In mid-2020, when swanky cocktail bar North Light was barely out of infancy in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood, co-owner Dan Stone decided to capture what it felt like to helm the business in the throes of the pandemic.
He wrote a 4,000-word essay for the California Sunday Magazine — where his wife is an editor — about the gargantuan task of keeping the bar afloat and his understanding that any day could be North Light’s last.
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The piece, now something of a time capsule, gives Stone another reason to smile about the steady resilience of the Telegraph Avenue bar, which on a recent Tuesday bustled jovially as its regulars settled in for the evening.
There was no stress in sight at North Light, which is nearing its fifth anniversary this month. Bartender John McKenna poured the special craft cocktail of the day, a stiff tequila and mezcal-based concoction of his own creation dubbed the Monarca.
Then he rummaged through a tote bag, carefully pulling out a new record to shift onto the bar’s turntable: Frank Ocean’s “Blonde,” an album drenched in melodic themes of heartbreak and nostalgia. Next to the record player sat a tall set of crammed bookshelves with a library ladder. A patron at the bar flipped through a novel she’d brought along with her.
This is the kind of sophisticated, hip-but-not-hipster atmosphere that has taken off as bars enter a post-pandemic chapter of catering social experiences.
An upscale but accessible vibe permeates North Light in Oakland, CA on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. The LGBTQ-friendly bar is known for its sophisticated setting, popular cocktails and small bites. (Don Feria for Bay Area News Group)
“People can drink a cocktail in the comfort of their own home for way cheaper than at a bar,” Stone explained. “It’s not about what you can mix up — it’s about how you make people feel when they’re in your space.”
North Light is among a crop of “book bars” that have popped up in the Bay Area over the past several years; the shelves, specially installed into the bar’s 11-foot wide interior, are stacked with books recommended by Stone’s friends in the literary world.
Stone’s favorite book from North Light’s numerous offerings is a rare cookbook, “Wild Raspberries,” produced by Andy Warhol and selected for the bar by chef and food writer Samin Nosrat.
“There’s a wealth of knowledge in Oakland, and people want to be around other people interested in learning about the world and figuring out more,” said Lukas Dellios, the bar’s assistant general manager. “What better way to physically represent that than books?”
Out on the back patio, patrons huddle in reserved booths over plates of potato tots, absorbing the evening. There are burgers and ribs and salads, too, but the tots, Stone said, is “emblematic of the place — they’re comfort food from everyone’s childhood.”
Finding an identity was the key to North Light’s survival. The bar ran through a number of short-lived experiments — serving breakfast, being open all day — before settling into a business model that works.
Co-owner Lee Smith gradually honed the bar’s financial end while Stone focused on establishing a laid-back environment where a visitor can ease out of the workday with a drink and some down-tempo tunes or simply find a corner to read.
Through it all, it is North Light’s appeal to intellectual stimulation that Stone believes sets it apart from other, more traditional Temescal offerings such as the historic Kingfish Pub and Cafe or The Avenue, a popular dive bar.
North Light’s cocktail list tends toward clearer liquors like tequila, mezcal and gin, though there is also a house old-fashioned with bourbon, plus a growing list of non-alcoholic offerings.
Much of the bar’s record collection was left to Stone by a veteran of the Bay Area’s hospitality industry, Daniel Hyatt, who died in 2018.
Quietly, North Light has also become known as a prime spot for inclusivity, particularly of queer identity. Dellios, who uses they/them pronouns, has played a significant role in that natural evolution, launching a regular drag show that has won the bar a swath of loyal customers.
“It’s been wildly successful,” they said. “Personally, what I did — I worked in plenty of bars where pronouns were not expected or there were small microcosms of hate. I’d always take note of ‘How would I create environments where this didn’t happen?’ And I tried to bring that here.”
Under warmly lit lamps hanging from the ceiling, the crowd on this evening was starting to grow a bit louder. But the Frank Ocean vinyl hummed audibly over the chatter.
“Keep a place for me,” Ocean crooned to an ex-lover on the track “Self Control.” Stone hopes North Light can do exactly that.
DETAILS: Open from 4 to 11 p.m. or later on weekdays and 2 p.m. until late on weekends at 4915 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland; https://northlight.bar.
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