.The Peach opens all-day brunch spot on Lakeshore Ave

Brunch at the former Lakeshore Cafe starts with a peach mimosa

For many years, Lakeshore Cafe was a dependable if outdated spot to grab breakfast, brunch or lunch. While the food wasn’t memorable, the space itself offered sunlight and comfortable seating. It was a casual cafe with a patio; a nice place to meet up with friends. In its place Kao Saelee recently opened his second East Bay restaurant, The Peach.

Unlike his first, the more upscale Jo’s Modern Thai, The Peach retains the Lakeshore Cafe’s low-key neighborly vibe. The most noticeable change to the decor is a newly painted interior, which features a muted peach-adjacent color.

While I sat in the mini-rotunda at the front of the restaurant, diners ate solo, in pairs and in small groups. Thankfully, no TVs were in sight. People read, worked on their laptops or chatted without needing to compete with video screens and music.

Saelee read about chef Juan Stevenson’s pop-up, Juju’s Street Eats, and recruited him from Savannah, Georgia. I met the chef when I dropped by the cafe for a bite, and he joined me at my table to talk about his culinary career and his menu plans as the new culinary director for both of Saelee’s kitchens.

At Juju’s Street Eats, the dishes reflected the chef’s Indonesian heritage. Dishes such as his interpretation of martabak, a stuffed scallion pancake, and his smashed chicken, assembled and eaten as a lettuce roll, brought him to the attention of local food reporters and, in turn, to Saelee. 

The Peach’s brunch menu also reflects his general culinary approach, which includes a variety of other Asian influences. He said he uses a lot of fish sauce in the kitchen. With the help of a recently hired sous chef at The Peach, Stevenson will have more time to test out new recipes at Jo’s. He said that the diners’ favorite dishes there—such as pad thai and drunken noodle—will remain on the menu. 

Fried chicken and waffles are staples on Bay Area brunch menus. The combination is cooked, plated and served, if not identically, then in a similar fashion. The only recent change I’ve noticed is a trend towards stacked and skewered towers of fried chicken rather than nestling the pieces alongside the waffle.

At The Peach, the chef reimagined this dish. Three ricotta pancakes replace the waffle; they’re served with a smashed piece of fried chicken tossed in hot honey ($20) and spiced with red chili flakes. Stevenson makes his fried chicken batter with rice flour, which creates a coating that stays crunchy despite the honey drizzle.

In addition to the crunchy chicken and fluffy pancakes, I also tried the smashed laab brunch burger ($20). The chef transforms a traditional laab salad into smashed pork patties, then tops the burger with lettuce, avocado, a lime-and-herb aioli, and an egg. The original essence of the salad comes through because the flavor profile is an exact match, but my palate was confused by the egg, aioli and avocado. I missed the salad’s bright, acidic flavors. Lime, cilantro and green onions are really the stars on a plate of laab. I’d try the burger again, but stripped of the extra ingredients.

When Saelee and Stevenson initially met to discuss the job, Saelee presented Stevenson with a menu that the chef proceeded to modify. Lobster, Stevenson noted, is one of Saelee’s favorite ingredients. When Jo’s Modern Thai opened, his lobster pad thai ($33) caught everyone’s attention. At The Peach, he wanted the kitchen to make a lobster club sandwich ($28) but the chef also added a lobster toast ($22). Both are served on milk bread.

After his stint in Georgia’s culinary scene, Stevenson is impressed by California’s longer harvest seasons for produce. He has ready access to lemongrass here, along with other herbs such as pandan. Seafood, too, is more accessible on the West Coast. On the weekends, The Peach offers oysters on the half shell (6 for $24) with nam jim, a Thai dipping sauce and pickled red onion.

The Peach, open Tue-Sun, 8am to 3pm. 3257 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland. 510.907.3892. IG:@thepeachbrunch. thepeachbrunch.com.

Chef Juan Stevenson IG: @merry_juan

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