CommonWealth Cafe & Public House has become such an Oakland fixture it’s hard to believe it’s only been open since 2010. News came down earlier this year that it was expanding…by going smaller. CommonWealth’s owners Ross and Ahna Adair are opening a second location, CommonWealth Micropub, in Emeryville in the teeny-tiny former home of Cafe Biere.
The sun shines on Ross Adair and his new family business…perhaps a little too brightly ;)
I thought “micropub” referred purely to the size of the place, but it’s also a British concept we don’t really have here. A micropub is usually a community-oriented one-room pub with a focus on beer and conversation — no bands, no sports, no pub quiz. Wikipedia explains, “The basic premise is KIS, KIS – Keep It Small, Keep It Simple.” Interestingly, they do not all have a physical bar. (In the UK, micropubs serve mainly cask beer, but that wouldn’t make sense here.)
Sounds great, so where is it already? Well, if you know anything about opening bars, you know the finish line is going to move a few times and render your initial timeline useless. The Emeryville CommonWealth ran into that in spades — it was supposed to be open months ago. I pestered co-owner Ross for updates until he took me on a tour of the space at 3986 Adeline.
Let’s just say there was some “deferred maintenance” on this spot, dating from Cafe Biere’s time and probably various decades before. From plumbing emergencies to ADA-compliant bathrooms to a million little things that needed to come up to code, the place turned into a fixer-upper. It further slowed things down that Emeryville is a small city, with some relevant municipal employees working only part-time.
But it’s happening, one project at a time, and it’s getting done right. In addition to structural repairs you’ll never see, the space will also have amenities like railed-off outdoor seating and a bike corral.
CommonWealth Micropub will be recognizable as part of the CommonWealth family but will also differ from the original in several key ways. It will have a similar look and feel — Ross joked that they had so much wallpaper left over they had to open a second pub. Employees you know from Telegraph will be on staff on Adeline. The goal is to make it feel homey from the start, not shiny and new. Like CommonWealth Cafe & Public House, it will be a neighborhood spot that happens to have Scottish ownership and influences, not a “British pub” per se.
The differences? There will be no bar (remember that’s fairly standard in UK micropubs), table service, and a different menu. You’ll find high and low tables, with benches and barstools, plus the aforementioned outdoor seating and some ledges for standing drinkers to lean on. Constraints on the kitchen at the Oakland CommonWealth have prevented them from doing some things such as deep-frying that are now on the table for Emeryville. And, like pretty much every pub in the UK, this pub’s menu will include Indian food. It will not have a cafe aspect and will open later — nothing’s set in stone yet but they’re talking about daily from 4-11pm, adding weekend brunch later.
Ross thinks they’ll have room for 11 taps — “same as a soccer team” — which seems more than generous for a space that only seats 25. He’s considering a mix of beer, cider, maybe a nitro tap, maybe one wine on tap, maybe a hand pump if they can find room for it. There might not be bottles as storage space is tight. There will likely be fewer classic British beers available in Emeryville than in Oakland, since there are so many new breweries opening locally that CommonWealth wants to support.
In a final nod to keeping it local, two of CommonWealth’s cooks are renting the apartment upstairs. Talk about the best commute ever!
So please be patient a couple of months longer, and then maybe again while you wait for a table, because I think this is going to be pretty cool. For updates on both locations, follow CommonWealth on Facebook or Instagram.
