The Bay Area’s first legal home restaurant is open for business, but you might need some luck to grab a home-cooked meal there this week.
Bao House, located off Berryman St. in Berkeley, officially opened last Thursday, becoming the first home restaurant to open since Alameda County opted in to a California law allowing such establishments.
The restaurant will hold a "Grand Opening" on Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8, according to a Foodnome listing. All menu items are currently listed as sold out, as are all pickup and dine-in reservations aside from 6:15, 6:30, 6:45, 7:15, 7:30 and 7:45 p.m.
Akshay Prabhu’s eatery specializes in homemade steam bun entrees, with Cambodian curry and jerk chicken options. There’s also a fennel, apple and cucumber salad, and customers have the option to order a single bun with curry, chicken or dessert fillings.
Local food laws prevented Prabhu, then a UC Davis neuroscience student, from selling steam buns on a cart – or, his "Baocycle," as he called it in an interview last week with Bay City News – in 2014. He started lobbying for changes in state laws after the Yolo County Health Department prevented him from cooking for neighbors.
Prabhu, in his restaurant bio, said he marched and organized the push for Assembly Bill 626 in Sacramento, which then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2018. The law allows for home restaurants within a county that opts in, as Alameda, Riverside, Santa Barbara and Solano counties have so far.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance on May 4. Two months later, Bao House became the first home restaurant to take advantage.
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