When one bar closes, another bar opens. Isn’t that how the saying goes? After closing downtown Oakland’s Radio Bar, owners Alfredo Botello, Trevor Latham and Tim Tolle hired Jennifer Seidman as a consultant to refresh and rebrand it. The newly madeover space is now called Little Bird Bar. Once inside, look up at the ceiling. Light fixtures hang down in the shape of bird cages. Seidman made the cages by hand, one by one, before perching artificial birds inside of them.
Whiskey aficionados will recognize Seidman from her full-time gig as the owner and sometimes-bartender of Acme Bar & Company, in Berkeley. When we spoke on the phone, she described Acme as a neighborhood bar. “I use this analogy—Acme is like a warm, comfortable sweater,” she said. “It’s very welcoming. My staff is really lovely. We treat people very kindly.” She’d rather have one customer come in a thousand times than host a thousand customers who only come in once.
Acme, she added, is the only nationally award-winning whiskey bar in the Bay Area, after several others closed in San Francisco. “What I love so much about Acme is that bars are very much about community,” Seidman said. “One of my customers, a lovely gentleman, has been coming to my bar for 23 years. I remember when his daughter was six; she’s in grad school now.” When people make friends, meet or break up with partners at neighborhood bars and restaurants, she said, “they’re woven into the fabric of someone’s life.”
Radio Bar, according to Seidman, hadn’t been profitable for at least five years. One of the fundamental changes she wanted to bring into the space was to make it aesthetically appealing—warm and welcoming and pretty. “The other day I was sitting in the bar and two women walked past, stopped, looked in and one immediately said, ‘Oh my god, it’s so cute.’ And that’s what I wanted,” she said.
Seidman trains her bartending staff to welcome customers when they come in and to say “Goodbye” when they leave. “I feel like it’s a privilege when people choose to come in and spend their money,” she said. Some of the Radio Bar regulars have returned to check out Little Bird but, she added, “change is hard for some people.” One thing that Seidman insisted on for the reopening was a “fantastic” happy hour.
During Happy Hour, the well drinks and draft beers are $6. The house cocktails and spirits and wines by the glass are all $2 off. “Our juices are fresh. We make all our own syrups,” she said. “All of those things are important to me because I wanted to make sure we were able to stay really affordable because that was a big element of Radio Bar.” Little Bird offers a $10 shot-and-beer special every day but also stocks $20 pours of scotch, too.
Seidman has agreed to be present at Little Bird for up to six months. “If I do the training correctly, my manager and my employees will be able to do my job for me,” she said. Both Little Bird and Acme will be open on New Year’s Eve. Little Bird will offer a complimentary champagne toast at midnight, without a door charge. Larger groups, of up to 15 people, can reserve the upstairs mezzanine at no cost. A couple of Seidman’s bird cages also feature in the upstairs décor.
Little Bird sits on 13th Street, near the Oakland Tribune building, alongside newer businesses like Pierre Pierre and Rasa Caffe. “On our block, there’s a lot of movement and growth,” Seidman said. “That’s what made it really attractive to me. So many people on that one block in particular were like, ‘I’m going to invest my time, my money, my energy into downtown Oakland.’”
And for folks celebrating in Berkeley, Seidman is offering a New Year’s Eve special at Acme for the first time. A $120 ticket covers drinks, draught beer and wine by the glass. $100 is for the house and $20 goes to the bartenders.
Little Bird Bar, open every day, 4pm to 2am. 435 13th St., Oakland. 510.484.5360. IG:@Littlebirdbar. littlebirdbar.com
Acme Bar and Company, open every day, 3pm to 2am. 2115 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. 510.644.2226. acmebarandcompany.com
