Eating Out: Oakland, California

Oakland While it would surely raise eyebrows to deem dinner at Oakland’s Commis a bargain, it’s more than fair to call Chef James Shyabout’s elegant tasting menus a Michelin Stargain. Twinkling with two of the French tiremaker’s honorifics as of 2016, Oakland’s serene, cerebral seven-year-old culinary jewel box offers prix fixe adventures of eight ingenious small courses (plus a few more bonus bites sprinkled throughout the meal) for $125. While that’s six times what you’ll spend for a satisfying steak dinner elsewhere in Oakland (more on that later), it’s a remarkable price compared to a constellation of other Michelin-winning prix fixes in the Bay Area: $398 at San Francisco’s Saison, $330 at Napa Valley’s Meadowood, $310 at the French Laundry in Yountville, and $235 at Manresa in Silicon Valley. (Prior to going out on his own, Shyabout cooked at the latter, as well as Spain’s legendary elBulli and England’s Fat Duck.) Along with housing rates, the cost of opening and sustaining a business in the San Francisco environs have skyrocketed in recent years, to such an extent that, along with young, adventurous eaters, ambitious, eclectic chefs like Shyabout have rooted themselves in more affordable Oakland.

By Jim Gladstone – Full Story at Passport

San Francisco East Bay Gay Travel Resources

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