Oakland has a new game-day headquarters: Five & Dime, a sports pub from chef Michele McQueen and business partner Matt Sturm, has opened at 329 14th Street in a space built to hold roughly 75 guests between its dining room and patio. The pub pairs five interior TVs and a projector screen with a sixth television outside, free classic arcade games like Pac-Man and Galaga, and a menu that leans on McQueen's soul-food instincts applied to bar food.
The venue soft opened on September 8, 2026, according to transparent.city, which reports the 4,850-square-foot space previously housed the Dinner House and that the lease was signed in May 2026. The official opening was later detailed by FSR Magazine, which describes five televisions and a projector filling the interior, with another television on the patio for watching games. As The Mercury News frames it, Five & Dime is meant to be a nostalgic neighborhood watering hole that also honors Oakland itself, with an Oakland Tribute Wall inside celebrating local musicians, athletes, activists and other hometown figures.
A Menu Built Around Soul-Food Bar Food
McQueen's menu centers on dishes like her buttermilk-brined fried chicken sandwich, finished with her own Crack Sauce, dill pickles and shredded lettuce, the publication reports. Other items include an Oakland smash burger with bacon jam and white cheddar, Dime Piece wings in a sweet-spicy glaze, a wedge salad with buttermilk ranch and bacon, and a crab-and-artichoke dip inspired by Kincaid's Fish, Chops & Steaks.
The bar pours craft beer alongside cocktails including a Hennessy espresso martini, a blackberry smash and a drink called Dime & Dash. McQueen told the Mercury News that Five & Dime welcomes people to eat, watch games and spend time together, a mission reflected in the pub's programming: trivia night runs Wednesdays from 7 to 9 p.m., and football is shown on weekends starting at 10 a.m. Five & Dime is open 4 p.m. to midnight Wednesdays through Fridays and 10 a.m. to midnight Saturdays and Sundays, per the same report.
McQueen's Growing Oakland Footprint
Five & Dime was developed alongside Matt Sturm, who is also McQueen's co-owner at the cocktail lounge Lucy Blue, according to the Mercury News. McQueen and Sturm took over the former Duende space for Lucy Blue in August 2025, according to the Mercury News's earlier profile of the chef.
McQueen also owns Town Fare, the restaurant inside the Oakland Museum of California, which the museum itself lists as Town Fare by Michele McQueen on its venue page. Town Fare specializes in creative treatments of soul-food classics, and McQueen has cooked private meals for Steph Curry and Anita Baker, according to the Mercury News. She previously owned San Francisco's Gussie's Chicken and Waffles, where FSR Magazine notes she became widely recognized for helping popularize chicken and waffles throughout the Bay Area.
A Changing Stretch of 14th Street
Five & Dime lands on a block that has seen real turnover. Downtown Oakland's 14th Street corridor has experienced a mix of closures and new tenants over the past three years, per transparent.city, and the outlet describes Five & Dime as among the larger single-tenant restaurant footprints to open in downtown Oakland in 2026.
The opening also arrives against a tougher backdrop for Oakland sports bars generally. A February 2026 report from the San Francisco Chronicle described the closure of Athletic Club Oakland, a game-day destination for sports fans, as the latest in a string of bar closures in the city at that time — a detail that underscores why McQueen and Sturm's bet on a new, large-format sports pub stands out on a block still finding its footing.
