Oakland May Not Need More New Bars, But This One’s From a Popular Sex Shop Owner

Welcome to a.m. Intel, your bite-sized roundup of Bay Area food and restaurant news. Tips are always welcome, drop them here.

Some racy news to kick off the week: Apparently there are plans for not one, but two risque new bars in Oakland, one tied to a popular sex shop and another with the relatively controversial name Sluts. The SF Chronicle reports the former comes from Nenna Joiner, who also owns two Feelmore sex shops in the East Bay, one in Oakland and another in Berkeley. Joiner says she hopes to debut Feelmore Social Club in early 2022 at 1542 Broadway in downtown Oakland and will design the “sex-positive bar” to channel “a seedier, sexier era in New York’s Times Square.” Expect an element of eroticism including “artisan cast-iron penis holders” plus a vintage neon sign from the Lusty Lady, a former San Francisco adult cinema. Joiner plans to have a light food menu of Vietnamese small plates and “great cocktails.”

The second spicy bar comes from Imana, the chef-owner of uber-popular Hi Felicia Supper Club. Imana tells the Mercury News she’s in talks with the owner of a “unoccupied two-story building in West Oakland” to open Sluts, “an intimate gathering place for wine and vermouth paired with tacos, tapas and raw bar bites.” The name is an attempt to reclaim a word that has been “deemed derogatory,” Imana explains, and will be funded via GoFundMe. The 25-year-old says she’ll continue the $225 per person dinners at the brick-and-mortar location on Friday and Saturday nights and will open the bar upstairs on the first and third Mondays of the month. [SF Chronicle/Mercury News]

Irish pub closes after more than a decade in downtown Sac

Fans are gutted about the closure of De Vere’s Irish Pub, which closed its doors permanently on Sunday due in part to the impact of the pandemic. It was a rowdy send off for the L Street bar, which opened in 2009, as evidenced by video from the Sacramento Bee. [Sacramento Bee]

28-year-old Oakland boba shop may close as owners retire

The Sweet Booth, a mom-and-pop boba shop that opened in Oakland’s Chinatown in 1993, may sadly close, as co-owner Calvin Tong and his wife Hetty plan to retire. Tong tells the SF Chronicle he hopes someone will buy the business before he shutters it at the end of the month. [SF Chronicle]

Meet SFGate’s new “burrito reviewer”

SF native and musician Cecilia Cassandra Peña-Govea, known as La Doña, launched a new burrito review column for SFGate and, well, we’ll let her introduce herself: “I am amped to occupy space here at SFGATE and in your beautiful brains as the new head of the burrito bureau, the interrogatah of flavah, the goddess of gastronomy, the one and only Doña 415, as I take you down the hyphy brick road that leads to my favorite burrito spots.” [SFGate]

Did someone say “Mt. Tam cheesecake ice cream”?

Indeed, we did. Cowgirl Creamery and Smitten Ice Cream have put their heads together and come up with Mt. Tam cheesecake ice cream with sour cherry compote and graham cracker crumble. Get it now through November 10 all five Smitten locations and Cowgirl’s Point Reyes Barn Shop.

Smitten Ice Cream