The renaissance of restaurants on Broadway Auto Row

An ironic thing is happening on Broadway’s Auto Row. In spite of the closure of car dealerships and the flood of foreclosures in Oakland, new bars and restaurants on Broadway are opening and bustling with business. While several of these businesses broke ground before the Great Recession hit last year, I find it curious that so many new places are opening! For example, Mimosa, a champagne lounge on Broadway and 23rd, is scheduled to open in just a couple of weeks!

Now I should mention that these new bars and restaurants are classy, high-end establishments. In the face of Oakland’s economic troubles, this revitalization seems to be a dichotomy. (See last week’s article www.examiner.com/x-7352-Oakland-Hills-Cooperative-Community-Examiner~y2009m4d18-Oakland-in-dire-need-of-economic-recovery-plan.) What the heck is going on?

Another strange thing happened on Friday, the first of May, and that was, after a month of fabulous spring weather, it rained. Now, upon hearing the latest news that California’s reservoirs are at only 66% capacity, I welcome the rain – really I do! – but did it have to rain on the evening I planned to tour the new restaurants on Broadway? Well, yes, it did. But as you will see, the rain did not dampen this interesting experience. (No pun intended.)

I started out around 6:30 by trying to find a place to park off Broadway near the YMCA, an endeavor that has become increasingly more difficult since the recent opening of the enormous condominium complex situated on the corner of Broadway and Grand. This beautiful, Art-deco-inspired building created by Signature Properties also happens to house two of the six places I toured on Friday night.
Broadway Grand

I started at Luka’s (www.lukasoakland.com), which is really cheating, because this place has been open now for about five years. It used to be the Haufbrau, an old bistro where you could get a corned beef sandwich, mashed potatoes, and a 12-ounce beer for under ten dollars and was the meeting point for little old ladies waiting for their buses to Reno. Today, this building houses a high-end, multi-faceted entertainment establishment, complete with top-chef menu selections, full-service bar, D.J., dance hall, art gallery, and pool room. I stepped in to scope out the now familiar grounds, thinking I would have a drink before my tour.

To my dismay, there were people standing three deep in the bar. Without my posse of girlfriends with me to finagle a seat anywhere, I decided to go forward on my tour and walked across the street to Ozumo, where I got drenched because, it turns out, my umbrella is broken.

Ozumo (www.ozumo.com) is a contemporary Japanese sake lounge, sushi bar, and robata grill. It’s an enormous venue that is gorgeous inside and smells fabulous. I wandered around looking for a seat at the bar, but Ozumo, like Luka’s, was packed. I was disappointed because it would have been nice to enjoy some cold sake -- a drink this place has plenty of to offer, since large walls are designed specifically to showcase Ozumo's sake collection.

As far as the people went, there was a pretty even mix of whites, blacks, Asians, and Latinos. I was enchanted with the Japanese wall fountain and spent some time staring at it, trying to figure out my next move. What a great place this would be to enjoy some “bar bites” or sushi! But, as I said, the bar was too crowded, and a number of well-dressed people were staring at me because I was standing next to the fountain in soaking wet jeans. Before I exited the restaurant, I snagged a take-out menu from the hostess and continued on my “field trip” of Broadway’s new restaurants. Surely, there must be a place where I could sit at the bar and enjoy a cocktail!

The next place I entered was Picán (www.picanrestaurant.com), a bar and restaurant featuring “a taste of the South,” which has been open for just six weeks. Pican Oakland

It’s a beautiful place, with sexy, curved architecture where one can either jimmy up to the bar and order a bourbon, sit in the spacious lounge, or dine in the large table area. Picán, like Ozumo’s, was crowded with a similar diverse mix of well-dressed people. Pican

I would have tried to grab a seat at the bar, but, like the last two establishments I had just marched into, the place was simply too busy. I wandered around a little to take in the stunning décor, but realized that it would be fruitless to stand around in my wet clothes waiting for an opening at the bar. Instead, I bid my adieu to the two hostesses, who apologized for running out of take-out menus, and ventured further up Broadway.

