Hybrid restaurant opens in Oakland
A playful, one-of-a-kind food business has opened in downtown Oakland: a restaurant that doubles as a snack shop, art gallery and entertainment venue.
Baba’s House, at 410 15th St., is like an adult playland. A small restaurant section downstairs serves gyoza, salted egg Caesar salads and other Asianinspired food crafted by A.C Boral, a Filipino chef from Southern California. On the second floor, black and blue UV lights create a club-like vibe. Shelves are stocked with a curated selection of Asian snacks, from crab chips and White Rabbit candy to chili crisp. In addition, there’s a mini art gallery, mah-jongg, a DJ booth and a live-streaming room. Customers can grab a drink and snack to eat downstairs or take it to go.
Jenn Lui opened Baba’s House this month with partner Alan Chen and Boral. Boral previously ran a popular Filipino American brunch pop-up in Long Beach and lost his first restaurant, Bebot Filipino Soul Food, to a fire last year.
The chef is channeling Asian American nostalgia with Bay Area touches at Baba’s House (named in honor of Lui’s late father). Take giniling, a Filipino beef stew; here, it’s made vegan with plant-based Impossible meat and local vegetables. The gyoza are served with a housemade XO sauce and a chimichurri made from carrot tops. A chilled tofu salad is dressed with Boral’s spin on Thousand Island dressing, punched up with Korean gochujang and strawberries. The menu echoes local Asian American bakeries’ love affair with White Rabbit candy and Oakland bar Viridian’s nostalgic food, drinks and vibe.
“We all have these analogs to somebody else’s nostalgia in our lives,” Boral said. “The dishes are made with the intention of being a touchstone to somebody’s nostalgia.”
Some of the dishes feature items from the upstairs snack shop, like crispy, tom yumflavored shrimp heads repurposed as croutons for the Caesar salad. The upstairs shelves also feature local products like Mama Teav’s garlic-laced chili oil from Fruitvale’s Nyum Bai and vegan Taiwanese pineapple cakes from Annie’s T in Oakland. Grab a can of Ox & Palm chili-garlic canned beef and the kitchen will turn it into Filipino sisig on the spot.
The owners plan to host music (Lui moonlights as a DJ and Chen is a musician) and community events in the upstairs space. Or, tune into the Baba’s House live stream on Twitch.tv for snack reviews, a live count of how many gyoza they’ve sold to date and other content. The mah-jongg room will be available soon for private events. The art on display is curated by Oakland’s Strangeways Magazine and will rotate quarterly.
Baba’s House offers indoor seating and takeout, with a parklet on the way.
Baba’s House. 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. 410 15th St., Oakland. thisisbabas house.square.site