The ‘slow economic recovery of Oakland’ blamed for this restaurant’s planned closure

A sizable restaurant in downtown Oakland is poised to shutter right before hitting its first decade in business.

The team behind Oeste, located at 722 Clay St., said “we are likely to close in October” in a post this week on Instagram. They thanked the community and their staff before getting into the reasons for the bad news.

“We never would’ve survived as long as we did without the Oakland community, and we hope that we’ve given as much love as we’ve received over the years,” the post reads. “Unfortunately, because of the high cost of operating the business, combined with the slow economic recovery of Oakland, we’re not able to sustain ourselves and continue to nurture the business as we hoped.”

The announcement drew mournful replies, such as “The first place I went to when I moved to the Bay. Many a great night there,” and “Brought in my last 5 birthdays at Oeste. I’m sick. Great memories.”

Oeste began in 2017 when three women of color — Anna Villalobos, Sandra Davis and Lea Redmond — transformed an abandoned storefront into a 90-seat restaurant with brunch, DJs and one of the best rooftop bars in the neighborhood. The kitchen serves a range of Latin-Southern-Californian food, like seared-snapper street tacos and fried catfish with red beans and rice, and the bar features colorful cocktails like a “Black Manhattan” and a “Purple Rain.”

Oeste is one of several longtime establishments to falter lately in Oakland’s downtown and Jack London Square areas. The huge bowling complex Plank closed after 12 years this summer, for instance, and last month Home of Chicken & Waffles announced its departure after more than two decades in operation.

The exodus of businesses has not gone unnoticed in the Oakland Food subreddit.

“That sucks,” one person wrote on a Reddit post about the impending closure. “Oeste was a vibe when I used to go from when it opened up to the start of the pandemic. I moved away for a while and just wasn’t in the same stage of life when I came back so haven’t been there post-pandemic, but I hate that Uptown, Old Oakland, downtown and Jack London are all dragging.”

Complained another: “We can never have nice things.”

Yet it’s not closing time just yet for Oeste. The staff has promised to keep things running up until the last minute possible and invited its customers in to share memories – perhaps on that awesome rooftop deck.

“We ask that you come to celebrate with us as much as you can during these next few weeks,” they wrote. “If we’re going out, we’re going with a bang!!”

Details: Open 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Wednesdays, 5-11 p.m. Thursdays, 5 p.m.-2 a.m. Fridays-Saturdays and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays (happy hour is 5-7 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays) at 722 Clay St., Oakland; oesteoakland.com.