Bay Area

Berkeley Chef Opens Alameda County’s First Home Restaurant Under New Law

Bao House’s second grand opening will be July 9 from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Orders can be placed here: https://foodnome.com/menus/drdjy.

Published

5 years ago

July 7, 2021

Isabelle Price

Chef Akshay Prabhu of Bao House secured the first home restaurant permit in the SF Bay Area in Berkeley, Calif. On Friday, June 4, 2021, the City of Berkeley Environmental Health Division approved its inspection of the first Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operation (MEHKO) in the San Francisco Bay Area, authorizing home chef Prabhu to sell hot meals from his home restaurant. (Photo courtesy Foodnome).

Alameda County’s first home restaurant opened its doors, or ovens so to speak, in Berkeley on July 1.
Chef Akshay Prabhu opened at 2:00 p.m. with backyard seating and for takeout.

The road to a legal home restaurant has been a long one for Prabhu. In 2014, while studying neuroscience at the University of California at Davis, he tried to sell steam buns from a cart on campus and was stopped by food laws.

Then he started cooking for his neighbors until a news story brought the Yolo County Health Department to his door and they closed him down. Frustrated and out of options he thought, he started a legal marketplace for homemade food called Foodnome.

“Getting shut down by the Health Department helped me understand how broken our food regulations were,” Prabhu said.

“I saw the positive impact of cooking for my community firsthand. Neighbors were coming together over shared meals, community bonds were strengthened, and I was able to sustain myself.

“I realized that the simple act of home cooking could transform our relationships to our food and each other, and I became committed to fighting for this opportunity,” he said.

He finished school in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and Thursday he opened Bao House.

“Bao are Chinese steamed buns, stuffed with a variety of fillings,” Prabhu said.

“My original concept at UC Davis was to build a mobile steam bun cart called the ‘Baocycle,’ he said.

With Bao House he’s preserving the spirit of his original concept while recognizing the experience of cooking and serving from his home.
Alameda County earlier this year opted in to a new California law that allows for home restaurants.

AB 626 was signed into law in 2018 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown. Since then, at least three counties in the state have opted in including Alameda, Riverside and Solano.

Similar legislation has passed in Utah and is pending in New York and Washington.

The idea is particularly salient in the current economy, with many cooks, chefs, and other restaurant workers in general out of work due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chef Bilal Ali lost his job at the Starline Social Club in Oakland. Like Prabhu, Ali was shut down by health officials after he started a pop-up.

He thinks home restaurants are more easily opened by people than traditional restaurants because it costs less.

“The barrier for entry has always hung over us–I have to go into a massive amount of debt for something that is statistically likely to fail,” Bilal said in a statement.

“These permits give people the opportunity to try things out without ruining their lives,” he said. “The more restaurants and the more types of food there is, the better the world is.”

On average statewide, it costs about $250,000 to start a traditional restaurant while the total cost to start a home restaurant in Alameda County, outside of Berkeley, is about $1,000. That includes $696 for Alameda County’s MEHKO permit fee, including application, review of the restaurant’s standard operating procedures, and a kitchen inspection.

It also includes a food manager’s course and exam, which costs anywhere from $99 to $180, depending on the course and the cost of a business license. The cost of a business license varies from city to city. It’s $95 in Oakland.

Berkeley charges $546 for the MEHKO permit fee, including application, review of the restaurant’s standard operating procedures, and a kitchen inspection. A business license in Berkeley is $80.

Bao House’s second grand opening will be July 9 from 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Orders can be placed here: https://foodnome.com/menus/drdjy.

Isabelle Price

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

3 days ago

March 1, 2026

Oakland Post

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Chase Oakland Community Center Hosts Alley-Oop Accelerator Building Community and Opportunity for Bay Area Entrepreneurs

Over the past three years, the Alley-Oop Accelerator has helped more than 20 Bay Area businesses grow, connect, and gain meaningful exposure. The program combines hands-on training, mentorship, and community-building to help participants navigate the legal, financial, and marketing challenges of small business ownership.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 21, 2026

Oakland Post

Bay Area entrepreneurs attend the Alley-Oop Accelerator, a small business incubation program at Chase Oakland Community Center. Photo by Carla Thomas.

By Carla Thomas

The Golden State Warriors and Chase bank hosted the third annual Alley-Oop Accelerator this month, an empowering eight-week program designed to help Bay Area entrepreneurs bring their visions for business to life.

The initiative kicked off on Feb. 12 at Chase’s Oakland Community Center on Broadway Street, welcoming 15 small business owners who joined a growing network of local innovators working to strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.

At its core, the accelerator is designed to create an ecosystem of collaboration, where local entrepreneurs can learn from one another while accessing the resources of a global financial institution.

“This is our third year in a row working with the Golden State Warriors on the Alley-Oop Accelerator,” said Jaime Garcia, executive director of Chase’s Coaching for Impact team for the West Division. “We’ve already had 20-plus businesses graduate from the program, and we have 15 enrolled this year. The biggest thing about the program is really the community that’s built amongst the business owners — plus the exposure they’re able to get through Chase and the Golden State Warriors.”

According to Garcia, several graduates have gone on to receive vendor contracts with the Warriors and have gained broader recognition through collaborations with JPMorgan Chase.

“A lot of what Chase is trying to do,” Garcia added, “is bring businesses together because what they’ve asked for is an ecosystem, a network where they can connect, grow, and thrive organically.”

This year’s Alley-Oop Accelerator reflects that vision through its comprehensive curriculum and emphasis on practical learning. Participants explore the full spectrum of business essentials including financial management, marketing strategy, and legal compliance, while also preparing for real-world experiences such as pop-up market events.

Each entrepreneur benefits from one-on-one mentoring sessions through Chase’s Coaching for Impact program, which provides complimentary, personalized business consulting.

Garcia described the impact this hands-on approach has had on local small business owners. He recalled one candlemaker, who, after participating in the program, was invited to provide candles as gifts at Chase events.

“We were able to help give that business exposure,” he explained. “But then our team also worked with them on how to access capital to buy inventory and manage operations once those orders started coming in. It’s about preparation. When a hiccup happens, are you ready to handle it?”

The Coaching for Impact initiative, which launched in 2020 in just four cities, has since expanded to 46 nationwide.

“Every business is different,” Garcia said. “That’s why personal coaching matters so much. It’s life-changing.”

Participants in the 2026 program will each receive a $2,500 stipend, funding that Garcia said can make an outsized difference. “It’s amazing what some people can do with just $2,500,” he noted. “It sounds small, but it goes a long way when you have a plan for how to use it.”

For Chase and the Warriors, the Alley-Oop Accelerator represents more than an educational initiative, it’s a pathway to empowerment and economic inclusion. The program continues to foster lasting relationships among the entrepreneurs who, as Garcia put it, “build each other up” through shared growth and opportunity.

“Starting a business is never easy, but with the right support, it becomes possible, and even exhilarating,” said Oscar Lopez, the senior business consultant for Chase in Oakland.