Sláinte Oakland at 131 Broadway Ave in the Jack London Square area opened just over a year ago and became the first true Irish bar and restaurant to set up shop in that part of Oakland’s waterfront.
The sad story of media in Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area is that since you have a group writers who have no real knowledge of Oakland, and carry a kind of silly, street level unintentionally racist lens, they ask silly questions like “Can Sláinte create a modern Irish pub in Oakland?” Forgetting that Oakland’s played host to a number of bars and restaurants with Irish fare and drink over the years, like the old Barclay’s, and the ever popular McNally’s on College Avenue, to name some of them over the last 40 years. (And that’s why I’m blogging: Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook generation of media types are just getting it wrong all over. A corrective is in order: old fashioned blogging and vlogging – which never gets old.)
Anyway some San Francisco Bay Area media types like to push two ideas: 1) that because Oakland has more African Americans than the 4 percent black population in San Francisco, an Irish bar would be a failure, and that because Oakland has a healthy percentage of people who aren’t Irish, an Irish bar would be a failure. That was the bias that content written about Sláinte Oakland, contained last year.
Geez!
Well, the good news is, Oakland is not as its portrayed in the SF Bay Area mainstream media (when has it ever been?) and thus, it should come as no surprise that Sláinte Oakland’s a hit.
To be frank, this blogger has not been to Sláinte Oakland, yet, and this blog post is totally out of the blue, and because I’m so happy to see a new Irish bar with great looking (from the photos) food. Not only that, what Irish bar would be that without a number of Irish whiskeys and a dinner special to go with them? Well, Sláinte Oakland has just that…
It’s time for the West Cork Whiskey Dinner! #dinner #Oakland #WestCorkDistillers #WhiskeyPairing #whiskeytasting #WhatstheCraic pic.twitter.com/M8fdAMs3pW
— Sláinte Oakland (@SlainteOakland) July 4, 2018
And I missed the mac n cheese!
We’re packed and having a blast with our pub picnic! The Mac n cheese is to die for. Come get some today only!! #openonthefourth #WhatstheCraic #Fireworks #Oakland #sogood
— Sláinte Oakland (@SlainteOakland) July 5, 2018
And to make it all better, Sláinte Oakland’s open for the World Cup 2018 matches as early as 7 AM! Get down there, and have some fun!
Stay tuned!