Lungomare in Oakland. Photo: The Chronicle/John Storey
Tribune Tavern in Oakland. Photo: The Chronicle/John Storey
After hinting at it months ago, Oakland restaurateur Chris Pastena has made it official: He and Tribune Tavern co-owner and landlord Tom Henderson have dissolved their partnership.
As part of the arrangement, Pastena will no longer have any involvement in Tribune Tavern, the downtown gastro-pub housed on the ground floor of Oakland’s iconic Tribune Tower, while maintaining full control of Lungomare, his “coastal Italian” restaurant in Jack London Square.
Pastena, who made his name as founder and co-owner of Chop Bar in Jack London Square, made headlines when he partnered with Grand Tavern’s Teemor Noor and Oakland businessman and investor Tom Henderson in 2013 on two high profile Oakland projects in Lungomare and Tribune Tavern, with more rumored to be in the works. Tribune Tavern’s brief tenure has been a bit rocky, however, as the restaurant has already gone through two executive chefs, Huw Thornton and Tracey Belock, in its first year and a half in business.
Pastena says ultimately the split came down to “creative differences” in how the kitchen should be run.
“I think everything that I want to do within the restaurant world is similar to what we built at Chop Bar and the direction that we have at Lungomare,” he says. “We have strong core values at those places dedicated to the kinds of products we bring in, to making things in house as much as possible and to making sure we’re doing things that are high quality. That’s the direction I wanted to take with all my restaurants, and I felt that, somewhat, it wasn’t the focus [at Tribune Tavern].”
Henderson, a businessman who is working to bring 2,000 jobs to Oakland, simply said that the two “agreed to disagree.”
“I’m running a large corporations and the restaurant is one small piece of it,” he said. “It’s all good. I just don’t have time to waste on differences of opinion. So I think this is best for everyone.”
Henderson will continue to invest in the local dining scene, saying he is partnering with a well-known North Bay restaurateur and has plans to open as many as ten new restaurants in San Francisco and Oakland starting next year.
Pastena, meanwhile, remains partners with Noor at Lungomare, and said his planned Mexican concept, Calavera, is still slated to open in Uptown Oakland’s Hive Project on Broadway in early spring of next year.
As for Tribune Tavern, general manager and new co-partner Rob Soviero says that things would stay much the same. Running the kitchen is Michael Luong, who took over as executive chef when Belock left to start her own Montclair project earlier this year. Previously chef de cuisine at Butterfly in San Francisco, Luong has added a few Asian touches, such as tuna poke and lemongrass-curry mussels, but will mostly stay faithful to the menu’s pub centric, comfort food fare.
Regarding the ownership split, Soviero said, essentially, that these things happen. “I think for anyone in this business, it takes a lot of drive and a lot of passion, and sometimes partnerships can just fall apart.”
