At this Oakland BBQ spot, diners can sing for their supper Oakland's Crazy Block Cheesecakes turns karaoke into a dinner deal - California News Beep

For her 53rd birthday, Oakland resident Genie Gratto didn’t want a fancy dinner, or huge soirée. In fact, her plans were refreshingly simple. All she needed was a microphone, a plate of smoked lamb and the promise of cheesecake — three things she found at Crazy Block Cheesecakes.

3355 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland; crazyblockcheesecakes.com

Hours: Mondays and Wednesday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 pm.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

On Monday nights at Crazy Block Cheesecakes, located at 3355 Lakeshore Ave., customers can sing for their food. Gratto has been attending the restaurant’s weekly karaoke nights since the promotion started eight months ago, belting out pop hits, earning her a 10% discount on her order. The diner who sings the most songs at the end of the night is awarded a free mini cheesecake. When Gratto and others living in the Lakeshore area first heard about Crazy Block Cheesecakes, they were confused. BBQ, latkes and cheesecakes? It was an odd yet interesting combination that led Gratto straight to the restaurant’s doors.

“I remember when the place was first going up, and it wasn’t open yet,” Gratto said. “I [had] many conversations with people from the neighborhood, and we were like, ‘What? Why would somebody put barbecue and latkes and cheesecake together?’ Because that was all we could see on the sign, but it totally works.”

Genie Gratto celebrated her 53rd birthday at Crazy Block Cheesecakes, singing “Everything” by Material Issue. CreditL Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

Across the East Bay, numerous restaurants and bars are employing new tactics to retain customers on slower days, such as hosting watch parties, bingo and comedy nights.

When chef-owner Ben Block first opened Crazy Block Cheesecakes in March 2025, he knew that running a food business in Oakland would be no small task. Between the mind-dizzying flurry of paperwork, permitting, and licensing he had to acquire from the city beforehand, Block quickly learned that serving food was only half the battle.

Once he opened, business was steady, but he soon faced a challenge most restaurant owners know all too well: the weekday slump, a predictable lull where foot traffic stalls and sales drop, costing him hundreds. To combat this, Block started hosting karaoke nights on Mondays, his slowest day, to increase sales, and it worked. Block estimates his Monday sales have increased 30% since launching the karaoke promotion.

“I was like trying to think of a way to bring people in on a Monday, and I’m like, we’re gonna do karaoke on Mondays,” Block said. “It’s brought so many customers in over the last six months.”

Now, his Monday night foot traffic is up, and he’s earned himself a loyal following of karaoke regulars like Oakland native Karla Colato.

Crazy Block Cheesecakes chef-owner Ben Block works the Monday evening crowd, serving platters of BBQ. Credit: Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

Like Gratto, Colato has been attending the Crazy Block Cheesecake karaoke nights since it started. A self-described karaoke fanatic, she regularly visits a variety of lounges and bars each month, such as Legionnaire Karaoke Saloon on Telegraph and The Alley on Grand Avenue.

“I’m a karaoke connoisseur. This is not my first rodeo, not my last,” Colato said, whose back-to-back renditions of “Pinky Pony Club” by Chappell Roan and “Valarie” by Amy Winehouse had the karaoke crowd cheering. “But I didn’t know about Crazy Block Cheesecakes until he started promoting [the karaoke nights]. It sounded so fun, and it’s local.”

For Colato, what brings her back to Crazy Block Cheesecakes each week isn’t just the discount or the promise of a free cheesecake at the end of the night, but the community.

Crazy Block Cheesecakes customers eat the “Chiblam”, a three-way combo of chicken, brisket and lamb with latkes and strawberry lemonade. Credit: Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

“I don’t ever really go out on the weekends, so this is my one time during the week where I can have fun, and it’s not crazy,” Colato said. “It’s really enjoyable. I love the atmosphere. I love singing here, and everyone who sings here always picks great songs.”

