A new bar on Alameda's Santa Clara Avenue has figured out a formula that pairs well with just about anyone's Friday night: strong cocktails and messy, cheese-stuffed burgers. Mix Bar, which opened in late spring 2026 at 2320 ½ Santa Clara Ave., serves cheeseburgers and cocktails out of a space in the city's Park Street area, and on weekend evenings it hands the kitchen over to a rotating burger pop-up that has quickly become the draw.
According to The Mercury News, Mix Bar is run by the same team behind Somar Bar, the Uptown Oakland lounge that closed in 2023. Somar operated for 14 years at 1727 Telegraph Ave. before its permanent closure, according to the Somar Bar website, and during its run, the venue became known as a community gathering spot, at one point hosting a high-profile George Floyd tribute mural during the June 2020 protests, as Oakland Voices reported at the time. The team's move from Oakland's Uptown district across the estuary to Alameda marks a notable shift for operators who built a following on the other side of the water.
Mix Bar held its soft opening on May 5, followed by an official grand opening two days later, according to Richmondside. The bar is open from 4 p.m. to midnight Tuesdays through Saturdays, per the same report, and pairs its bar program with live DJ sets, giving the space a nightlife-forward identity alongside its food offerings.
Juicy Lucys and a Siu-Mai Patty on the Menu
The current headline attraction is Pound4Pound Grilled Burgers, a pop-up that typically arrives at Mix Bar on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., the station's report notes. Its menu includes a Juicy Lucy stuffed with cheddar and served with fried pickles, shallots, caramelized onions and Parmesan, a Hellraiser burger topped with bacon, blue cheese, mozzarella and jalapeño-pistachio jam, and a Crouching Tiger burger built around a siu-mai patty with cilantro, cucumber-chili slaw and century egg.
Pound4Pound has documented its process on Instagram, showing how the cooks sear the beef to form a crust, salt it, flip once, add cheese, cover it, remove it from the heat, let it rest, and then serve it. Before landing its July 2026 residency at Mix Bar, the pop-up had already built a track record cooking at East Bay craft breweries, including stints at Federation Brewing in Oakland and at Temescal Brewing during SF Beer Week in February 2026, according to the Alameda Brewing Co.
A Cocktail List Built for Summer
On the drinks side, Mix Bar leans into seasonal, summer-ready flavors. Its lineup includes lychee and espresso martinis, a Summer in Alameda cocktail made with gin, chamomile syrup and lemon, and a Pressed in Pink cocktail built on vodka, guava, ginger and lime. Also on the list are a Snap Pea Gimlet made with lime juice and pea syrup, a Spice Runner cocktail combining rum, pineapple amaro, lime and a dark-rum float, and non-alcoholic options including a Lychee and Elderflower soda and a Pandan Sparkler.
The bar's original opening menu, detailed on the Mix Bar website, also included a Pandan Old Fashioned made with bourbon, pandan syrup and masala bitters, along with a calamansi-infused bourbon drink called the Sonrisa. For those who prefer it simple, Mix Bar still pours classic cocktails including a whiskey highball, an Old Fashioned and a Negroni. The business is operated by Light Patterns, LLC, the corporate entity listed on the bar's official web records.
Filling a Storied Storefront on Santa Clara Avenue
The address itself carries some local history. The commercial space at 2320 Santa Clara Ave. was formerly home to Stone's Cyclery, a multi-generational custom bicycle shop founded in 1943, according to the Stone's Cyclery website. Mix Bar now occupies that storefront within Alameda's historic Park Street Business District, an area represented by the Downtown Alameda Business Association, which counts nearly 500 local businesses and more than 110 dining and drinking establishments in the district as of 2026.
Mix Bar's debut also lands amid a broader wave of East Bay food and beverage openings across Alameda County this summer, a stretch that has coincided with heavier festival traffic and major regional sporting events, according to a report from Perry Kayasone. For a bar built around rotating pop-ups and a seasonal cocktail list, that added foot traffic could matter as it works to establish itself in a crowded Park Street lineup of eateries and watering holes.
