Scott’s Seafood reopens in Oakland with chic new look; Walnut Creek location has closed

It was sometime after the crab cakes and before the linguine with clams when musician David Eric Tillman lit into a rendition of Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say?” that had the socially distanced dinner crowd in the lounge on its feet.

Customer Steven Day, a teacher and local oyster bar owner, turned to his dining companion and exclaimed: “Scott’s is back, baby!”

After a nearly yearlong COVID-19 closure, Scott’s Seafood — the anchor restaurant at Jack London Square in Oakland with the longest tenure, 37 years — has reopened for indoor and outdoor dining, breathing new life into this corner of the waterfront district.

During the shutdown, the restaurant underwent a massive renovation, turning the bar into the chic Red Room Lounge — with booths and chairs upholstered in red leather and modern artwork adorning the walls — and adding Belgian wool carpeting and hammered copper accents throughout the main waterfront dining room and the private dining rooms. The 30,000-square-foot Scott’s complex includes 11 banquet rooms.

Owner Raymond Gallagher had opted not to offer a limited takeout food model in 2020. “What we sell is ambience. We sell special occasions,” he said. “And you can’t put special occasions in a to-go box.”

The return of indoor dining — and the prospect of increased capacity in the near future — has enabled him to bring back 90 employees, including many who have been with Scott’s for three decades or more. The federal Paycheck Protection Program money helped with payroll last year.

“It feels good to be open again,” general manager Ramiro Carabez said. He’s one of the Scott’s veterans, having worked his way up over a 29-year period from line cook and bartender.

Unfortunately, Gallagher said, he wasn’t able to negotiate better terms to keeps his Scott’s Seafood in Contra Costa County open.

“Walnut Creek is a casualty of the COVID,” he said, adding that the landlord there offered only a rent deferment