Block first started selling BBQ plates out of his childhood home in Alameda in 2020, smoking brisket on a small Weber charcoal grill in his backyard. After gaining traction, Block started doing pop-ups, leading him to grill at farmers markets, dance battles at the now-closed Speakeasy Ales and Lagers in San Francisco, and breweries like the Almanac Beer Co. in Alameda, until he officially opened his brick-and-mortar in the Lakeshore neighborhood.

Merritt Edmondson, 11, sings karaoke with his sock puppet. Credit: Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

Block’s eclectic scratch-made menu is made up of what he calls ‘celebration foods’, or meals tied to moments of joy in his life, inspired by parties, birthdays, holidays, and other gatherings with loved ones. The menu also reflects Block’s own story, and the role food has played in his life. From his days grilling in the high school BBQ club he formed with friends to the potato latkes his family ate to mark Jewish holidays, to the memories of grandmother’s cheesecake he ate growing up.

Block’s BBQ lineup features a range of sandwiches and meat plates, such as his popular brisket sandwich ($15) served with garlic aioli, coleslaw and pickled red onions on a Grand Bakery Oakland challah bun, and his chiblam plate ($27.99), filled with roasted chicken, smoked lamb and brisket, which comes with a chiblam sauce, a housemade chimichurri aioli.

Sides include cornbread with butter and habanero hot honey, slow-stewed collard greens with chunks of smoked turkey, mac and cheese and other Southern favorites. His menu also includes vegan options like his smoked jackfruit sandwich ($13.99).

Besides barbecue, Crazy Block’s menu is built around latkes and, of course, cheesecakes. Credit: Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

Although Block has over 190 different cheesecake flavors in his recipe vault, he currently offers 12 to diners, switching them out occasionally. All cheesecakes come in three sizes, mini, medium and 9-inch, and come in specialty flavors like mango, banilla (banana vanilla), ube, cookies and cream with Block’s original “blockios” (made from Ghirardelli chocolate), and others. His “Crazies” cheesecake lineup has flavors like choco-caramel and henny praline, which features a Hennessy cheesecake topped with house-made pralines and finished with a Ghirardelli white chocolate drizzle.

All of his cheesecake recipes were built off of his best-seller, the OG N.Y style cheesecake, his grandmother’s recipe, which has been kept in the family for generations.

“[M]y mom saved the recipe. My grandparents lived in the Oakland Hills, and their house burned down in a fire, and then my mom had that recipe. Luckily, that recipe was saved,” Block said.

Steve Brezovec (left) sings karaoke with his daughter, Essie, 10 (right) at Crazy Block Cheesecakes. Credit: Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

While his cooking has earned him a slew of online accolades across his restaurant’s social media pages, Block credits a majority of his recipes and culinary prowess to the women in his life, stating that without his mother, he wouldn’t be the cook he is today.

“My mom taught me how to cook. She’s got a thick recipe book, and it has notes on what everybody’s said for like 10 years in review of each dish.” Block said. “A lot of the recipes are her recipes. I learned how to make the collard greens from her, the pickles, the pickled red onions, etc. The coleslaw is my great grandma’s recipe. All the best chefs are women, at least in my life, so that’s why I try to emulate my cooking as if it’s like my mom or my grandma’s cooking. “

In the future, Block plans to host more events on his new slowest days — Wednesdays and Thursdays — to retain foot traffic and keep people coming back, one song and chiblam at a time.

“I’m gonna try to start a trivia night or a bingo night so that we can try to bring in people on a Wednesday or Thursday, which are our next slowest days,” Block said. “Now we’re gonna attack one weekday at a time.”

Karaoke list of participants at Crazy Block Cheesecakes on Monday, July 13, 2026. The restaurant runs a karaoke night promotion where participants get discounts on their food orders. Credit: Amir Aziz for East Bay Nosh

At this Oakland BBQ spot, diners can sing for their supper Oakland’s Crazy Block Cheesecakes turns karaoke into a dinner deal

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