Gingerbread House (Oakland: closing, restaurants, price) - San Francisco - Oakland - California (CA) - City-Data Forum

baybook · 06-19-2009, 09:30 PM

Does ANYONE know what happened and why it closed???

The site is in such disrepair now.

City Boy · 06-19-2009, 10:10 PM

The food was HORRIBLE last time I went and it was empty. Glad it closed down for serving overpriced crap.

baybook · 06-19-2009, 10:18 PM

Sorry you had a bad experience, but that does answer my question. I'm 40 years old and TGH has been one of my favorites places in Oakland. Looks like they were in business for close to 35 years. The closing of a local instition shouldn't make one "glad".

City Boy · 06-20-2009, 06:51 PM

They closed because the food was bad and they were not getting customers, the location also sucked. There is no other reason. Empty, bad food, weird server. Place sucked. The food was bad. I really don't know what made people think this place was good, other than the disney land look of the place. I went twice, the second time because my grandmother from New Orleans wanted to try some NO food. I warned her, she couldn't even eat the "Gumbo" they served, which had cut up hot dogs trying to pass for sausage and those fake tiny shrimp as the only seafood in there. If you've had good New Orleans food you'd understand why this place didn't last.

Tallysmom · 06-20-2009, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by City Boy

They closed because the food was bad and they were not getting customers, the location also sucked. There is no other reason. Empty, bad food, weird server. Place sucked. The food was bad. I really don't know what made people think this place was good, other than the disney land look of the place. I went twice, the second time because my grandmother from New Orleans wanted to try some NO food. I warned her, she couldn't even eat the "Gumbo" they served, which had cut up hot dogs trying to pass for sausage and those fake tiny shrimp as the only seafood in there. If you've had good New Orleans food you'd understand why this place didn't last.

It had a 33 year run. Can hardly call that a failure.

Without knowing what happened, I'd bet the original owner sold or died and the ones that took over didn't know what they were doing and used it for the cash cow it was as long as they could....

baybook · 06-21-2009, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by City Boy

They closed because the food was bad and they were not getting customers, the location also sucked. There is no other reason. Empty, bad food, weird server. Place sucked. The food was bad. I really don't know what made people think this place was good, other than the disney land look of the place. I went twice, the second time because my grandmother from New Orleans wanted to try some NO food. I warned her, she couldn't even eat the "Gumbo" they served, which had cut up hot dogs trying to pass for sausage and those fake tiny shrimp as the only seafood in there. If you've had good New Orleans food you'd understand why this place didn't last.

You have no idea what you are talking about.

baybook · 06-21-2009, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

It had a 33 year run. Can hardly call that a failure.

Without knowing what happened, I'd bet the original owner sold or died and the ones that took over didn't know what they were doing and used it for the cash cow it was as long as they could....

Yeah, 30 years sure is a failure.

I wonder. I can't find any references to her death or what happened at all. It's just like they packed up overnight and left.

Tallysmom · 06-21-2009, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baybook

Yeah, 30 years sure is a failure.

I wonder. I can't find any references to her death or what happened at all. It's just like they packed up overnight and left.

I can find the restaurant on Yelp, and it does look like the quality went down fast. And if I have my dates right, about the time they headed downhill, Oakland was coming into it's own with good restarants in that same price point -- so factor in the "It's new we have to try it" theory, and that may have helped kill it. Add to that the crummy location.....

PeixeGato · 06-21-2009, 05:37 PM

I don't know what happened to them. My wife and I stumbled on it by accident once a while back and had lunch there. The food was delicious, but the place had sort of an odd or maybe even surreal feel to it. The decor was odd, the layout was odd, but they had all sorts of accolades hanging all over the restaurant and evidence of a strong connection to the local community, and it was obvious it had been there for a long time, so we figured it was one of those "locals" places that had a very eccentric owner. And keep in mind, when I say "odd", I don't mean that in a bad way, rather just that it seemed "odd".

There were only a handful of other tables occupied on that Sunday afternoon we stopped in, but each of them seemed to know the staff very well (to the point where one of them didn't even have to order from the menu, the hostess just kept bringing stuff out for them periodically).

From a business standpoint, its location was horible and it seemed like it was dropped in out of nowhere into this random spot. Maybe the freeway built up around it as I couldn't imagine anyone choosing to open an expensive restaurant in that spot under the Fwy overpass.

It was about a year ago that we noticed it was closed down. On our recent pass-bys, we can see that it has become a target for graffiti and other depressing vandalism and that it now blends in with the rest of the blighted area that surrounds it.

Its a shame this restaurant is gone because to me it was one of those places where you felt like you needed to go back a few more times to "get it". But once you did "get it", you'd wonder why it took you so long to do so. I feel like I missed out on an opportunity to share in part of the local history of Oakland.

I think we need more restaurants with true down home (and even somewhat gritty) style and fewer of these high gloss "what's hot right now" restaurants designed by the latest hot restaurant designer. But since I have no desire to open a restaurant of my own or be a funding partner in one, I'll stop complaining and make it a point to frequent the existing restaurants that do have that down home feel.

PeixeGato · 06-21-2009, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

I can find the restaurant on Yelp, and it does look like the quality went down fast.

Definitely sounds like the death of someone who was critical to the success of the restaurant. They must not have been told about the "key man (person)" problem. Oh well, I wish I had had a chance to get to know the place better.