I crossed the street to check out Mua (www.muaoakland.com), which is actually on Webster, but a short hop away from the other Broadway restaurants. Mua

Mua, which offers a California-Asian-Mediterranean cuisine, was also busy. Happily, there was one seat available at the end of the bar. Feeling quite relieved and not so much like a journalist anymore, I took a seat, asked for the drink menu, and shoved my wet jacket under the bar. The ambience in Mua is more casual than Ozumo or Pican, its décor more artsy. Since it was not yet eight o’clock, natural light seeped through the skylights, rendering Mua an exceptionally welcoming place, even if it’s inside a renovated tire-and-rim store. Still, it has this clean loft atmosphere with exposed piping and open beams. There is an upstairs area, and several large paintings hang from the walls, informing the customer that this place is also an art gallery.

I felt right at home in Mua. I ordered a $9 Citrus Martini, which is a shaken vodka infused with red ruby grapefruit, blood-red orange, and lime. It was delicious. The bartender was attentive and made small talk even though he was busy, but while this bar was not as crowded as the other three places I’d just visited, I overheard that there was a 40-minute wait for a dinner table.

This is really incredible! With all these foreclosures going on in Oakland, why is it that Broadway’s bars and restaurant s are bustling with so many customers? I could only conclude that in hard economic times, people turn to local, welcoming places, regardless of the cost, because there is no price too high to pay for social interaction.

I finished my drink at Mua and crossed back over Broadway to visit the last place on my list, Shashamane (www.shashamanebarandgrill.com). Happily, my clothes had dried out by then, and the rain had finally ceased. I was expecting the same wall-to-wall crowd I had experienced all evening, but I was pleasantly surprised by a sparse crowd with several bar stools open. Now this is the kind of place where I am the most comfortable! I took a seat at the bar, ordered a pinot noir, and asked for a dinner menu because by then it was after 8:00 o’clock and I was getting hungry.

I immediately picked up on the fact that while Shashamane, which features a Mediterranean and North African cuisine, was not packed with customers, it was a place where ‘regulars’ go. In spite the fact that I was a total stranger, I was not treated as one, as both the bartender and the regulars made friendly conversation with me. I learned that Shashamane has actually been open for three years, so it’s not really new, and it offers a great last-Friday-of-the-month drink specials featuring $2.50 beers and $5.00 mixed drinks all night long! Too bad it was the first Friday of the month!

I ordered a $10.50 entrée, Gored Gored, because I am a avid (albeit seldom) meat eater. This serving of rare, spicy chunks of tenderloin was bountiful, and I ended up getting a container to take half of my dinner home.

Upon leaving Shashamane, I intended to call it an evening, but as I was heading back to my vehicle, I walked passed Mimosa (https://mimosachampagnelounge.wordpress.com), the champagne lounge that is due to open soon. I said hello to some gentlemen who were standing outside the not-yet-open establishment, one of whom introduced himself as Jim, one of the owners. Jim was gracious and treated me to a special tour of the unopened bar. “As you can see,” he explained, “this is a small place. Its capacity is about 90 people, but we plan to utilize the space as efficiently as we can.” He went on to explain that Mimosa will have a DJ, but more for ambient reasons, not dancing. There is a large movie screen projected on the wall behind the bar where, Jim explained, “We plan to broadcast old movies, like Hitchcock films.”

Mimosa’s goal is to present champagne to the public as an every-day enjoyment, like wine -- not just a drink you guzzle at weddings and on New Year’s Eve. They will feature about 15 brands of champagne with their varietals, which means there will be about 90 different types of champagne! In addition, they will serve wine, beer, and “raw foods,” meaning snacks like raw oysters on the half-shell. Mimosa champagne lounge

One great aspect to Mimosa’s opening is that this lounge will link the more established places on Broadway (Shashamane and Luka’s) to all the new places in between – Ozuma, Pican, and Mua. The better news is that Uptown Oakland does not appear to be in financial distress. In fact, it seems as if the recession has pushed people out of their homes and into the public arena where pleasure can be found in this renaissance of restaurants. These up-and-coming establishments provide the perfect venue for living one’s life to the fullest and emphasize that Oakland is well on its way to becoming a cosmopolitan city.

To learn more about these places, see the list below:

Luka’s

2221 Broadway

Oakland, CA 94612

(510) 451-4677

www.lukasoakland.com

Ozumo

2251 Broadway (between 23rd and Grand)

Oakland, CA 94612

510-286-9866

www.ozumo.com

Picán