Actual Cafe is new.  But the idea isn’t.  Although you might not know that if you’ve lived in the area for the last bunch of years.

I moved to Oakland in 1991, and found it was a town chock full of interesting people, who didn’t go to bed at 6:00, and who hung out in coffee shops.  I spent countless hours in places like The Edible Complex and Your Mama’s.  Most of the personal ties I have to this area I made during my first couple years here.

In those days, I was an itinerant jewelry maker and struggling musician, and I wasn’t sure that Oakland was the place I wanted to stay.  The people that I met in those neighborhood spots convinced me that it was.  Oakland is about its people.  We don’t have the best architecture, or the most history, or the best views.  What we do have are great people, of all stripes.

But, something funny happened in the 90s.  Interwebs made people rich.  Starbucks brought coffee to the masses (and its quality down to the lowest common denominator).  Real estate got expensive.  Rents went up.  Neighborhood shops were being squeezed from both sides – their costs went up as competition started taking their revenue away.  Many went away.  Those that stayed open lost something.

And it wasn’t just the spots – the people changed, too.  When rents went up, some left for rainier climes.  Some others (me included) went to work for a living – running the rat race in order to afford the better apartment, and then the better TV, the better car, the better gadget.  And we lost track of each other.  Communities splintered and went underground.  We didn't have good ways to stay in touch.

We started living on our laptops and cell phones, and getting that glassy-eyed look when out in public that meant we weren’t really there – that our minds were on other things.  The voice in our earbud or the music in our headphones or the text scrolling by on our screen started to seem Mystical and Important to us in a way that the people right next to us didn’t anymore. 

And then, things changed again.  Money, which we thought would make things easier, turned its ugliest face on us.  We lost jobs, houses, and our sense of place in the world.  And when that happened, we started questioning what was really important.  I’ve talked to lots of people about this, and have gotten some really encouraging answers: family, life balance, travel, art, love, cool projects – passion.

For me, the answer is that sense of community – of people coming together in interesting and unpredictable ways.

And so, I built a Cafe.  It’s not a figment of electrons.  It’s real.  You can touch it, and stand in it, and smell the coffee brewing and the empanadas baking.  You can meet your neighbor, whether you live a few blocks away, or a few miles, or a few neighborhoods.  And maybe you can meet someone you wouldn’t have met otherwise.

I made it out of things that other people threw away, or had stashed in warehouses for years.  I did as much as I could myself, and I had tremendous help from neighbors, friends, and folks I hired along the way.  I made it comfortable, and spacious.  I made it easy to bike to (you can practically ride right in the front door).  I tried really hard to make the food we serve delicious, simple and affordable.

We opened just a couple weeks ago, and we’re almost overwhelmed with the love we’re getting.  So many people come in and say that they’ve been waiting for years for a place like ours.  People want to write stories about us.  They eat our food, and drink our coffee, and tell us how good it all is.  They read our books, and surf our tubes, and stare out our front windows as life on San Pablo goes by.  And they realize that there is a ‘here’ here.

We’re having a party on the 8^th of January.  It’ll be fun.  There will be music and beer and who knows what all.  Come by and say hi.  We’d love to have you.

-sal

actual cafe, oakland
san pablo @alcatraz
www.actualcafe.com