This spring, two food businesses closed one block apart on Broadway at Temescal's southern edge. By November, both spaces should be filled again. Neither is going to an outside chain or a restaurant group looking for a new market. One went to a smoothie shop moving over from Uptown, sharing the space with a late-night sandwich counter. The other is going to a breakfast pop-up that already did most of its business a few doors away.
That's the main food story in Temescal this fall. The block of Broadway between 40th and 41st is restocking itself with operators who already had a following in the neighborhood before they signed a lease.
Two Closures, One Block Apart
The first space to go dark was Clove & Hoof at 4001 Broadway, at the corner of 40th Street. In early May, Oaklandside's Nosh column reported that a reporter had come by during regular hours and found it closed. The restaurant opened in 2014 as a whole-animal butcher and switched to prepared foods only in 2022.
Seven weeks later, True Burger closed its location at 4101 Broadway after 11 years. Its original restaurant on Grand Avenue is now its only one. In an Instagram message quoted by Oaklandside, the owners wrote that "like many independent Oakland businesses, we've had a lot of challenges, but the good news is, we're still here and proud to call Oakland home."
Here's how that block of Broadway looks heading into November:
- 4001 Broadway, formerly Clove & Hoof: Drink Thicc and Town Beef, both opened September 4
- 4101 Broadway, formerly True Burger: Egg Palace, soft opening planned for November
- 308 41st Street, between Emerald Street and Broadway: Mother Tongue Coffee & Bar, which hasn't moved and ties the other two together
Why a Pop-Up Picked 41st Street
Mother Tongue explains a lot of what's happening on this block. The coffee bar at 308 41st Street opened by April 5, 2023, according to Oaklandside's opening roundup. That puts it about three and a half years in. Over that time it became a regular host for Egg Pals, the breakfast sandwich pop-up run by Brack DeFries and Chris Morgan.
Berkeleyside reported in August that Egg Pals is opening its first brick-and-mortar restaurant, Egg Palace, in the former True Burger space. DeFries explained the choice to the outlet:
"It's like right next to Mother Tongue, where we do pop ups twice a month right now. In that neighborhood is where we've done probably like 70% of our pop ups. So we have a kind of built-in regular crowd already there, so it made total sense when it happened."
The name was an accident. According to the same Berkeleyside report, customers kept mishearing "Egg Pals" as "Egg Palace," and the owners kept it. Over four years, the pop-up went from selling about 60 sandwiches a day to around 200, with lines down the sidewalk.
The crowd showed up when it came time to pay for the build-out, too. Egg Palace's Kickstarter campaign raised $54,810 from 335 backers against a $50,000 goal to remodel the old True Burger dining room and kitchen.
The menu Berkeleyside described is built for a full day on that corner:
- Mornings: the Egg Pal at $13, with bacon, egg, cheese, pickled onions and herby mayo; the Vegg Pal and Pickle Pal at $12 each; grain bowls; and weekend brunch with biscuits and gravy and shrimp and grits
- Coffee and tea: drip and cold brew from Mother Tongue, plus teas from Molly's Refresher
- Evenings: the restaurant closes in the afternoon, then reopens with a Pal Burger, fried chicken sandwiches, tater tots, a pimento cheese plate and cocktails
The owners told Berkeleyside it will be open five days a week. They've set the soft opening for November but haven't given a specific day.
The Other Corner Is on a One-Year Clock
The 4001 Broadway space came back to life sooner, though its current tenant doesn't plan to stay long. According to Oaklandside's August 31 openings column, Drink Thicc moved from Uptown into the former Clove & Hoof on September 4. Owner Minni Sandhu told the outlet the shop will be there for a year while it builds a flagship location.
Drink Thicc usually rotates four smoothies a week, such as a "blue zone" made with blue spirulina, bananas and pineapple. The bigger Broadway space lets it add menu items and keep its core smoothies on the menu year-round.
Town Beef opened at the same address on the same day. Oaklandside describes it as a late-night spot focused on locally sourced French dip sandwiches on ACME sourdough rolls, with a vegan mushroom version too.
So the corner now runs on two schedules. Smoothies cover the daytime and French dips cover late night. Once Egg Palace opens a block up, its breakfast service and evening bar would mean that short stretch of Broadway has something open from morning to late night. That kind of coverage needs a corner that already gets steady foot traffic, which Mother Tongue's run and Egg Pals' pop-up history suggest this one does.
The same Oaklandside column covered a September 4 return on the opposite edge of the district. Upstairs, the restaurant above Snail Bar at 4935 Shattuck Avenue, came back in a soft opening a year and a half after its first short run. The hours it announced for the soft opening were Friday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and the team's Instagram post called it their "soft period." We found no follow-up coverage since then on how any of the September 4 openings are doing. If you're planning a visit, check their current hours first.
Telegraph's Fall Ran Through Its Existing Storefronts
On Telegraph Avenue between 40th and 51st, the only food change in local coverage this summer was a closure. Ace Seafood at 5000 Telegraph was dark when Oaklandside visited on July 17, with its Instagram account down and no Resy listing.
Temescal Art Week, put on by the Temescal Arts Community and listed on the Temescal Business Improvement District's calendar, was hosted mostly by established Telegraph storefronts and nearby side-street shops:
- Couchdate at 5032 Telegraph held an Afro-Indo Market
- Root'd in 510 at 4444 Telegraph produced a hybrid drag "Spooky Show" with local artists Ace Palomino and Cotton TheAct
- East Bay Creative Reuse Depot at 4695 Telegraph opened its stock of art and craft materials
- Tailor It at 4691 Telegraph had owner Gabriel Escobar playing Bolivian music with his band, AJAYUZ
- Temescal Library at 5205 Telegraph hosted a Zentangle drawing session
- Burlap Café on 40th Street hung work by four TACo artists
- Untitled and XOMOJO in the 49th Street Alley opened their galleries
The BID page lists Art Week as running October 3 through 17. The Temescal Arts Community's own site calls it October 3 through 10, and the published schedule ends on October 10, so the programmed events have wrapped up. One piece is still up. The "Art Is Resilience" show at Studio One Art Center, 365 45th Street, is on view until December 18, according to TACo.
On the Calendar This Fall
- Sunday, October 18, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Truck or Treat with UCSF Children's Hospital. The BID listing gives the address as 732 47th Street, but the Eventbrite page says 807 51st Street, so confirm before you go.
- Every Sunday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.: The Temescal Farmers' Market, run by Urban Village Farmers' Markets, is open year-round, rain or shine, at the North Oakland DMV lot at 5300 Claremont Avenue next to Frog Park.
- Sunday, November 1, noon to 9 p.m.: Día de Muertos Fiesta at Temescal Brewing, 4115 Telegraph. It's free and all ages, with cumbia DJs, ofrendas, food and the release of the brewery's Mictlán Lager, according to the event listing.
- November, date to be announced: Egg Palace soft opening at 4101 Broadway
- Through December 18: "Art Is Resilience" at Studio One, 365 45th Street
If you want to see the new Broadway block before November, Drink Thicc and Town Beef are at 40th Street, and Mother Tongue is around the corner on 41st. For more on North Oakland's other commercial streets, see our guide to Montclair Village and our comparison of Rockridge and Elmwood along College Avenue.
We keep track of which Oakland storefronts turn over and who moves in, because that's part of how we understand the blocks our clients live on. If you're weighing how changes like the ones on Broadway play into a move or a sale in North Oakland, get in touch with Katie & Mark Lederer for a tailored home strategy.
