Michele McQueen is a chef with some choice “firsts” in her life.
She was one of the first to popularize fried chicken and waffles as a composed dish in Northern California, at Gussie’s Chicken and Waffles in San Francisco. And she recalls being the chef who served Steph Curry his first Thanksgiving dinner as an NBA player in the Bay Area.
Now, as co-founder of industry group the Oakland Restaurant Collective, she’s pioneering another road: Convincing people that Oakland’s a good city to run a restaurant.
“We’re up against a lot of things. And honestly, there are other cities who share the same struggles, and they just don’t get the same spotlight,” says McQueen, owner of Town Fare restaurant in the Oakland Museum of California and co-owner of nearby cocktail lounge, Lucy Blue.
“The city can only do so much. And they’re really putting forth their best effort,” she says. “They’re letting people know what’s out here — what you can do and find in Oakland.”
So far, there are some hopeful signs. In 2025, when the Oakland Restaurant Collective was created, the city picked up its second Michelin-starred restaurant, Sun Moon Studio. That was also the second consecutive year that Conde Nast readers voted Oakland the best food city in the nation.
Chef and owner Michele McQueen sits at the bar at Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland on March 18, 2026. McQueen and co-owner and bartender Matt Sturm took over the space formerly occupied by Duende in August 2025 with their lounge featuring small bites and cocktails. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
“It reminds you it’s not always going to be New York or L.A, and that’s based on Oakland being such a culture-rich city,” says McQueen.
Recently, the chef took the time to chat about the East Bay’s sizzling dining scene, reality-TV cooking shows and what it takes to run a successful restaurant.
Q: Town Fare is known for creative soul food, like gumbo ramen and sweet-potato spring rolls. Is there a dish you make you’re particularly fond of?
A: I’m very proud of my collard-green salad, which features fresh collard greens with toasted pecans, grated Parmesan and maple-Dijon vinaigrette. Most people do not think of eating collard greens raw. But they’re very good for you, and it’s just so tasty.
Q: Tell us about the Oakland Restaurant Collective, which you and other restaurateurs founded last year?
A: We’re a group of restaurant, cafe and bar owners who are passionate about what we do and about our businesses in Oakland and the community. We are putting out the positive narrative of Oakland — reminding people what’s so great about the city, and also being a lending ear for other restaurant owners, a safe space where we can share knowledge and gain insight.
Q: Where do you think Oakland’s bad press comes from — that life can be crushing for small businesses?
A: There are other cities who, when we were experiencing all of those car break-ins and all that stuff, were also experiencing it, like Atlanta and D.C. But people gravitate toward putting a negative light on Oakland. The city is trying. We are short on police officers. Our sports teams aren’t here. And the traffic lost because of losing the teams – that means something.
People gravitate toward the homelessness. They don’t gravitate to the streets that’ve been cleaned up, or the fact that cars are not getting broken into at the rate they once were. Every major city experiences some level of crime. We’re all still here.
Q: What do you enjoy about Oakland’s dining scene?
A: It’s such a foodie town, and it is so very organically. So, where you’ll go to a lot of other cities, and they’ll have all these little, hip places that people have come up with using these little, hip ideas – that’s great. But Oakland, it’s abundant with culture. You can get Cambodian food, soul food, Caribbean, African, Chinese, Laotian food. I think we speak something like over 125 languages here. There’s so much food, and it’s so inspiring as a chef and someone who just likes to eat.
Chef and owner Michele McQueen prepares a collard-greens salad at Town Fare at the Oakland Museum of California in downtown Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Q: Tell us about Lucy Blue, the cocktail lounge you opened with Matt Sturm last summer?
A: Lucy Blue is named after my two cats. It is more moody and sexy and upscale, and offers that element of adult nightlife that Oakland was missing. … We’re large. We have three bars, two stories, live music on Sundays. We have great shareable bites, events that happen. And it’s a great space as an adult to come and look your best, and just have a good time.
Q: Do you have any advice for people opening their own restaurant?
