Good news for North Oakland with the news that two highly regarded food names are opening new locations within a block of each other on Broadway, at 41st and 42nd streets.
Trueburger, the popular gourmet burger restaurant whose first restaurant is downtown on Grand Avenue, plans to open a new eatery at 4101 Broadway, in the old Carpet & Linoleum building.
Meanwhile, Blue Bottle Coffee is taking over the historic W.C. Morse building at 4296 Broadway, making it the cult coffee shop’s biggest café space.
Trueburger plans to open its new restaurant by this winter, according to its Facebook page, and, judging by the responses to the news there, it will be warmly welcomed. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! The vacant space in the old Anderson Carpet storefront has been a blight on our block for a long time, and now with the new Crossfit gym and the upcoming True Burger, it’s going to be a fun and happening place. We’re really excited,” wrote Jake Wegmann.
Blue Bottle founder James Freeman told Inside Scoop, who broke the story, that the 2,000-square foot-café planned for the Morse building will be as big as all the company’s West Coast cafés combined. He said the move was largely prompted by the fact that he loves the 1905 building with its 20-foot ceilings. It was originally an auto showroom, part of Broadway’s once bustling auto row.
Freeman added that the other reason for the choice of location was that he wanted to give back to Oakland. “Oakland has been awesome to us, so I think it’s worth investing in Oakland,” he said.
The two new arrivals will join Homeroom, which opened two years ago not far away, on 40th Street and Shafter Avenue, and has found an eager clientèle. The Hog’s Apothecary, a sausage and beer joint, also plans to open nearby, at 375 40th St.
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