Oakland’s culinary soul found along Lake Merritt
Restaurants run by minorities showcase area’s diversity
“This strip is the heartbeat of the food scene in this neighborhood.”
Vegan Mob chefowner Toriano Gordon
Oakland’s blackowned Vegan Mob restaurant ran out of food six hours into its first meal service in October. The business, on Lake Park Avenue in Oakland’s Grand Lake neighborhood, was equipped to serve a few hundred that day, not the thousands who arrived.
Yet when Vegan Mob chefowner Toriano Gordon noticed people leaving the long line at his establishment to dine at lesscrowded restaurants nearby, he smiled. Gordon shares his strip of Lake Park, between Grand Avenue and Lakeshore Avenue, with Cuban bar and cafe Caña, and an outpost of national chicken wing chain Wing Stop. Both businesses are operated by black men.
“To have three black owners on the same block is a beautiful thing. You don’t see that very often here or in San Francisco anymore,” Gordon said. “This strip is the heartbeat of the food scene in this
neighborhood.”
Many Oakland natives see Lake Park Avenue as a cultural touchstone for the Grand Lake neighborhood. With the recent opening of Vegan Mob, the strip has also become a microcosm of Grand Lake dining, where diversity and representation are paramount.
The neighborhood is home to the historic Grand Lake Theatre, an Oakland landmark on Grand Avenue. It’s where hundreds of black and brown people waited for hours in 2018 to watch “Black Panther,” a superhero film directed by East Bay native Ryan Coogler. Many left the theater after the film and dined at the surrounding minorityowned businesses.
Lake Park Avenue is also where people park and walk to the BBQ’n While Black event, a newly formed annual gathering at the northeastern shore of Lake Merritt led by the city’s black populace.
In the halfmile swath of the Grand Lake neighborhood bordered by Lake Park, Grand, Lakeshore and Mandana avenues are more than a halfdozen prominent businesses either operated or managed by people of color. Some, like Vegan Mob, are new to the area, while others have years of history.
The diversity near Lake Park Avenue is not reflected in Oakland’s overall business landscape. The city’s 2018 Equity Indicators Report, which focused on racial inequities related to city policies, shows that only 1.4% of African Americans employed in Oakland are business owners, compared with 3.9% for white workers. Of Latino workers in the city, 2.4% own businesses; for Asian workers, the figure is 2.3%.
The Grand Lake neighborhood is an outlier, according to Oakland chef Nelson German.
“It’s one of the most established neighborhoods in Oakland, but it’s also one of the most colorful. It reminds me of New York,” said German, who grew up in uptown Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. “The people born and raised in Oakland want the neighborhood to keep that oldschool feel. It can keep that, and still have this diversity.”
In addition to blackowned Vegan Mob, which specializes in vegan soul food like gumbo and collard greens and is staffed mostly by people of color, newcomers to the area include Bardo Lounge. The lounge and supper club opened in late 2018 on Lakeshore Avenue with women of color in highranking positions in the kitchen, behind the bar and in management. And worldfamous DJ Steve Aoki, the son of Japanese American parents, opened a deliveryonly pizza parlor called Pizzaoki in February on Lake Park Avenue.
Caña, the Cuban restaurant known for its weekly salsa nights, was opened in 2011 by owner Yusuf Spiers. Emon Tolliver has been the operator of the Lake Park Avenue Wing Stop since 2005. Then there’s Lin Jia Kitchen on Lakeshore Avenue, known for Korean fried chicken and Cantonese noodles, which also is owned by people of color. Neecha Thai Cuisine on Grand Avenue has been a presence in the food scene since 2007.
“It’s important that the places where people can go in this neighborhood reflect the people who live here,” said Seth Bregman, who coowns Bardo Lounge with his wife, Jenni Bregman.
Evan Kidera, coowner of the pioneering Filipino food truck outfit Señor Sisig, said he grew familiar with the business climate along Lake Park Avenue while searching for a space in the area last year. Kidera was close to moving into the Vegan Mob location, but changed his mind when realizing it came with a shortterm lease. Kidera is friends with Vegan Mob owner Gordon and introduced him to the location.
Kidera said he walked away from the space knowing that any food endeavor on Lake Park Avenue is a risky venture but could be rewarding as the area grows. The strip once had a reputation for street crime, which often kept crowds away in the evenings, he said.
“It can be kind of tough over there for a business, but the more activity you put there, the better it gets,” Kidera said. “Vegan Mob has people outside all the time, so it brings this vibrancy to the area.”
Before Vegan Mob, the restaurant site was home to the Merritt Bakery, which has since moved to another part of the neighborhood. Before that, it housed Kwik Way, a burger restaurant built in 1955. Two years from now, the location will be home to affordable housing. Gordon said he hopes to open Vegan Mob in a permanent Oakland location after its current lease ends.
Kidera said the transition illustrates how the Grand Lake area is grappling with preserving the past while addressing its future needs.
Waterfront property is in high demand in Oakland. With Lake Merritt adjacent to the neighborhood, it has become a destination area. Minority business owners are able to thrive with this increasing opportunity, according to German. But with that opportunity have come higher rents.
“There was a time when it was cheaper to open a business out here than in San Francisco, but that’s not the case anymore,” said German, echoing what other restaurateurs have said about the neighborhood. “What helps is finding a turnkey space, something you don’t have to do a great deal of work to in order to get open.”
Even if demographics in the neighborhood are shifting as new residents come to the area, food remains a core component of the Grand Lake neighborhood culture, especially on Lake Park Avenue.
“Representation and diversity is what people talk about, but you can actually see it on Lake Park Avenue and in the Grand Lake neighborhood,” Gordon said. “There’s nothing else out here really like what’s happening here in this neighborhood.”