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Oakland's original Kasper’s Hot Dog reopens under new ownership, name nearly 20 years later
Bright and early on Sunday morning an old Berkeley house was heaved onto a flat-bed truck for a half-mile trip through city streets.
The journey of the 1901 clapboard home, which began at 2121 Durant Ave., drew small crowds of onlookers as it was pulled slowly through downtown to its new resting place at 1940 Haste St.
The home is being relocated so that new housing can be built at 2121 Durant and an adjacent surface parking lot on Bancroft Way.
“The first thing we did was unplug our popcorn machine,” recalled Gian Traverso, co-owner and bar manager of Oakland institution Kingfish Pub & Café.
The 99-year-old historic dive bar is known for many things — shuffleboard, Cal sports memorabilia — but one of its most iconic elements is the free self-serve popcorn in the corner. Unfortunately, when news of the coronavirus began to proliferate, communal popcorn had to go.
“We had started to do things that we thought were probably good for public health, but without any real clear guidance,” said co-owner Vincent Traverso, sipping a beer across from his brother on the bar’s homey patio.
Here's why rolling 99-year-old Oakland dive bar Kingfish Pub across the street saved it in 2020
An 1897 brown-shingle house makes its way through Berkeley streets to a new home
In 1897, an Arizona rancher named Sam Crozier built a brown-shingle home at 2028 Bancroft Way. It was in an era in which Berkeley’s downtown was growing, due in part to the efforts of one of the city’s early land barons, Francis Kittredge Shattuck, who convinced the Central Pacific Railroad to run a spur line from Oakland through his holdings, which included downtown Berkeley.
Crozier only lived in the house a year before returning to Arizona, according to Caitlin Harvey, who prepared a report of the property’s history as part of a development effort.
Old Berkeley home is moved to make way for new housing
When the original Oakland Kasper’s Hot Dog restaurant at 4521 Telegraph Ave. closed its doors in 2003, owner Harry S. Yaglijian never imagined that his family business would remain closed for nearly 20 years. But after a prolonged ending, the historic restaurant is getting a second chance, albeit under new ownership.
Last July, Yaglijian sold the decades-old building to Emil Peinert, a managing partner at Oakland institution Kingfish Pub & Café. Since then, Peinert and his business partners have worked tirelessly to re-open and restore the famous restaurant to its original glory, as first reported by Berkeleyside.
School district expansion lands Oakland's biggest lease this year
Oakland Unified School District will expand to nearly 100,000 square feet at Oakland's Trans-Pacific Centre, in the largest lease signed in Oakland this year.
The district has renewed its existing 52,320-square-foot lease and expanded by another 46,375 square feet at the property, which is located at 1000 Broadway next to the 12th Street BART station. The tenant occupies nearly a third of the building, which is now 92 percent leased, up from 75 percent leased in 2013.
The Blood House on the move
For 123 years, the Ellen Blood House, a Queen Anne Victorian and a designated City of Berkeley Structure of Merit was a fixture at 2526 Durant Avenue. Designed by the architect Robert Gray Frise in 1891, the Blood House was the only 19th-century building—and the only single-family home—remaining on the 2500 block of Durant Avenue.
In 2003, developers Ruegg & Ellsworth sought a demolition permit for the Blood House. The Landmarks Preservation Commission denied the permit, and the Zoning Adjustments Board followed suit.
A few years later, John Gordon and Janis Mitchell stepped in, offering to receive the Blood house on an empty lot they own on the corner of Dwight Way and Regent Street and to rehabilitate it.