"This theatre really is beloved by the community," Allen Michaan said this spring, standing under the sign he's run since 1980. He wasn't talking about a new restaurant. He was talking about the one thing on this stretch of Grand and Lakeshore avenues that hasn't changed in a century.
A few blocks from that marquee, three storefronts changed hands over the past two years, two of them in the same month this summer. Here's what's actually different if you're walking from Crocker Highlands down toward the lake, and what's stayed exactly where it's always been.
The Corner That Changed in July
Within about a week of each other in July, two spaces on this corridor reopened under new names.
- Mazar Cafe opened July 25 at 2834 Lakeshore Ave, in the space that used to be Cafe Lakeview, down toward the Lake Merritt end of the street. It pours Yemeni coffee and serves pastries alongside handcrafted drinks.
- Bar Skula opened on Grand Avenue in early July, in the former Sidebar space directly across from the lake. It comes from the owners of Luka's Taproom and Lounge and kept a few Luka's staples on the menu, including the burger and fries, while adding a cevicheria and grill program. Co-owner Maria Alderete has said photos of Lake Merritt's own wildlife are being framed for the walls, alongside a mural of sea creatures painted by Pancho Pescador.
Two openings in one month on a corridor this size is the kind of thing you notice walking your dog on a Tuesday, not the kind of thing that shows up in a market report.
The Space That Only Changed Hands Twice Since 1937
The bigger story on this street isn't the July openings. It's what happened at 3257 Lakeshore Ave, a few doors from Bardo Lounge.
A deli called Lakeside Deli opened at that address in 1937 and ran for roughly 65 years. The space was remodeled in 1985 into a postmodern take on a Grecian theme, with terrazzo floors that are still there. In June 2002, David Saidian and Mohammed Haghighi took over the remodeled space and opened Lakeshore Cafe, a breakfast and lunch spot known for Belgian waffles and egg scrambles. That cafe closed in 2024, and the same address reopened later that year as The Peach, an all-day brunch spot from the team behind Jo's Modern Thai. Owner Kao Saelee and chef-partner Intu-On Kornnawong built a menu that leans into the Jo's style of mixing American diner food with Thai flavor: a biscuit topped with a house-made chicken patty seasoned like Thai sausage, congee with shrimp and chile crisp, and Thai doughnuts served with condensed milk.
That's one address, two identity changes, across 87 years. When a spot has that kind of run, its closing feels different than a typical vacancy sign. That's part of why the July openings a few blocks away registered as news rather than background noise. This corridor doesn't usually turn over fast, so when three spaces change in two years, longtime regulars feel it.
What Didn't Move: the Marquee
Across the street from all of this, the Grand Lake Theatre marked its 100th year on March 6, 2026, exactly a century after it first opened its doors in 1926. Michaan has run the theater since 1980 and bought the building outright about six years ago. The lobby still has its original gold fixtures and a curtain that came from the old Fox Theatre in San Francisco. A Wurlitzer organ still plays before Friday and Saturday evening shows in the main auditorium. Tuesdays are still a flat $6 all day, 3D and 70mm included, and matinees before 6pm still run $7.50.
The marquee itself is close to as well known locally for the messages Michaan posts on it as for the showtimes underneath. It's the kind of detail that makes the building feel less like a chain and more like a neighbor who's been on the block a long time.
What Didn't Move Either: Saturday Morning
A few steps from the theater, at Grand Avenue and Lake Park Avenue, the Grand Lake Farmers Market has run on the same schedule since it started in a parking lot under Highway 580 in 1998. It moved to Splash Pad Park in 2003, a space designed by landscape architect Walter Hood, and it's been there every Saturday since, rain or shine, 9am to 2pm, year-round.
Visit Oakland lists around 40 local farmers and another 30 specialty food purveyors, plus a handful of artisans, and the Splash Pad Park site describes about 100 vendors on a typical Saturday. It takes CalFresh EBT, Market Match, and WIC, which is part of why it's stayed a full cross-section of the neighborhood rather than a boutique version of one.
The Rest of the Block Didn't Move Either
Walk the rest of Lakeshore Avenue and most of what's there predates this year's openings by a wide margin. Bardo Lounge & Supper Club, a few doors from The Peach, has been a Michelin Guide Recommended restaurant every year from 2021 through 2025. Obelisco Restaurant is still a few storefronts down serving tacos and pozole. And Arizmendi Bakery, the worker-owned cooperative bakery on the same stretch, is well known enough that Oakland-raised actress Zendaya named it as her favorite hometown eatery when asked about it at a film premiere in Rome.
None of that changed this year. The turnover was concentrated in three specific addresses, not spread evenly across the corridor.
Three storefronts changed names this year. The marquee, the Saturday market, and the bakery beside them didn't.
If you're curious about what else is shifting along Lakeshore and Grand before it shows up anywhere else, or what any of it means for a home nearby in Crocker Highlands, reach out to Dan Walner.
