Ten years old? Ten years young, say three restaurants that all recently celebrated a decade of bringing fine European cuisine to East Bay tables.
Reve Bistro
Courtesy Reve Bistro
First up is Rêve Bistro, which, for the first time since launching its classic French bistro in Lafayette, will be serving lunch. Starting June 5, Rêve will kick off its Escape to Provence lunch pop-up on Fridays and Saturdays. Guests can enjoy a family-style, three-course meal in the bistro’s charming back-garden patio: salad, steak frites, and house-made profiteroles (or coffee) for dessert for $49 per person. The pop-up will last at least through the summer, says Laura Magu, who founded Rêve in 2016 with her husband, classically French-trained chef Paul Magu-Lecugy.
In Oakland, Italian-born chef Michele Belotti continues to pack diners into his Rockridge flagship Belotti Ristorante, which celebrated its own 10th anniversary in 2026. Later this year, Belotti is expected to debut a larger version of his bottega pasta shop in North Oakland, where he will offer to-go versions of his popular fresh-made pastas and sauces, along with the starters, mains, and desserts available on the ristorante menu.
Meanwhile, Telefèric Barcelona continues to expand and innovate after the family-owned, Barcelona-founded tapas bar debuted its first stateside location 10 years ago on the second floor of the landmark three-story building at 1500 Mount Diablo Boulevard in downtown Walnut Creek. Siblings Xavi and Maria Padrosa, whose parents started the family’s original restaurant outside Barcelona in 1992, have since opened five new locations in California, in addition to another in Scottsdale and two more on the way in La Jolla and Newport Beach. But Walnut Creek remains the flagship where the Padrosas and founding chef and culinary director Oscar Cabezas have both refined and broadened the restaurant’s vision beyond traditional Spanish tapas.
Telèferic Barcelona
Courtesy Telèferic Barcelona
The classics are still there and executed with precision: pan con tomate, ham croquetas, squid ink paella, hand-carved imported jamón ibérico, and a showstopping 20-ounce, fire-grilled “chuletón” Wagyu rib-eye served with patatas bravas and Piquillo peppers. However, as Cabezas points out, there are no set rules for what constitutes tapas in Barcelona, where mini burgers are as common as gambas al ajillo. It’s also a city in a country that ranks among the world’s centers of modern, high-end gastronomy. Which is why the restaurant has leaned into a menu that balances “authentic” dishes with more experimental chef’s special offerings.
That includes uber-rich Wagyu empanadas filled with beef short rib and topped by a Manchego cheese crisp on a bed of spicy-garlicky mojo rojo sauce that traces its origins to the Canary Islands. A disk of buttery salmon tartare is topped by intensely flavorful dots of garlic aioli, while ocean-fresh oysters sourced from the NorCal coast are bathed in their shells with a tomato gazpacho and topped by crisped jamón ibérico. In the lobster paella, Canadian lobster tail—along with head-on gulf shrimp and octopus—makes an untraditional appearance atop bouncy, seafood-infused arroz bomba cooked to golden perfection with a crispy socarrar crust, served tableside in a shallow paella pan.
Telèferic Barcelona
Courtesy Telèferic Barcelona
Similarly, Telefèric’s drink menu balances classic sangria and signature gin and tonics, with new seasonal cocktails such as the “Fancy a Carrot,” which mixes fig leaf-infused tequila, carrot cordial, sherry, oregano, and spicy agave. In recent years, the restaurant also introduced immersive culinary experiences, such as a paella masterclass and a marketplace selling imported Spanish retail goods, sangria mixers, and curated paella kits. If our recent visit on an impressively busy Tuesday evening is any indication, the changes seem to be a hit with diners.
Osaka Marketplace Now Looking at Fall Opening
We touched base with the team behind Osaka Marketplace, the Japanese specialty grocer preparing to launch a huge new marketplace that had been scheduled to debut this summer. Alas, as often happens with large (and small) projects, construction and planning delays have pushed the anticipated opening date further out to October. When it opens, shoppers can expect a robust selection of imported Japanese food, beverages, home goods, and electronics at the planned 49,000-square-foot store, which will include an adjacent Japanese pop-culture-themed food hall packed with vendors cooking everything from ramen to chicken katsu. In the meantime, curious foodies can check out Osaka Marketplace’s other locations in Fremont and Foster City, as well as recently opened Asian markets Tokyo Central in Emeryville and H Mart in Dublin.
