette under softly lighted sconces.

Converging here are the ubiquitous, mid-50s, California guy in the faded floral Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirt, the rakish fellow in the slim-brimmed fedora (and Chuck Taylors, of course) and those who revel in historic places and are formally dressed for the part. "If it's Deco, I'm there," says John Thomas, vice president of the Art Deco Society, whose organization hosts an annual "Cocktails in Historic Places" event at La Cantina.