Sept 2014: Chris Pastena's partnership with developer Tom Henderson, with whom he co-owns Lungomare and Tribune Tavern, is being dissolved.

Aug 2014: owner Chris Pastena is making some changes to TT due to chef Tracey Belock moving into partnership on Chowhaus/Oakland, which replaces Montclair Bistro. Execchef position will remain open for at least a few months, according to Pastena.

Tribune Tavern
401 13th St., Oakland, CA
http://tribunetavern.com/the-menu/
Review date: October 2013

Oakland has seen tremendous growth in its restaurant openings. But almost all of it has been concentrated in three small areas: Piedmont Ave., the Temescal, and Uptown. Lagging behind have been the areas of Jack London Square, Old Oakland, and Oakland's traditional Downtown. 

Of the three laggards, Oakland's Downtown has the most uphill struggle. The logistical issues of difficult and expensive street parking, few city garages (almost none open late), numerous aggressive homeless, the loss of traditional big-name retail tenants such as Sears and Emporium that drew in after-hour workers, along with sporadic Occupy window-bashing, discourage people (like us) from even thinking about coming down here in the evening to eat.

When the iconic Oakland Tribune building on Downtown's 13th & Franklin Streets, with its lovely brick clock tower, finally went empty a few years ago, it was one of those events that created a more serious emotional ripple than the actual physical absence did. 

The Oakland Tribune's downtown presence was completely eliminated in 2007. At one time the Tribune had been a proud local paper; it's now reduced to little more than rehashed Associated Press by-lines, being merely one of a stable of small-city local papers owned by the faceless ANG Group. With no more reporters or columnists or editors around, the long-time bar in the building closed up. The little sandwich shop followed suit soon after. 

Always a little gritty around the edges, once the newspaper workers left, the immediate area fell precipitously into the "No One Goes There After Dark" no-man's land of an urban downtown in serious decline. Oakland city leaders have had to do major pacifying of the two most visible tenants across Broadway, Wells Fargo Bank and Clorox Corporation, to get them to remain.

Into this wasteland stepped restaurateur Chris Pastena. He is an Oakland native who has ambitious plans to stay in Oakland and make it a destination again. His Lungomare restaurant in Jack London Square opened in February 2013 to great fanfare. But it quickly had its thunder stolen by the exciting news that Pastena was soon to open a sibling called Tribune Tavern, in a corner of the almost-empty Tribune building. 

Everybody, and I mean everybody, was excited about the idea, the menu, and reopening of at least a small part of what is arguably the most identifiable building in the entire downtown and Old Oakland area.

We ate at Lungomare on June 2013 and thought it good but somewhat flawed. My niece went there with other family members a month later, however, and reported that all the pastas were very fine. So we were hopeful that Tribune Tavern would prove that Pastena's ambitions are not only achievable, but worth personally supporting.

Ever since its opening on April 10th, 2013, the Tribune Tavern has been a hot-ticket restaurant. We liked the menu, but being reluctant to fight the "hottest place to eat" crowds, decided to give it some time for the newness to wear off.

However, with the double whammy of the government shutdown and an impending BART strike (meaning the BART HQ workers are bringing lunches and saving their pennies in case they have to walk out), this was probably the best of all possible times to try lunch. The Tribune Tavern is only two short blocks away from one of the biggest employers of all in downtown Oakland – the federal government local offices, which are housed in the twin-towered Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building complex.

We figured that at least half their normal patrons wouldn't be showing up...and indeed, that proved to be the case.

Tribune Tavern is a well-done remodel, albeit on the loud side. Lungomare was nicely modulated, but Tribune is seriously ear-splitting – and they don't even play Muzak. It's all hard surfaces everywhere, even the ceilings. Although Pastena's architects did a good job on keeping the remodeled space evocative of such a classic old building, when this place has a full crowd I believe it would rival A16/Oakland (formerly Marzano on College) for needing earplugs to get through a full meal. 

