Dec 23, 2013
Chop Bar
247 4th St. @Alice St., Oakland, CA
http://www.oaklandchopbar.com/food/dinner-menu/
Review date: December 2013

Carlos and I have visited the restaurants in this location since the very beginning of the Jack London Square gentrification efforts in the 1980's. The BART records warehouse where he worked was only a block away, so we remember when this building was still half Safeway's offices and half true warehouse, before Safeway moved out of the city and an ambitious developer tried to turn it into expensive condos. 

The retail spaces in the loft development were two modest offices on the first floor: a graphics agency on the left and a small café called The Cuckoo's Nest on the right. We loved Cuckoo's Nest, which had a tiny kitchen and a great owner-chef. 

Sadly, Cuckoo's Nest went under after twelve years in business, and MoNo bistro took over. By then there were a couple of more condo-converted warehouses, but the dot-com market bust created an unfriendly financial environment, and MoNo, too, faltered.

In September 2009, Chris Pastena took advantage of low rents to open Chop Bar, his first restaurant. The space remains tiny, although one of the two bathrooms was taken over to add to the kitchen, so an expanded menu could be offered.

Chop Bar was such a hit that not even the recession stopped Pastena from creating a mini-empire in Oakland. He and his partners opened Lungomare, then Tribune Tavern, with the upscale Mexican, Labna, coming in 2014 to Oakland's Uptown. 

We were so-so on upscale regional Italian Lungomare (although my niece reported later that their pastas, which we hadn't tried, are very fine). We loved comfort food and bar-heavy Tribune Tavern's burger and shepherd's pie, although their other items were less impressive, including fries that are some of the worst ever. 

Yet we hadn't ever tried Chop Bar. A good part of that is street parking these days is very difficult in its area (what a change from the nothing-here-but-warehouses days!), and we knew how small it is inside, so we were reluctant to bring Inez to what sounded like a Millennials' neighborhood hang-out.

Carlos and I are back on our own, however, with Inez now living at Mercy Retirement Center. And it's Christmas week, when many people go away and ski or fly off to visit family. Sure enough, we found a parking virtually in front of the building at lunch time, with lots of empty tables.

Service is quick and sure at Chop Bar, something that isn't always true at Pastena's other larger restaurants. And the food comes out fast, which definitely isn't true at Tribune Tavern!

We asked about the soup of the day, but it was chicken tortilla, something we only like on rare occasions. Carlos decided on the Reuben, as it came with corned beef (which he prefers) instead of pastrami (which is my preference). 

Although described as "dark rye", this wasn't. It's medium rye, and the slices of bread were too small to hold the meat neatly. The corned beef had been poorly reheated so that some of the edges were burnt(!), although the flavor was good and the meat was tender.

The sauerkraut was housemade, but it had been coarsely shredded which Carlos didn't care for. And he loathed the coleslaw, which was cabbage that was also coarsely shredded, with one of the oddest dressings we've encountered. It was a sour cream dressing. He hates sour cream but I love it; however, this sour cream was seasoned with dry mustard powder and grated raw onion, along with the merest whiff of dill. 

It was a very strange combination, the kind of dressing that might be good with boiled potatoes, but not with raw cabbage. 

Because the bread slices were so small, the sandwich halves simply fell apart; Carlos finished his sandwich using a fork, which he hates to do.

I opted for the burger, which has many fans on Chowhound. In the future they can have it, and we'll try something else – Scott's, Tribune, Rustic Tavern, Vault 164, Italian Colors, Barkada....even Fat Lady makes a burger more to my liking.

The burger comes on a Kaiser roll (non-seeded), with bacon and tomato. The roll is spread with mayo, and on the side is a huge baby arugula salad, easily twice as large as the one which sibling Tribune Tavern gives you with its burger, which does not make this salad twice as good.

I chose the options of Swiss and the "cowboy onions", which turned out to be braised until soft in standard hickory-smoke BBQ sauce. The Kaiser roll is a tasty white bread, but it isn't large and it falls apart a little too easily. The too-high/too-small patty is salted, which is good; but doesn't cover the roll which is bad. 

It's also really greasy, much more so than the Tribune Tavern burger. From a patty of about 4 oz., there was at least a tablespoon of pure grease on my plate that dripped out past the bread. My fingers were covered in grease, which I found borderline unpleasant.

Both plates came with a dill pickle wedge; I gave mine to Carlos because I prefer sliced pickles on sandwiches.

Even more than Tribune, the quality of ingredients is high but the execution is sloppy, not really well thought-out beyond the first conceptual inspiration. It sounds good and looks right, but when you start eating the balance is just slightly off enough to be less than the whole should add up to. 

You want to ask them, "Did you ever really try to EAT these foods together?" 

There might be other dishes Chop Bar does better, but it may be a while before we'll be back to find out. It's too small, too hard to park, and there's way too much competition nearby where we already know there's dishes we love ordering more than ChopBar's sandwiches. 

The English Breakfast tea Carlos had was excellent. Loose leaf, steeped in a tetsubin, the Japanese cast-iron teapot. 

Two people, lunch: two sandwiches, one beverage, with tip was $41.