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Chef Bill Lue’s relocated Grocery Cafe has been in a soft opening for a few weeks in the former Hahn’s Hibachi spot next to the Amtrak line and Franklin St. in Oakland’s Jack London Sq. Around Labor Day a grand opening is scheduled, according to reports.
We had lunch there on a recent afternoon and Bill, wearing a Hawaiian shirt, buoyantly greeted us as we entered. I hadn’t seen him in about 4 or 5 years since a lunch at his outpost on a now-abandoned cafe at San Pablo Ave and 30th Street in West Oakland. I called Bill a pioneer for his work that goes back decades to a spot in San Francisco that preceded the famous mini-chain whose name we shall not mention. Over the years I had followed him closely through Melanie at Chowhound and Luke at the East Bay Express and Bill was deeply appreciative of the support he had gotten through the web and alt press.
Luckily found a free parking space on close-by Embarcadero and there was no wait. Don’t get confused by the green Hahn’s Hibachi sign which is still up.
The menu, which may have been abbreviated for the soft open, had three or four options for salads, apps. mains and desserts. We chose the Tea Leaf Salad (about $13), the potato-stuffed Samusas, (about $9) and the Pork Stew in Mango Sauce (about $15) with rice (about $2).
The salad came first and you can see Bill’s hands tossing the salad and squeezing the lime in the photos above. We skipped the option of adding dry shrimp and dropped in some heat to the freshness and crunch of the salad with the homemade chili flake sauce seen in the saucer in the middle of the table. The six samusas were toasty and the potato/veggie stuffing had a sweet spice undertone, maybe clove or cinnamon, even when dipped in the accompanying sweet and sour sauce.
The Pork Stew in Mango Sauce was a generous portion, tender chunks and okra that was not slimy. All the sauce with its fruity notes was used on the rice even after the meat was gone.
We were too stuffed for dessert and quite pleased for about $40 plus tax and tip for two and happy for Chef Bill that he has this opportunity.
On the way back to the car, I wanted to show my lunch partner the outside of the new offices of Sunset Magazine on the second floor of the building next to Grocery Cafe. After taking a few pictures of the iconic font of “Sunset” on the locked door, a few magazine employees were coming up the stairs. “Have you been to the Burmese restaurant that just opened next door?” I asked. “Not yet,” one woman replied, “but I went to it when it was near Lake Merritt [Grocery Cafe’s previous Oakland location].” “We just had lunch there, it’s great,” I said excitedly, hoping that she could smell the residue of mango sauce and fermented tea leaf on my breath.
Grocery Cafe
90 Franklin St
Oakland, CA 94606
Jack London Square
Phone: (925) 566-4877
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