Bocanova, the Pan-American restaurant that had a successful, eight-year run in Oakland’s Jack London Square before closing in 2017, is making a major comeback.
The restaurant known for its bustling Latin American brunch and happy hour is reopening in February in a new location — 1111 Broadway — in downtown Oakland. Owners Rick Hackett, Meredith Melville and Martin Ladera are looking at a February debut for the Arcsine-designed restaurant, which will offer breakfast, lunch and dinner in addition to an all-day raw bar. Take a peek at www.bocanova.com.
The menu will feel familiar to fans of the original. Breakfast standouts will include deviled egg tacos and fried egg tostadas alongside sweet offerings, like lucuma waffles with coconut nectar. For lunch, look for salads, skewers and larger plates, including an Argentino burger with chimichurri sauce. The dinner menu will highlight asados from the grill, like roasted Duroc pork with Peruvian potatoes and Alaskan halibut, Veracruz style.
Bocanova closed after the much-touted Ferry Building-style marketplace that was slated for Jack London Square never came to fruition and the owners were unable to renegotiate their lease.
“There was very little foot traffic and our original lease was not sustainable,” Melville says.
The restaurant was supposed to reopen in the former Ozumo space in downtown Oakland that same year, but that plan fell through, Melville says, adding that once the pandemic hit there was no rush to reopen.
The new restaurant will have an earthy color palette with natural materials and artwork by local artists.
Source: www.mercurynews.com