In good weather, all the glass window doors can be fully opened. I'm not sure if that helps or worsens the noise problem. Either way, be prepared to raise your voice for the companion sitting across from you to hear what you're saying.

The service here is brisk and efficient, clearly a level above the "well-meaning but still-feeling-their-way" Lungomare staff. But Tribune Tavern must get five times the number of diners that Lungomare does, which is going to give the Tavern's staff a fast edge in experience gained. It also has the better marketing niche, keeping it simple with a half-CA, half-English pub food menu. Diners don't need to be educated on mac'n'cheese, arugula salad, and shepherd's pie, making it easier on staff and customers.

There's a mix of different types of tables and seating, including some booths, but we found even the regular chairs (not the bar chairs, but the table chairs) surprisingly comfortable. We applaud Pastena's intent on making his diners feel welcome in his restaurants, rather than trying to make a meal into a test of spinal endurance as most new places do. 

(We'd like to think he might start a trend, but sadly we know better. Sigh.)

Much is made these days of poutine, that dubious Canadian contribution to American menus. Originally from Quebec, the recipe is made with french fries, topped with brown gravy and cheese curds. It's been changed by American chefs to be cheese sauce or crumbles, and actual meat instead of just gravy. When well-executed it has the guilty appeal of a greasy-spoon nacho plate: fattening fries smothered in cheese sauce and and garnished with meat of some sort. 

I have never cared for poutine, having been introduced to it in Vancouver B.C. many decades ago. As it turns out, Tribune Tavern's version isn't going to change my mind. One issue we do have with Pastena is that he cuts corners in small ways. Unfortunately, one of the cost-cutters here is the French fries. These are really poor quality potatoes, the kind that when battered and double-fried, the interiors dry up and disappear. And the moment they start to cool, they become irrevocably DOA. Reheating them simply makes the dried-out texture even worse. 

Used in Tribune Tavern's "Guilty Fries", these mediocre fries are topped with a thin but decent beer/Cheddar sauce, and a clump of pulled pork. Tavern's pulled pork was unfortunately super-salty, which was a shame because otherwise I thought it was one of the better pulled porks I've had, with a sweet spice rub. You can get a half or full order, and we were glad we only got a half order. Even at that we left most of the fries. This dish needs some serious reworking on the quality side.

But matters improved immensely with the entrées – a nice switch from so many restaurants we've gone to where the starters are great but the entrées slide a full level downwards.

For Inez we ordered the shepherd's pie. A mix of nicely gamy (but not too much so) lamb and beef in a coarse chili grind was in a tasty brown gravy with small quarter-sliced cooked carrots. On top was a thick layer of good mashed potatoes. This came in an 11-oz ramekin, so although not humonguous it is a substantial dish. To our surprise, she finished it all, although Carlos and I each did take one bite just to try. All of us like shepherd's pie, although it's a rare thing to see nowadays. We're glad Pastena's brought it back, and hope it's popular enough to stay on the menu.

Lunch offers soup and sandwiches. Carlos ordered a cup of soup but the waitress forgot it. However, the portions are substantial enough here that we didn't make a fuss about it. It's a shame as it did sound interesting: escarole, barley, pork and parmesan in broth. Oh well, maybe next time!

I chose the burger, described as "chuck & brisket, aged cheddar, with fries," and opted for the extra $2 bacon. As our friends know, we have been searching for a really good burger in Alameda County. Currently Vault 164/San Mateo stands on top of our list (well, actually, Bouchee/Monterey is the best, but 120 miles one-way is a long drive for a great burger!). 

Our standards are precise for a restaurant burger (aren't everyone's, LOL?). It needs to cover the bun – it can be larger than the bread, but the minimum is that it must cover the entire bun. We prefer the patty to be 3/4" to 1" thick but no higher, because we like to add toppings and want a burger we can actually eat, not nibble around the corners because it's 4" tall after additions. We like juicy burgers, but we detest buns that fall apart before we're halfway through. And we don't want a superfluity of bread. Mile-high domed buns turn us off entirely, as do massive chewy baguettes or huge French bread rolls. We want meat, not carbs.

