Each year, the editors of Food & Wine magazine select the best new restaurant in America, and this year, it’s right in downtown Oakland.
Burdell on Telegraph Avenue is re-imagining soul food in a manner that is capturing the attention of the food world in a big way and has earned the title “Restaurant of the Year.”
“We first kind of heard about this in January and then I think it was March or April when we got the news about what they were snooping around for,” said owner Geoff Davis.
Geoff Davis has spent 20 years in the restaurant business, but when he opened “Burdell” almost a year ago, it was an homage to his roots. He has a picture of his grandmother, Burdell Demby, on the wall, but she’s also in every dish he cooks. He’s busting some myths about soul food.
“Black food being summarized as fried and sugar-glazed is really dismissive of a rich culinary tapestry of dishes. It’s more of an ethos. It’s a real cuisine. It’s not just food in a Styrofoam box,” said Davis.
Davis puts his spin on traditional dishes, like the smothered pork chops or the barbecued whole shrimp that the New York Times picked as one of the 23 best dishes in America. But he’s also given the restaurant a unique 70’s décor reminiscent of his family’s kitchen, right down to the vintage Pyrex plates he collected from across the country.
Davis put his soul into the restaurant. Food & Wine Editor-in-Chief Hunter Lewis says you can’t help but be charmed by it.
“I took my family to Burdell this summer and it was a perfect evening. That California light was streaming through the windows in the late afternoon, and every single dish was a banger. This soul food through the lens of California cuisine and California ingredients. That to me is what is so refreshing about this restaurant,” Lewis said.
But in true Oakland fashion, Davis also has a feeling for social justice. On the menu it explains that a 20 percent service charge has been added to pay his staff a decent wage and because he feels tipping has been used in the past as a sneaky way of keeping workers underpaid.
“I’ve certainly worked at restaurants where servers are making two to three times more than the kitchen. And I just don’t think that’s fair. We just wanted to level the playing field,” he said.
Now that the announcement has been made, the staff doesn’t have to keep the secret any longer. And Davis gets to let everyone share in the recognition of being “Restaurant of the Year.”
“It’s an amazing honor,” he said. “Just really exciting for the team, and for Oakland, that we have one to hang on the mantle, you know?”
Burdell will mark its one year anniversary on Monday. But despite all the accolades, Davis said this is still a really tough time to be building up a new restaurant, with so many other established places going out of business.
“We certainly aren’t crushing it, you know? We’ve been really fortunate with some awards this year and it’s been really awesome, but I don’t want to give any illusions that we’re, like, completely fine. We’re hustling and trying to be as creative as possible to make this a sustainable business,” says Davis.
The restaurant business has never been an easy one, but the post pandemic economics are making it a real leap of faith. It takes a lot of heart — and maybe a grandmother’s soul — to keep that dream alive.
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