B-Side BBQ

Our verdict

Wood-fired barbecue built around locally sourced, organic ingredients was the operating premise at B-Side BBQ, Chef Tanya Holland's San Pablo Avenue project in West Oakland. Holland, who also ran the neighbouring Brown Sugar Kitchen, brought a "new style down home" sensibility to the space, a renovated former Yardie Jerk location that KQED described as carrying a warm, country-and-western feel with whimsical touches throughout. The menu leaned into the cuts and preparations that define serious barbecue: smoked brown sugar rubbed brisket, St. Louis ribs, pulled pork, and a Korean-style crispy chicken that signalled Holland's willingness to move beyond regional convention. Sides drew from local organic producers, a sourcing standard that placed B-Side closer to the Bay Area's ingredient-driven restaurant culture than to the purely traditional pit-smoke tradition. The location on San Pablo Avenue was deliberate. Holland and her husband were West Oakland residents, and the restaurant was part of a broader effort to expand quality food options within the neighbourhood rather than simply export a concept to a higher-traffic corridor. The dining room was compact, hours were limited, and the operation reflected the focused, community-rooted scale that characterised the project from the outset. B-Side BBQ has since closed. For those researching Oakland's barbecue history or Holland's broader body of work in West Oakland, the restaurant represents a specific moment when the neighbourhood's food scene was actively expanding, with a chef of genuine local standing applying sustainable sourcing principles to a format that rarely demands them.