A nationally acclaimed Oakland bar beloved for its cocktails and food as much as its inclusive community spirit and queer speed dating nights will close at the end of the year.
Friends and Family’s last day at 468 25th St., will be Dec. 30, owner Blake Cole announced on Instagram Sunday evening.
“I built FF with the help of so many phenomenal people, to be a place we all wanted to be, where we could feel safe and ourselves and celebrated and hopefully fall in love and be held in moments of pain and nourished and cared for and have really really good lighting,” she wrote. “Time and time again there (were) a million reasons to stop and give up – but we didn’t.”
Cole was not immediately available to comment. She intends to continue Friends and Family in some capacity with chef Gaby Maeda, according to a press representative.
Owner Blake Cole opened Friends and Family in 2020. She is closing her bar in Oakland, but hopes to bring it back in some form. (Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle)
Cole, a former manager at now-closed Oakland restaurant Hopscotch, opened Friends and Family in April 2020 amidst the pandemic lockdown. The business went from serving to-go cocktails and slices of carrot cake to national recognition for its drinks and commitment to providing the Bay Area with a queer space. Friends and Family, which regularly hosts queer events and community fundraisers, ranked among North America’s 50 Best Bars, and was a semi-finalist for the James Beard outstanding bar award in 2022.
Last year, as the business struggled with post-pandemic unpredictability, Maeda, a James Beard Award-nominated chef and Friends and Family regular, joined to revamp the bar’s food. In a 2024 review, Chronicle restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan lauded Maeda’s “playful and personal cooking,” from miso brothy beans to the popular “les eggs,” shoyu eggs in a pool of yuzu kosho-spiked mayonnaise, dotted with dollops of smoked trout roe.
“Thank you all for seeing us, for loving us and for spending time with us,” Cole wrote on Instagram Sunday. “It’s been the greatest gift.”
This article originally published at Bay Area bar ranked among best in the country will close.