Bottoms Up for Bottomless Brunch at District Oakland

By Emma Krasov, photography by Yuri Krasov

Historic yet contemporary, artsy, comfy, and overall enticing District restaurant, opened just six months ago, made a splash in Old Oakland with its strong focus on Wine Director and Sommelier Caterina Mirabelli’shighly sophisticated wine list and Executive Chef Bob Cina’s matching cuisine.

Oakland residents, visitors from the surrounding East Bay towns, and even San Francisco dwellers found the new restaurant to be both aesthetically pleasing and gastronomically advanced enough to make a trip to this quaint quiet area of the city known mostly for its bustling downtown and waterfront culinary scene.   

District Oakland’s ambience was created by Arcsine Architecture and Bellusci Designs, mixing the old and the new in the space carved out of the historic building. A large horseshoe bar made with reclaimed wood dominates the lounge with tall tables and bar stools on one side, and sofa beds surrounding low coffee tables on the other. The bar back wall is a wine and whiskey display that features the building’s original doorway header from 1878. The lounge walls are decorated with a mural by Brian Barneclo, a rotating display of works by local artists, and a quartet of video screens playing vintage movies at night and sports events on weekends. An outdoor patio is framed by artist Grant Irish’s intricate metal work.

To accommodate the growing request for its unique offerings, the restaurant recently started serving weekend brunch with "bottomless" food and beverage options.

Specialty brunch drinks include Bottomless Mimosa, Bottomless Bellini, and an array of house cocktails, like District Bloody Mary and Breakfast of Champions with bacon-infused bourbon, strawberry puree, maple syrup, and egg white.

The buffet brunch presents ceviche mixta, organic baby green salad, scrambled eggs with cheese, bacon and house made spicy sausage, biscuits and sawmill gravy, chipotle-garlic roasted potatoes, braised collard greens, fried plantains with house salsa, cheddar grits, buttermilk pancakes with banana-rum syrup, and steelcut oatmeal with bourbon vanilla brown sugar.

Bottomless drip coffee and chocolate chip bread pudding with vanilla and bourbon caramel sauces round up the lavish weekend meal.

District brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

District Oakland is located at 827 Washington Street in Oakland, California. The lounge is open Monday through Friday from 4:00 p.m. to close and on Saturday beginning at 11:00 a.m. (closing times range from midnight to 2:00 a.m.). Sunday hours are 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The daily happy hour from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. (5:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Saturdays) features $1.00 oysters. For more information and reservations for parties of eight or more, call (510) 272 9110, email events@districtoak.com or visit: www.districtoak.com.