That said, Carlos and I were unanimous that Tribune Tavern's burger is a knock-out. It's easily the best burger we've discovered in Alameda or Contra Costa counties up to now. It's almost as good as Vault's, and a whole lot closer to our house. TT's burger gets minor demerits for only three small misses: the chuck/brisket mix is heavy on the chuck and light on the brisket; you can only get cheddar but not Gruyere; and the bun holds together but it's a close will-it/won't-it at the end, because this is a big juicy burger. 

And we mean, B-I-G. This is a hefty 3/4" high burger, easily extending over the margins of the bun. I had asked for medium-rare and it came more to the rare side. This was fine as the quality of meat was high enough to support that bright pink interior. The big slice of tomato was an heirloom type, sweet and soft in its perfect end-of-season ripeness. The lettuce leaf was young romaine, the cheddar was a good quality, and the bacon was a nicely chewy thick-sliced type without being overly tough to chew through. 

The fries on the side...well, we've already talked about the fries in the poutine.  Suffice to say if you eat these while they are still hot, with lots of Tribune Tavern's excellent ketchup, they're okay. Once they're cold, push 'em aside and steal some of that fab arugula salad from the tuna sandwich.

For his entrée, Carlos picked the tuna salad sandwich, which is described as poached tuna, hard-boiled egg, and aioli. To our surprise, it came as an open-faced sandwich, on a long slice of very fresh and excellent French bread, untoasted. The amount of poached tuna was generous, and the crumble of hard-boiled egg on top was at least a full egg's worth. On the side was an outstanding baby arugula salad with a lightly-applied vinaigrette. We both thought highly of the arugula salad, finding it exceptional in both simplicity and quality.

Sadly, he wasn't in love with his sandwich. He just doesn't care for aioli, which is unfortunate as it's the mayo of choice nowadays for upscale eateries. OTOH, I loved his choice! I found the sandwich and salad to be a wonderful combination together. It was like a mini-Niçoise salad but with a slice of fine bread added in; a knife-and-fork plate that was perfect for our current warm-weather spell.

So we switched halfway, and he got to finish off the burger while I had the fresh poached tuna (and I love aioli, so no problem there). We skipped dessert and coffee, not being in the mood for it. When we come back for dinner we'll try them.

Because we will certainly come back for dinner. Tribune Tavern isn't perfect, but its menu fits its surroundings, and seems to fit the neighborhood as well. There's an energy and passion to TT that's missing in Pastena's Lungomare. Maybe he's better suited to feeding the hearty appetites of the masses instead of trying to present semi-exotic regional cuisine in an upscale setting. 

Whatever the trick is, Tribune Tavern has the liveliness and bring-'em-back satisfaction that makes it deservedly the flagship of Pastena's budding restaurant empire. If he can keep it up, we may see some life return to Oakland's Downtown area again.

It should be noted that although the service was good, the kitchen is slow. As the dining room was only half-full, that's not a good indicator for times when it's really busy. There have been a number of complaints on Yelp and Chowhound about the laggard pace of food coming out to the table, and from our initial experience those issues seem justified. You are forewarned – the starter came out fast, but there was a long lag before the entrees appeared; easily a full half-hour or more.

The 14th St. city garage is the cheapest way to go for parking, but they close at 8p sharp so you can't use them unless you're going for an early dinner. Even this garage fills up on a normal working day, so you're forewarned: parking is tough, unless it's a weekend.

BTW, Berkeleyside Nosh did a cute article on one of the cocktail drinks at Tribune Tavern, and included a fair amount of interesting background on the Tribune Building along with a great old B&W photo: http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/09/17/read-all-about-it-tribune-tavern-a-hit/ 

Three people, lunch: one starter, three entrées, one beverage, with tip was $75.