Grand Avenue is a great place to go if you need a manicure—more than a dozen nail salons dot the eight-block commercial strip—but not if you’re looking for a good meal, let alone a prototypical Bay Area dining experience. That’s set to change, though, when Camino , the new restaurant from 20-year Chez Panisse veteran Russell Moore and his partner, Allison Hopelain, opens there early next year.

Oakland certainly isn’t hurting for great places to eat: Oliveto and À Côté on College Avenue were recently joined by the new Wood Tavern; Piedmont Avenue, home to Bay Wolf for more than 30 years, has grown into a Gourmet Ghetto of its own. Many fine restaurants line the strip, including Italian-inflected Dopo and a second outpost of Berkeley’s popular tapas bar, César . And eight years after Doña Tomas opened in Temescal, another former Chez Panisser started Pizzaiolo next door, followed by the absurdly popular Bakesale Betty down the street, bringing about a revival to that once dingy block of Telegraph. Meanwhile, Tamarindo, B Restaurant, and the new Levende East (see page 220) are bringing new life to downtown’s Old Oakland.

Moore and Hopelain are betting that Grand Avenue is ready for the same type of restaurant-induced renewal. This spring, the two signed a lease on a brick building that was once the site of the Country Home Furniture store. The focal point of the 80-seat dining room will be a huge stone fireplace being built in Sonoma by a Frenchman who claims his family has been in the stonemasonry business since the time of the Crusades.

In this elegant setting, Moore will cook dishes like lamb’s leg à la sicelle (hanging by a string in front of the fire) and coils of housemade herb sausages. Near the front door will be a small bar, where bar manager Thad Zogler, the couple’s first employee, will mix cocktails with the same attention to artistry that Moore will implement in the kitchen.

Moore and Hopelain didn’t set out to be urban pioneers. For more than three years, the couple trailed real estate agents around San Francisco, but according to Hopelain, “Every time we got serious about a space in San Francisco, there was always a hitch.” Their last negotiation came to a halt when the city put a moratorium on devel­opments in Dogpatch because of zoning problems. That’s when the two decided to look elsewhere, and eventually set their sights on Oakland.

“We ended up choosing Oakland for a lot of reasons,” says Moore. “The commute [the couple lives in Richmond], the welcoming community, and the fact that this was an area without a lot of restaurants.” But ultimately, it was Oakland’s greatest asset—its glorious mix of people—that won the couple over.

“San Francisco is a very diverse city,” says Hopelain, “but you don’t see that reflected in the restaurants there. In Oakland, you see all kinds of people going out to eat: black, white, Latino, Asian, young, and old.” Theirs, they hope, will be a place where the cops and

The migration continues
Rising labor costs and out-of-control rents in San Francisco are making Oakland seem very appetizing to many local restaurateurs looking to expand. Here’s a taste of the new restaurants slated to open across the water in the next 12 months.

Ozumo: looking at two new properties in the city’s uptown neighborhood. The first would offer an izakaya (pub)-style menu on the ground floor of the new Broadway Grand condo development; and the second, which also includes plans for a wine shop and bar, will go into the basement of the Gothic Revival Cathedral Building.

Flora: also in Uptown, it’s a new cocktail lounge and restaurant from Thomas Schnetz and Donna Savitsky of Temescal’s popular upscale Mexican eatery, Doña Tomas. It’s opening in the old Floral Depot Building, on Telegraph Avenue, a cobalt-colored, silver-crowned art deco treasure.

Globe: Joseph Manzare and his partners at Globe are laying plans for what they call a Bronx-Italian restaurant.