Editor’s note: Nosh covers food and restaurant news across the East Bay, and each week we publish one article covering all the restaurant openings and one article covering closings. Have a tip for Nosh? Submit it here.
Babette
After 14 years of serving Berkeley as a restaurant, wedding venue and community gathering space, Babette is taking its final bow. With a focus on organic and sustainably-sourced food, Babette owners Joan Ellis and Patrick Hooker took to Instagram to relay the message of their closure to the community.
“Like so many of our friends and fellow small business owners, we just could not make the numbers work,” the post says. Ellis and Hooker took out a loan from the Small Business Association to keep Babette afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, but repaying it has proved nightmarish in the wake of DOGE cuts in the SBA and razor-slim margins.
Babette will close on October 31. Until then, there will still be three more live music events held on the outdoor patio each Wednesday, plus one final wedding. Babette was located at 2033 San Pablo Ave. (at University Ave.) in Berkeley.
The Miranda
The Miranda, a longstanding cocktail bar near the Fox Theater in Uptown Oakland, shuttered over the weekend, per an Instagram post. Adorned in wallpaper splashed with California poppies, the Miranda was an elegant watering hole known for affordable drinks and live DJ sets. The bar didn’t give context for the closure. The Miranda was located at 1739 Broadway (between 17th and 19th St.) in Oakland.
