Grand Lake's October Has Moved Toward the Water
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
In late August, two restaurants that face each other across the 3300 block of Grand Avenue closed within days of each other. One had served Grand Lake for 21 years. The other first opened on the street in the mid-1970s. Neither closure report named a next tenant. The new openings this summer landed at the lake end of the street, by the pergola and on Lakeshore. October's events follow the same pattern. Nearly every date on this month's calendar has a Bellevue Avenue address or sits beside it.
Samurai Sushi Boat served its last meal at 3336 Grand Ave. on Aug. 28. Oaklandside reported that the owners were retiring after 21 years. They signed their goodbye "Mama-San and Papa-San," the names longtime regulars knew them by.
The Coffee Mill at 3363 Grand Ave. closed the same week. In mid-August its closure was reported as temporary, tied to construction on the building. By early September, Oaklandside's roundup of August closures listed it under an Aug. 28 entry. Readers had spotted "For Lease" signs in the windows. The paper noted that the brunch spot first opened on Grand Avenue in the mid-1970s and that one family had owned it for more than 35 years.
That makes roughly half a century of breakfasts and two decades of sushi ending in one late-summer week, on facing sides of one block.
Down the street, Grand Avenue lost a third long-familiar dining room by a different route. Enssaro Ethiopian Restaurant had operated at 357-A Grand Ave. It moved to 5897 College Ave. in Rockridge and opened there on July 31. Oaklandside reported that the same mother-daughter-son family runs it. Rockridge Voice names Nesanet Tamirue as the owner. The kitchen is still running, now a few miles north.
The new arrivals cluster where Grand Avenue meets the water.
Bar Skula opened July 1 at 542 Grand Ave., in the storefront across from the Lake Merritt pergola. Sidebar used that space until early 2024. Maria Alderete and Rick Mitchell signed the lease in November 2025 and spent the months since rebuilding the room. The two ran Luka's Taproom for 15 years. Luka's is often credited with starting Uptown's revival, and it closed in January 2022 after the couple couldn't negotiate a new lease. Several of the old Luka's crew came along, including chef Wilson Mendez, bartender Jared Hirsch and Jacob Alioto, Luka's founding chef. Before opening day, Alderete told East Bay Nosh:
"Rick, Wilson and Jake have been cooking every week for the last six months refining the menu."
The menu centers on seafood and brings back some Luka's dishes and drinks. Bar Skula opened as a dinner spot. By mid-September it had added lunch Thursday through Saturday. That gives the lake end of Grand a midday table at the same time the 3300 block lost two.
Around the corner, Mazar Cafe soft-opened in late July at 2834 Lakeshore Ave., in the former Cafe Lakeview. It serves Yemeni coffee, handcrafted drinks and pastries.
Farther down Grand toward Uptown, the Oakland Athletic Club reopened June 1 at 59 Grand Ave. under a new ownership group. It's outside the Grand Lake core, but it does make for a longer walk along the lake's edge.
Look at the addresses on this month's calendar. The Gardens at Lake Merritt are at 666 Bellevue Ave. The Sailboat House is at 568 Bellevue Ave. Children's Fairyland sits in Lakeside Park at Grand Avenue and Bellevue. Grand Avenue gives you the way in, and the lake shore hosts the month.
Here are the dates, in order:
Autumn Lights is the one to plan ahead for. This is its 15th year. It raises money for the Friends of the Gardens at Lake Merritt and features 75 locally produced light installations. Oaklandside notes that it tends to sell out quickly. Its last night, Saturday, Oct. 17, is also the first day of Fairyland's Fall Fest a short walk away. That puts two of the month's biggest events on the same stretch of Bellevue on the same Saturday.
The Grand Lake Theatre is the calendar's link back to Grand Avenue. Its special screenings fall on weeknights, so the street keeps some evening foot traffic between the lake-shore weekends. Theater schedules change, so check the listing before you go.
One weekly routine has carried on through all of this. The Agricultural Institute of Marin's current schedule lists the Grand Lake Farmers Market at Splash Pad Park every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., through October and November 2026. That covers Oct. 10, 17, 24 and 31, then Nov. 7, 14, 21 and 28, with no schedule change announced.
Here's what Saturday, Oct. 17 looks like on the calendar. The market runs from 9 a.m. Fairyland's Fall Fest opens at 10. Autumn Lights takes over the Gardens that evening. And Bar Skula's posted weekday lunch hours end on Saturday, which makes it the place nearby to sit down for a meal in the middle of the day. For anyone who used to start that kind of day at the Coffee Mill, the closest breakfast replacement this fall is a Yemeni coffee and pastry from Mazar on Lakeshore.
The closure coverage for 3336 Grand Ave. and 3363 Grand Ave. does not name a next tenant for either space. The Enssaro relocation coverage says nothing about who follows it at 357-A Grand Ave. Leases on this street can be signed well before anything shows from the sidewalk. Bar Skula's lease was signed in November 2025, seven months before its July opening. The latest public detail on the Coffee Mill is the "For Lease" signs readers reported in its windows at the end of August.
If you live near Grand Lake and are wondering what this summer's closures on the 3300 block mean for the value of your own home on these streets, Diana Sweet Homes can go through recent Grand Lake sales with you, block by block, and tell you plainly how these changes might matter. Start Your Home Search, or just ask us what we're seeing near the lake.
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