Here's all the latest in local food news. In this edition: a downtown restaurateur is opening a new cocktail bar, Nashville-style hot chicken sandwiches are coming to downtown in a couple of weeks and West Oakland is getting a new wine bar with food offerings.
Opening
Downtown
Sobre Mesa (1618 Franklin St.)
Hoodline veteran tipster Al M. says that Sobre Mesa is set to move into the downtown space previously occupied by The Payback, which closed in September after about a year in the neighborhood.
According to its website, Sobre Mesa is owned by chef Nelson German of AlaMar Kitchen & Bar, which is located just a few blocks away. It will be a cocktail lounge focused on Afro-Latino flavors, inspired by the cultures of the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. (German himself comes from a Dominican family with African ancestry.)
The bar will emphasize small-production spirits from the Afro-Latino diaspora, including rum distilled from sugarcane grown on a family-owned plantation in Alma, Louisiana; hand-crafted rum made by Cuban rum masters in the Dominican Republic; and Träkál, an up-and-coming spirit made from the indigenous fruits and botanicals of Patagonia.
Bartender Susan Eggett, of San Francisco tiki bar Last Rites, consulted with German on the cocktail menu, which will include drinks like the Sobre Mesa (rum, mezcal, pandan syrup, falernum, soursop juice, lemon) and Mama Juan (Dominican rum, Cocchi Americano, Punte e Mes, Nocino, yerba mate spiced honey, ginger).
“Oakland gave me my first restaurant, and I’ll always be indebted to the city for that," German said in a statement. "I’d like to start another renaissance for people of color by revealing Oakland’s stylish, sexy side."
World Famous Hotboys (1601 San Pablo Ave.)
Also downtown, Al M. informs us that Nashville-style hot chicken spot World Famous Hotboys is getting ready to welcome its first guests on December 30.
Hotboys, which currently operates as a pop-up out of Forage Kitchen (478 25th St.), is taking over the space previously occupied by IB’s Hoagies & Cheesesteaks.
According to the Chronicle, owners Victor Ghaben and Berk Gibbs developed Hotboys while working at Batch & Brine, Ghaben’s family’s New American restaurant in Lafayette.
The restaurant will offer cayenne-coated fried chicken sandwiches at four levels of heat: mild, medium, hot and hot hot. (They aren't joking about the "hot" part — medium is allegedly all that most people can handle.)
The sandwiches will be served on buns, with slaw, pickles and a creamy sauce. Chicken tenders, fries, pimiento mac-and-cheese and "bonuts" (cinnamon-sugar fried biscuit dough) will round out the menu, along with beer and soft drinks.
West Oakland
Magnolia Street Wine Lounge & Kitchen (3443 San Pablo Ave.)
Nosh reports that Oakland native Leilani Baugh, the owner of Jack London Square's Asian-Creole eatery Roux and Vine, is set to open a second restaurant in West Oakland's California Hotel.
Magnolia Street Wine Lounge & Kitchen will have a similar menu to Roux and Vine, with dishes like shrimp and grits, red beans and rice, lumpia and garlic noodles. The wine list will emphasize vintners of color, and Baugh will also collaborate with local chefs for evening events and with musicians from the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music for live music at the bar.
The new eatery is arriving quickly: Baugh said on Instagram that her first day of business will be a New Year's Day brunch.
Thanks to our veteran tipster Al M.! Have you noticed a new addition to (or subtraction from) Oakland's food landscape? Text a tip and a horizontal photo to 510-757-9959, and we'll look into it.
