Oaktown Legacy Business Program
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Celebrating Oakland’s Best
Oaktown’s Legacy Business Program introduces you to restaurants, bars, and other longstanding businesses that will take you on surprising adventures into Oakland’s vintage neighborhoods and history.
These businesses have passed the test of time and continue to offer refreshingly authentic, formula-free experiences just for a visit, to have a drink or a full meal, and to explore Oakland.
Oakland’s Quintessential Irish Bar
Bill McNally opened his bar here on College Avenue right after Prohibition ended in 1933. The bar claims Oakland bar license #1.
The church across College Avenue didn’t like the idea. Bill put in church windows to tweak the pastor.
McNally’s offers an intimate, vintage home-away-from-home for an Irish coffee or other beverage of your choice. There’s a series of charming and somewhat ramshackle back rooms for pool or just hanging out. A fireplace warms body and soul on winter nights. Chances are good that you’ll strike up a good conversation and meet a kindred spirit.
An Oakland favorite with a loyal clientele. Close to College Avenue restaurants and shopping and the Rockridge BART station.
The Aloha Club
952 Fruitvale Avenue, below International
“Longest Bar/Coldest Beer”: a railroad trackside saloon dating to 1919.
Owner Dave Weltin has brought this 100-year old workers’ saloon into the 21st Century while skillfully maintaining its historic character. The longest bar is still there, as are the railroad tracks outside. But a patio table in the enclosed area in the back of the bar is the place to enjoy a beer or a Marguerita while sampling Mexican delicacies from Licho’s kitchen, prepared by Genoveva Castillo. There’s also a food truck on the patio serving Mexican dishes.
A great place to stop for a lunch or dinner on a sunny day in the Fruitvale and explore the surrounding neighborhood. Easy access from downtown via AC Transit’s #1 Rapid bus line or the Fruitvale BART station.
Club 2101
Longstanding Dimond District Neighborhood Sports Bar
The club dates to the early 1940s, when the stretch of MacArthur Boulevard near Fruitvale Avenue was known as Hopkins Street.
Club 2101 offers a place to explore the restaurants and businesses of the Dimond district, stroll into Dimond Park, or stop at the local branch of the Public Library.
2101 is a bright and lively neighborhood sports bar. A great place to watch a game and get to know some of the regulars.
Old Waeng Ping
627 MacArthur Boulevard
(510) 430-8771
Delicious Old-Fashioned Ice Cream—Vintage 1950
Loard’s opened its first ice cream store here in June 1950. Although Loard’s expanded to nearly a dozen stores in the Bay Area, its ice cream recipes remain the same as 75 years ago. The MacArthur Loard’s recently reopened after being closed due to the pandemic. The location retains much of its original ‘50s charm, as well as its traditional flavors.
Stop in for ice cream here for the rich taste from an earlier era of this enduring American treat. “How ice cream used to be.”
Lakeside Lounge
A ‘60s Dance Party
This inviting bar dates to the 1950s, when it was known as The Sounding Board and then the New Yorker.
The Lakeside still has the feel of a 1950s lounge. Current owner Julian Heard took over about 20 years ago and changed the name to the Lakeside Lounge, reflecting its location just two blocks from Lake Merritt in the Eastlake District.
You’ll usually find Julian there, and the bar bears his personal trademark. Julian’s focus is on the music. There’s a dance floor, and facilities for a DJ and karaoke.
The music is oldies and people are dancing. You’ll probably hear some Smokey Robinson, Supremes, and Gladys Knight.
Sunday night is live blues night, featuring some of the Bay Area’s best.
A neighborhood bar with an older crowd of longstanding regulars, they’ll welcome you.
A Precious Family Heirloom
In 1962, Giovanni Lo Coco immigrated to America from a small fisherman’s village in the province of Palermo, Sicily. Giovanni arrived in America with one suitcase, one hundred dollars, and a whole lotta ambition. His talent and skills in the kitchen led to his creation of his secret Sicilian style pizza dough recipe, which has been passed down to his children like a precious family heirloom.