Osaka Marketplace
Courtesy Osaka Marketplace
And speaking of Dublin, the city may soon be home to a new Cost Plus World Market. The Alameda-based retail chain, which also offers a wide selection of imported food and drinks, filed for a state ABC alcohol license at 4906 Dublin Boulevard, the former Any Mountain space.
Oakland Athletic Club Opening in Time for the World Cup
If you’ve been swept up in World Cup fever, it may be music to your ears that Oakland Athletic Club has confirmed plans to reopen on the same day as the opening match of the planet’s most-watched sporting event (cohosted this year in the United States, Canada, and Mexico). A new team of locals led by Oaklandish CEO Angela Tsay and Oakland bar owner Adi Taylor took over the popular Uptown sports bar that had shuttered earlier this year, confirming on a new Instagram account that it would be “opening at 11 a.m. on June 11, just in time for the World Cup.”
Plank to Shutter in Jack London Square
Alas, another Oakland sports destination is closing. Plank, the sprawling eatertainment venue which combines dozens of televisions with a full arcade, bowling alley, and bocce courts, announced that it will close its many doors on August 2 after 12 years in Jack London Square. It’s a big loss for a neighborhood that has seen several of them over the past year, including Forge Pizza, Left Bank Brasserie, Dokkaebier Taproom, and the Waterfront Hotel. It likely didn’t help that Dave and Buster’s, which offers a similar lineup of sports viewing and entertainment, recently opened a massive new location down the street.
It’s not all gloom and doom, however, as Arab bakery Reem’s California is still planning to open its new production kitchen and front-facing café in Jack London Square, which is still home to stalwarts such as Yoshi’s, Scott’s Seafood, and Farmhouse Kitchen, in addition to several other fun dining and drinking options. So when will Reem’s debut? The business just posted an update on Instagram saying that, after months of permitting delays, “there’s light at the end of the tunnel at last” and that followers should expect a grand opening announcement in the coming weeks.
Indian-Mediterranean Fusion in Emeryville
The owners of upscale Indian restaurants Pippal (Emeryville and Dublin) and coastal Mediterranean eatery Alora (San Ramon and San Francisco) will fuse their two concepts in a grand, monthlong experiment at Bay Street Emeryville. During a June culinary residency at Pippal Emeryville dubbed “The Ancient Spice Journey,” a new collaborative menu will “aspire to bring Indian and Mediterranean flavors together in one shared dining experiment.” And the two cuisines aren’t as separate as you might think. The restaurant group notes that the two regions are connected “through a network of land and sea routes that facilitated the exchange of spices and cultural elements.”
Back Stage Livermore
Courtesy Fatih Ulas
Back Stage Replaces R-Place in Downtown Livermore
Fatih Ulas is at it again. The serial restaurateur behind Elia, Bodrum, The Duchess, and Sultan’s Kebab has taken over R-Place, the live-music venue and downtown Livermore bar, transforming it into Back Stage Livermore. Ulas says he’ll continue to host entertainment at the First Street venue, including live music, comedy, and karaoke, but with a spruced up interior and drinks program. He also plans to bring larger acts to the back patio and serve late-night food to bar-goers via his Sultan’s Kebab food truck from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Not one to sit still, Ulas recently debuted the fourth location of his Mediterranean dining concept, Elia, in downtown Campbell, where it has taken over the space formerly occupied by Opa.
Small Bites from Around the East Bay
After a nearly three-year run on North Main Street, JB Balingit has shuttered Library Social Club in downtown Walnut Creek. Balingit also runs Hideout Kitchen and Tropa in Lafayette and Brother Sister by Vic’s Martinez beer garden in Martinez.
It looks like Handel’s will be opening a new ice cream shop in downtown Livermore on First Street next to Slice House.
Confectioner Lil Sweet Treat will be opening a new candy shop in City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon this summer, when Oakland’s Rico Rico Tacos is also expected to debut its new East Bay location.
Restaurateur Rodney Worth launched his latest project, the Golden Pear, an all-day café/restaurant in Walnut Creek’s Rossmoor retirement community.
More ramen! Hinodeya Ramen and Bar brings its signature dashi ramen to Berkeley, with a new location at 2309 Telegraph Ave. just off the Cal campus.
The San Francisco Chronicle has high praise for the mezcal program at Oakland’s Odin.
Dining and Cooking