Oakland’s Most Popular Pop-Up, Chef Smelly’s, Finds a Permanent Home

Chef Smelly’s Creole and Soul Food pop-up regularly drew hours-long waits every Friday night at a downtown Oakland nightclub, but Alameda County’s wavering stance on the legality of pop-up restaurants forced it to leave in October. In the meantime, chef Edward Wooley has been searching for a new home for his fried shrimp over garlic noodles — and now he’s found it: Oakland’s Very Own Tavern and Eatery.

The SF Chronicle reports that Wooley will become the executive chef of the North Oakland restaurant right after Thanksgiving.

“We’re two brothers from Oakland,” tavern owner Trevel Adanandus told the Chronicle. “I wanted to give him the opportunity to run something of his own without having to pay his own money for it.”

In other words, Wooley will be free to make Chef Smelly’s food — Dungeness crab, blackened shrimp, and not the burgers and caesar salads currently on the tavern menu — free from permitting woes.

• Chef Smelly pop-up finds permanent home at Oakland’s Very Own Tavern and Eatery [SF Chronicle]
• Alameda County Shuts Down Oakland’s Most Popular Weekly Restaurant Pop-Up [ESF]
• Alameda County Introduced Plan to Allow Pop-Up Restaurants [ESF]