Belcampo Opening & Jack London Square, Oakland

Hogshead in the meat case at Belcampo, Jack London Square, in Oakland.

I had the wrong impression of Oakland. I only recently found out that there's a vibrant Chinatown, significant populations of folks from Southeast Asia which translates to some of the best Vietnamese, Thai and Lao cuisine anywhere on the West Coast, and I had no idea that Fruitvale was the hotbed of Mexican cuisine in the Bay Area. What I had heard was that when Governor Jerry Brown was Mayor of Oakland, he started a lot of redevelopment downtown, and back then people thought he was nuts with his plan to have ten thousand housing units built--who would want to live in downtown Oakland?

Even though there's still quite a bit of poverty, Oakland's a much more happening place nowadays, and much of that is centered around mass transit. A lot of the older architecture has been updated in a good way. It's not just a massive swath of unremarkable, soporific Mixed Use Developments--sure, there's some around Jack London Square and elsewhere. But it's not like the South Of Market area of San Francisco. Oakland's a real mix, and is certainly not laid out in a predictable grid. From my perspective, it seems like they've done the best with what they've got. I realized as we headed there yesterday (6/30/2018), I have a lot of positive associations with Oakland.

Jack London Square is oriented around this marina, and I understand that thirty years ago was kind of a seedy place.

Heinold's First And Last Chance Saloon was opened in 1883, and you can find more information on it online, including the fact Jack London used it for scenes in some of his novels. Hard to picture it back then with that steel and glass building all but swallowing it.

But still, it's a nice open plaza space, good for families strolling about on a day filled with sunshine.

OK, so here's the main reason we visited yesterday, to check out Belcampo's soft opening. We're familiar with their fine meats in other spots around the Bay, including Polk Street & the Embarcadero in San Francisco, and at Larkspur, near the Ferry Building. This is intended to be their flagship restaurant and store. 

Top notch meat. Self-sourced.

Includes lardo, forcemeats and poultry.

I'm a hawg for you.

Wide open space. Huge patio area as well.

More great stuff in cases nearby: broth, sausages, pate, duck confit. They were sampling broths, so we got little cup samples. Frances was delighted to have a little.

Off in the distance on the horizon, you can make out the San Francisco skyline.

http://www.jacklondonsquare.com/dining-locations/visit/belcampo