A: When you see people who are running multiple restaurants — or even one restaurant, successfully — there’s a lot that goes into that. There’s self-motivation, creativity. You have to have a sincere passion for this industry and be willing to put in the work. It’s not for the weak. So for everyone in it, I applaud you, and we keep pushing. But know your numbers, know your numbers.
Q: Your numbers?
A: Know your numbers. It’s a numbers game.
Q: You’ve been on competition-cooking TV shows with chefs like Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri. What’s your opinion of these shows?
A: It’s interesting. Some shows are very different. There are some that I feel have picked out the winners before. I know this because some people’s interviews are different; some it was just over the phone, but others they send a camera crew out to your house or business to film you. Those are the people who got moved on to the next step.
A Playa Blue mezcal cocktail is served at Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Chef and owner Michele McQueen at her newest restaurant Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. McQueen and co-owner and bartender Matt Sturm took over the space formerly occupied by Duende in August 2025, featuring small bites and cocktails. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Chef and owner Michele McQueen prepares a collard-greens salad at Town Fare at the Oakland Museum of California in downtown Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
A Smoked Old Fashioned cocktail is served at Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. Chef and owner Michele McQueen and co-owner and bartender Matt Sturm took over the space formerly occupied by Duende in August 2025, featuring small bites and cocktails. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Chef and owner Michele McQueen sits at the bar at Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland on March 18, 2026. McQueen and co-owner and bartender Matt Sturm took over the space formerly occupied by Duende in August 2025 with their lounge featuring small bites and cocktails. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Chef and owner Michele McQueen at her newest restaurant Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. McQueen and co-owner and bartender Matt Sturm took over the space formerly occupied by Duende in August 2025, featuring small bites and cocktails. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
Chef and owner Michele McQueen at Town Fare at the Oakland Museum of California in downtown Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
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A Playa Blue mezcal cocktail is served at Lucy Blue in downtown Oakland. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)
But I think the evolution of cooking shows has been a good thing. It has helped give people a platform they might not have otherwise had. I have some chef friends who despise cooking shows because they don’t necessarily mean you’re an amazing chef. But then you have shows that are different, like “Top Chef.” That’s different from some of the other, more casual-creation shows.
Q: What was it like meeting Anthony Bourdain on ABC’s “The Taste”?
A: I went on there specifically to meet Bourdain. I don’t know that we had such a long conversation — I was probably super-geeking out. But he was hella cool, just like you would imagine him to be. Marcus Samuelsson was also one of the judges, and I love Marcus. He made a point to come find me after and tell me my dish was really good, and that I should put it on the menu at my restaurant.
Q: Among other random things in your life, you have a hot sauce in development?
A: Oh yeah, my “crack sauce,” which we put on the wings at Town Fare. It’s a little sweet and a little spicy and red. That is very popular in Washington, D.C., where we call it mambo sauce. I was missing it so much here in California, I decided to make my own. We’re hoping to have something out by the end of the year.
Q: You also threw the first pitch at an Oakland Ballers game?
A: That was so cool. Especially since I suck at baseball — I pretty much suck at all sports with balls. But I was very honored, with such a hometown team, and didn’t do as bad as I’d thought. I made it over “the thing,” so that was good. (Laughs.) I don’t even know what it’s called, that just goes to show you. But I made it past that marker.
Michele McQueen
Age: 54
Position: Owner of Town Fare and co-owner of Lucy Blue
Education: B.B.A. Howard University
Residence: Oakland
Family: In the Bay Area, she has husband Joseph, daughter Jordan, mother Brenda, sisters Lisa and Marilyn, brother Walter and two cats, Lucy and Blue
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Five things about Michele
1 She prefers crime shows over cooking shows, and recently watched “His & Hers” and “Cross.”
2 She enjoys eating out every day.
3 Her favorite snack foods include string cheese, which she eats in bed.
4 She recently vacationed in the Caribbean islands.
5 Her cats are mixed breeds because “as much as I love special animals, I believe in just getting them from the pound.”