Sun Moon Studio

There is no sign on the navy blue building at 1940 Union Street, and given the neighbors – the East Bay Municipal Utility District facilities and a stretch of industrial West Oakland – you might assume you have the wrong address. Inside, the scale is startlingly small. The dining room consists of just four tables on a concrete floor, seating a maximum of twelve people per service. It is a space stripped of distraction, decorated mostly by the raw materials of the menu itself: wildflowers, pumpkins, or persimmons stacked near the pass. The operation is run almost entirely by the owners, chefs Sarah Cooper and Alan Hsu. Having come from high-volume, high-precision kitchens like Benu and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, they have tightened the loop here; they don't just cook the food, they bring it to the table. The interaction is constant and low-barrier, removing the usual wall between the kitchen and the dining room. The menu is a set progression of twelve to thirteen courses that shifts based on weekly availability from local farms. While the framework is Californian, the dishes often pull from Hsu’s Taiwanese heritage – you might see a steamed brioche bun with housemade sausage appear between courses of Dungeness crab or aged duck. Reservations are released 42 days in advance and tend to vanish immediately. The meal typically ends with a simple serving of market fruit and a small box containing an olive oil cake to take home for breakfast.