Giovanni founded his first Lo Coco’s restaurant in 1966, in the quaint historical gold mining town named Jackson, located in the California foothills. Lo Coco’s pizza is best noted for its light and airy, yet chewy and tasty crust. In fact, the crust is so good that diners have been known to tear off the crust, butter it, and eat it first! Lo Coco’s only uses real, whole milk mozzarella, Italian imported Pecorino Romano, and the finest cured meats and vegetables available. Giovanni was innovative; he offered unique toppings like artichoke hearts, baby clams, and eggplant as pizza toppings dating back to the late 1960’s! In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Giovanni added a variety of pasta dishes, proteins and other signature specials he had gathered from growing up in his aunts' kitchens.
Giovanni opened the Piedmont Avenue Lo Coco’s in 1982. His legacy lives on through his wife, six children, and two eldest grandchildren over the hill in Auburn CA, who continue to run these iconic family restaurants with Giovanni's same integrity and pride. If you are a newcomer, you may end up sitting next to a young parent, who started eating at Lo Coco’s when they were their children’s age. No matter who you are, the Lo Coco family and their team will try their very best to make you feel welcome, and serve you a meal that will leave you with plenty of desire to become a regular!
The Alley Piano Bar & Restaurant
Oakland’s Timeless Piano Bar
Unique, incomparable.
Intact from its opening in 1934. The Alley’s theme depicts a back alley, including laundry hanging from a clothesline, alley-facing windows, and the storefront of a loan company.
Approximately 50,000 business cards remain stapled up by visitors.
The Alley’s legacy credentials seem endless:
· Ella Fitzgerald, Lionel Hampton, and Stan Kenton
· Documentary films
· Live radio broadcasts in the 1940s
· Recognized as a Heritage Property by the City of Oakland in 2016.
For over 90 years, The Alley has been a piano bar, the last of its kind.
But The Alley is not just a bar, it’s a community, continually regenerated with new singers gathered in the piano circle. Maybe you’ll want to join, too.
La Mexicana
Step back in time and enjoy a fabulous Mexican meal
Although the Fruitvale central business district, from International Boulevard from Fruitvale to 42nd Avenue, has undergone tremendous change, walking it may still be the best way to experience what East Oakland’s neighborhood centers once were like. The Fruitvale still offers a wide variety of businesses, as well as notable commercial architecture that survives from Oakland’s retail heyday.
Amid all this change, one business in particular has remained constant.
La Mexicana stands alone in dating back nearly 80 years to the days when Key System streetcars plied East 14th Street. The restaurant appears unchanged by time, and offers excellent Mexican fare to a largely local and loyal clientele. Home-made tortillas and sauces make every meal a special treat. Menudo on weekends.
Walk your lunch off with a stroll down International.
Food that Warms the Soul
“The Pie Queen,” Lois Davis, founded this soul food restaurant over 50 years ago, featuring short-ribs, candied yams, cornbread muffins, black-eyed peas, chicken and waffles, peach cobbler, sweet potato pies, buttermilk biscuits, and grits. Her signature dish became her mother’s fresh pies. Lois’s son, Chris, has carried on the family tradition at their West Oakland location.
Check it out for breakfast or lunch. Call about weekend dinner service, (510) 658-5616. They do not accept credit cards or reservations.
About The Program
Oakland Heritage Alliance considers a business to qualify as an Oaktown Legacy Business if it is currently operating in Oakland and
Is at least 30 years old; and
Has had continuing and near continuous operation in the City of Oakland to the present; and
Maintains its traditional character.
Need not have been in the same location
Need not have the original ownership
Need not have the same business name
Businesses that meet these criteria can apply for Legacy Business status and qualify for the benefits of Oakland Heritage’s Legacy Business Program.