Daytrip, the celebrated fermentation-forward date spot co-owned by Stella Dennig and Finn Stern is closing in mid-December after three years of operation on a lively stretch of Telegraph Avenue in Temescal. Dennig and Stern plan to return in 2025 with a new concept in the same space.
As the San Francisco Chronicle first reported and Dennig confirmed to Nosh, the restaurant’s last night of service is slated for Dec. 15.
Daytrip (4316 Telegraph Ave.) burst onto the Oakland restaurant scene in 2021 with effervescence and an agenda: pay employees a living wage, craft eclectic menu offerings in-house and have fun while doing it. Adorned with disco balls and a spunky green-and-pink interior — plus shelves of natural wine and sake to peruse at the front of the restaurant — walking into Daytrip almost feels like you should take your shoes off and start dancing. But the restaurant model, which has attracted workers and press coverage alike for its employee-centric approach and innovative menu-building, proved unsustainable.
“The amount of care that we put into our menu requires so much work, so much effort. And that’s not sustainable in this economic landscape,” Dennig said. “Over the last year, our team worked so hard to shave back on different areas and tighten up the ship. In spite of really significant gains there, the increasing shrinkage of the top-line revenue just wasn’t enough to get us there.”
There is a silver lining to this particular closure : Dennig and Stern plan to return next year with a fresh idea, including a new menu and shift in service model. It won’t be Daytrip anymore, Dennig said, but guests will find red threads tying previous Daytrip offerings into the new menu. Fermented foods, for example, won’t be gone forever, and Daytrip’s party-restaurant ethos will still live on, just in a more casual environment. She and Stern will focus on building the new restaurant with a clearer view of costs upfront, both from the labor angle and considering the cost of goods sold.
“We’re thinking of having a counter service only model, kind of elevated, fast-casual, still a space that’s really vibey, really fun to be in that people are excited to go to with groups, with friends, family or on a date night,” Dennig said. “But we’ll be much more logistically dialed to have operations that fit in a tighter box, meaning we’ll have a menu that changes significantly less frequently.”
Ultimately, Dennig said that the new restaurant will cater to what they believe Oakland diners want right now — a high-quality menu that doesn’t necessarily require a reservation or a seat in-house.
“The main pivot will be one that we think will be more what Oakland is asking for right now, in terms of being more everyday food — something that you could eat every week, if not more than that, and that’s to-go friendly,” she said.
If Daytrip could be described as a “soft disco drunken dinner party,” as Dennig once told the SF Chronicle, the new restaurant is best characterized as “crave-able flavor maximalism that you feel the urge to order every day.”
While it’s not goodbye to the physical space, Daytrip as a concept is leaving behind a cherished legacy. One of Dennig’s favorite Daytrip memories, she said, was the New Year’s party she and Stern hosted twice in the restaurant. With standing room only and nearly 100 people packed inside, it got “sweaty and wild,” in Dennig’s words. Guests snacked on appetizers that the kitchen crew spent months ideating for this event alone.
In the last few weeks, Dennig has had regulars flag her down to relay their favorite memories of dining at Daytrip — an emotional and reminiscent experience for her.
“It’s a crazy thing when you give your whole body and soul to something — the physical and emotional demands of work like this are so intense and run so deep,” she said. “There’s such a deep level of commitment that I have felt to our teams in every iteration. And they’re the heart and soul of who we are and who we will always be in people’s memories.”
