Two October Parades on a College Avenue That Keeps Changing

At noon on Saturday, October 17, Rockridge Market Hall cheesemongers in Italian dress will push a 350- to 400-pound wheel of Crucolo down Shafter Avenue, escorted by Dominican friars, with live accordion music behind them. Eight days later, on Sunday, October 25, the 34th Annual Rockridge Halloween Parade brings free trick-or-treating to more than 40 College Avenue businesses between Broadway and Alcatraz.

These two weekends get the most people walking College Avenue all fall. This year, the walk passes a street that has changed more since summer than most mental maps of it. Rockridge has so little empty retail space that a vacancy rarely stays open for long. Most of this season's changes are at the north end, in the 6200 and 6300 addresses toward Alcatraz, where four storefronts are now open, empty, or about to change hands.

A 97.6% Street Refills Before Habits Catch Up

Rockridge Voice reported in September that Rockridge retail occupancy reached 97.6% in the second quarter of 2026, compared with 93.86% across the Bay Area. Rockridge's rate rose 1.06 percentage points from the quarter before. The figures come from a quarterly retail report by John Cumbelich & Associates. That report puts Grand Lake at 95.69% for the same quarter and Montclair Village at 84.64%.

At those numbers, a closing on College Avenue looks less like a vacancy and more like a handoff. Rockridge Voice put it plainly: with retail space in such high demand, "turnover happens fast." Pucquio is a good example. The Peruvian restaurant at 5337 College closed at the end of July after about 13 years. Oaklandside reported Friday, July 31 as its last day. Within weeks, the 757-square-foot space was being marketed as a second-generation restaurant or café, so the next tenant can move in without building a kitchen from scratch. When a ready-made restaurant space opens up on a nearly full street, it doesn't stay empty long.

Most of the Change Is at the North End

Look at this season's changes by address and they cluster. Five of them sit within a few hundred street numbers of each other, on Claremont Avenue and the upper blocks of College toward Alcatraz.

Chez Maeju is the one you can try now. Chef Soojin Kim grew up in Seoul learning Korean cooking from her mother and grandmother, and she came to San Francisco in 1998 after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu. Her restaurant soft-opened with a shorter menu. Oaklandside reported that the cooking centers on jang, the fermented soybean-based sauces doenjang, ganjang and gochujang, and that the restaurant is taking walk-ins for dinner on a limited soft-opening menu.

Next door, at 6202 Claremont, is a building that dates to 1922. It was a bar by at least 1969, when the San Francisco Chronicle called it the Leilani Lounge. Javad Parsa and Najid Mahani bought The Graduate in 1987 and ran it for nearly four decades, until Parsa retired and the bar closed on June 30, 2024. New owner Patrick Biesemans plans to reopen it as Needle Drop Café, a coffee shop and vinyl listening space, by December or January.

Farther up College, Salt & Straw is building its first Oakland scoop shop at 6310, in the former Ike's. The Portland-based ice cream company has about 50 locations nationwide. The September report gave no firm opening date beyond "by the end of the year." At 6317, Wood Tavern is expected to leave when its lease ends at year's end. Burdell chef-owner Geoff Davis plans to open Uncle's there in spring 2027 with partners Zara Fernandez-Aurelio and Seth Corr and chef de cuisine Brandon Cavazos. The menu is planned around steaks, oysters, pasta, seasonal vegetables and classic sides, with martinis and wine.

The Nail Spa at 6251 College, near 63rd Street, had been on the avenue since at least 2007. By late September it had vacated its roughly 1,050-square-foot space, which is now marketed for lease. At this occupancy rate, it will probably appear on next year's version of this table with a new name.

Farther Down the Avenue, Smaller Changes

The middle blocks changed too, just less at once. Enssaro Ethiopian Restaurant moved to 5897 College and reopened on Friday, July 31, run by the same family team, according to Oaklandside. A few doors up, Sole Terra Shoes at 5933 College finished nearly a year of remodeling and surrounding construction. Its rear parking lot is open again, and the shop is offering $20 off a purchase to thank customers for their patience.

Toward the Broadway end, 5415 College was home to UZEN until longtime chef-owner Kazuo Shimizu retired. Chef Dahan Kim, who ran a private in-home omakase catering service for six years, is opening Gamsa Sushi there, with chef's-choice omakase and an à la carte menu. In late September, Kim hoped to open before the month was out. As of October 10, no confirmed opening date or hours have been published, so it's best to treat the space as still on its way.

How the Two Parades Cover the Street

The two events cover different ground, and that's why they make a good pair this year.

The Crucolo Parade happens at Market Hall, which sits at 5655 College. Crucolo is a three-foot-wide wheel of creamy cow's milk cheese from Italy's Trentino-Alto Adige region, and Market Hall Foods is one of only two shops in the country that sells it. Anyone who arrives by noon can join the procession instead of watching it. After the parade come the ceremonial cutting and samples for the crowd. The event runs until 3 p.m.

The Halloween Parade covers College Avenue from Broadway to Alcatraz. It's a partnership of the Rockridge District Association, the Rockridge Community Planning Council and the Oakland Public Library's Rockridge Branch. The day is organized around two hubs:

1. Rockridge Library parking lot, 5366 College Ave. Bike and stroller storage, public restrooms, free commemorative bags while supplies last, and MOCHA crafts. Ricky Roo and Friends perform at 11 a.m., Asheba at noon, and Librarian Story Time starts at 1 p.m.
2. College Avenue Presbyterian Church, 5951 College Ave. Crafts and entertainment from noon to 2 p.m.

The participating businesses run the length of the avenue: Pegasus Books at 5560, Starter Bakery Cafe at 5804, Forge Rockridge at 5900, East Bay Booksellers at 6022, and Pressed Juicery at 6300 at the north end. On the west side, the list includes Market Hall at 5655, Sole Terra at 5933 and Re-Up Refills at 6025. Pressed Juicery is just down the block from the Salt & Straw construction at 6310, so the last trick-or-treat stops of the day sit right next to this season's most-watched storefront. If you walk all the way to Alcatraz, every row of the table above is on your way back.

Bus Routes Have Changed Under Realign

AC Transit's service-change page lists August 10 as the start date for its Realign network. Line 22 now runs through the Rockridge Business District, Line 36 extends to Rockridge BART in place of Line 79, and Lines 51A and 51B have minor schedule changes. If you haven't checked routes since Realign started, look at AC Transit's service-change page before a parade weekend, since both events will crowd the streets and parking around the avenue.

The Longer Wait Across From BART

Across from Rockridge BART, the biggest open question on the avenue is still a proposal. At 5727 College, on the Trader Joe's site, the August redesign calls for 372 senior-living units owned and operated by Sequoia Living, a possible 13,000-square-foot grocery, and more retail along College Avenue, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The developer, Align, told the Chronicle it was negotiating with Trader Joe's, but the chain had not decided whether to stay. Compared with the initial filing, SF YIMBY reported that the revision lowers the building's height and unit count and raises total ground-floor retail to 18,800 square feet. No construction cost or timeline has been released. For now, the grocery tenant is the detail most likely to affect a weekday errand on College Avenue, and it's still unresolved.

Small storefront changes like these are easy to miss and often say a lot about a block. Tracking them is part of how we follow East Bay neighborhoods at ggsir.com. If you'd like to talk through what this fall's changes on College Avenue mean for a home near Rockridge, let's connect.