Busy times in Oakland for new drink options
After closing Hawker Fare in Oakland a few months ago, and helping launch Old Kan Beer Co. in West Oakland a few weeks later, James Syhabout has turned his sights toward Commis (3859 Piedmont Ave.), his Michelinstarred East Bay restaurant.
The chef is taking over the space directly next door to Commis to open a full bar and lounge space called C.D.P. (3861 Piedmont Ave.). The name is an acronym for “chef de partie”; it’s a wink to another kitchen position, commis, which translates roughly to “junior chef.”
Construction will start May 1. Commis won’t be affected by the work until the end, when it will shut down for a week or two so a hole can be cut into the wall to connect the two spaces. The project is slated to be completed by the fall.
C.D.P. will have 24 seats overall, including 10 at a bar, and a full liquor license, with a focus on brandy and Champagnes.
The food, Syhabout said, is going to be small plates available a la carte, plus snacks. He gave an example of someone skipping the full Commis experience — where the only menu option is a $149 tasting menu — and instead sidling up to the bar to order a dozen oysters, maybe some caviar, some kind of small plate, a drink and then heading out.
“This is going to be a laidback space for people that want the Commis type of experience, but they don’t want to have a full sit-down dinner,” he said.
More beer for Temescal: Arthur Mac’s Tap & Snack (4006 Martin Luther King Jr. Way) is now open on the corner of 40th Street and M.L.K. Jr. Way, just a stone’s throw from Oakland’s MacArthur BART station.
The $4.50-$7.50 beers and $3.25-$4 pizza slices come via East Bay design firm Farm League Management, the same crew behind Drake’s Dealership.
Arthur Mac’s joins a North Oakland/Temescal neighborhood that’s already home to Hog’s Apothecary, Temescal Brewing and the pending Roses’ Taproom off Temescal Alley.
More might be en route, too. Last month, Southern California’s Golden Road Brewing, founded in 2011 by Meg Gill and Tony Yanow and purchased by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2015, announced plans to open a beer garden
made of shipping containers in the empty lot behind Clove & Hoof (4001 Broadway). The project has been met with opposition.
“Golden Road is not healthy competition — it is a deliberate attempt by an international conglomerate to stifle small business and to cash in on a beer scene started through the risk and sacrifice of local beer lovers,” Sam Gilbert, founder of Temescal Brewery, told SFGate last month.
New scoops: Good news, Bay Area ice cream lovers:
Portland’s Salt & Straw opened its first Bay Area location this week at 2201 Fillmore St.
Kim and Tyler Malek, the duo behind the company, said their second location in Hayes Valley (580 Hayes St.) could open by early summer.
Looking toward the future, the Maleks are searching for commissary kitchen space in San Francisco, which — and this is more good news for ice cream fans — means the minichain has tentative plans to open more locations in the Bay Area.
Salt & Straw’s flavors are unique. One, a sorbet made from strawberries and coriander leaf, is a collaboration with a Berkeley perfumer; another involves olive oil from Napa Valley with lemon curd. Also on the list: roasted strawberry tres leches and a coffee-chocolate flavor from Sightglass Coffee and Dandelion Chocolate.