Arab street food is coming to Oakland’s Jack London Square, in a big way.
On June 26, Reem’s California will open a new cafe at 85 Webster St., in the spot of a former Timeless Coffee & Bakery right on the Oakland Estuary. The 3,000-square-foot building boasts an espresso bar and an outdoor patio – and also a production bakery, which will supply Reem Assil’s wholesale operations and San Francisco restaurant.
Reem’s California is opening in Jack London Square in Oakland on June 26, 2026. The 3,000-square-foot cafe and production bakery will serve Arab street food by chef Reem Assil and other owners. (Photo by Nader Khouri)
Assil is a Palestinian Syrian chef who’s made a name in the realm of traditional Arab street cuisine, particularly an excellent version of herb-crusted flatbread done on a dome-shaped griddle called a saj. A 2022 James Beard Award finalist for outstanding chef, Assil is one of the owners of the new worker-owned cooperative, the others being three graduates of the chef’s apprenticeship program – Rebeca Cid Del Prado, Angela Santos Lima and Diana Aguirre.
The cafe’s menu features flatbread wraps prominently, served classic-style with za’atar, mint, cucumber and cherry tomato ($16); in a La Gringa with slow-braised lamb, Oaxacan cheese, pickled red onion and lamb consomme ($23); in a Pali Cali with braised sumac chicken, caramelized onion and arugula ($21); and in a vegetarian falafel sandwich with pickled turnip and lemon tahini ($16).
Flatbread wraps are central to the menu at Reem’s California, opening on June 26, 2026, in Jack London Square in Oakland. (Photo by Nader Khouri)
A grab-and-go case offers other bites such as fattoush salad and chips with dips like labneh, baba ghanouj and hummus. A pastry case is stocked with hand pies stuffed with cheese, spinach or lamb, as well as sweet treats like pistachio-cardamom sticky buns, baklava and chocolate-chip halawa cookies. The cafe plans to soon expand its savory-pastry offerings, adding to the mix fusion creations like za’atar croissants and shakshuka tarts.
For beverages, the bar has the usual tea and coffee preparations – the latter with beans from San Francisco’s Grand Coffee – as well as cardamom lattes and cardamom cold brew. Other drinks include Damascus lemonade, a hibiscus-rose concoction and the Sayyid Palmer, made from lemonade and black-mint tea.
The patio at Reem’s California will let customers enjoy its dips and flatbread wraps outside. The cafe featuring Arab street food opens June 26, 2026, in Oakland’s Jack London Square. (Photo by Nader Khouri)
Windows into the production bakery will allow for glimpses of workers making Reem’s cold-fermented sourdough pita. It’s a return of sorts for Reem’s, which started out on a smaller scale in the city’s Fruitvale neighborhood.
Co-founder Zaynah Hindi said in a statement that opening in “Jack London Square feels like a homecoming in every sense of the word. Oakland is where Reem’s California was born, and this space gives us the opportunity to root ourselves here in a deeper, more permanent way.”
Details: Opening June 26 with hours of 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays-Mondays at 85 Webster St., Oakland; reemscalifornia.com