The owners of Homeroom, Allison Arevallo and Erin Wade, purchased a blank slate corner commercial space on a fledgling block of 40th street in Oakland. Their idea: serve artisanal mac and cheese, beers, and retro desserts in a bright, lively, nostalgic, and home-spun environment.  By necessity, and by design, we dove in with authentic Do-It-Ourselves spirit. As we developed the design, we pinpointed anything that could be made or fabricated by the owners, their spouses, their friends or us. After the vanilla shell space was built out byACI Construction, bleacher board tables, display shelving, and etched wood panels were built by the owner’s husbands, Alejandro and Uri. Free chairs were sanded and stained by their friends, the concrete floor was sealed by the owners, and the glass ball chandeliers were built by Marites and the owners, from a Readymade magazine how-to. This once-deserted block of 40th Street now overflows at all times of day with sidewalk patrons eating macaroni and cheese, home made oreos, and mason jar glasses of Arnold Palmers.

If you’d like to read their personal story of working with an architect (US!) for the first time,  you can check out their BLOG HERE

The owners of Homeroom, Allison Arevallo and Erin Wade, purchased a blank slate corner commercial space on a fledgling block of 40th street in Oakland. Their idea: serve artisanal mac and cheese, beers, and retro desserts in a bright, lively, nostalgic, and home-spun environment.  By necessity, and by design, we dove in with authentic Do-It-Ourselves spirit. As we developed the design, we pinpointed anything that could be made or fabricated by the owners, their spouses, their friends or us. After the vanilla shell space was built out byACI Construction, bleacher board tables, display shelving, and etched wood panels were built by the owner’s husbands, Alejandro and Uri. Free chairs were sanded and stained by their friends, the concrete floor was sealed by the owners, and the glass ball chandeliers were built by Marites and the owners, from a Readymade magazine how-to. This once-deserted block of 40th Street now overflows at all times of day with sidewalk patrons eating macaroni and cheese, home made oreos, and mason jar glasses of Arnold Palmers.

If you’d like to read their personal story of working with an architect (US!) for the first time,  you can check out their BLOG HERE

PRESS

SF Gate

"It's funny," says Wade, remembering the linoleum floors and fluorescent lights of her public school days in 1990s Los Angeles. "None of the schools I went to looked half as cool as this restaurant."

Zagat Review

"Childhood comfort food comes of age" at this "retro schoolroom" look-alike in Oakland's Temescal.

East Bay Express

Library catalog cards and patrons' school photos — passé glasses, awful hair — dot the walls. Paper airplanes are everywhere. Under the inscription "A IS FOR APPLE, B IS FOR BEER, C IS FOR CHEESE," Homeroom's wide-open kitchen — where a hundred pounds of ridged Ronzoni elbows are boiled every day — evokes an arts-and-crafts class.

San Jose Mercury News

When Homeroom opened two years ago, everything about the place captured that retro spirit, from the chalkboard wall to the reclaimed wood from old bleacher seats.

Beyond the Plate

"But coming in everyday, and seeing this restaurant, this place, that we built from scratch and how it’s become so much bigger than we could have ever imagined, makes it all worthwhile."