Park Street Tavern Sounds A Lot Like the Gold Coast Grill

Park Street Tavern Sounds A Lot Like the Gold Coast Grill

PHOTO BY LANCE YAMAMOTO

Christos Frangoulis has opened the Park Street Tavern in the old Gold Coast Grill location.


Christos Frangoulis keeps the Mediterranean-style steakhouse ambience of its predecessor.

Christos Frangoulis knows that dreams can come true.

He gratefully notes that he couldn’t have swung it totally on his own, but opening Park Street Tavern in Alameda this spring fulfilled a nearly lifelong fantasy.

“My family has always been involved with restaurants. My father owned a restaurant in Oakland when I was a child. I started working in restaurants at 17,” said Frangoulis, who was the opening general manager at Opa! in Walnut Creek and spent years “learning a lot” at Walnut Creek’s Massimo Ristorante.

“I realized, while working at fine-dining restaurants, that someday I wanted a white-tablecloth restaurant of my own, but I wanted it to be friendly and approachable. I tried to buy various restaurants in the Bay Area, but those deals never came through. For a while I even contemplated moving back to Greece and starting something there.”

Frangoulis has family roots in Greece, where he has dwelt at various points throughout his life.  He also knew the owners of Alameda’s Gold Coast Grill. Frangoulis learned they were closing their popular 25-year-old restaurant last year because of serious illness. (One of the owners, Stelios Tsagris, died last fall.) This sad news rekindled in Frangoulis’ heart a generations-deep connection to that district.

“There’s such great restaurant history at that location. And right after World War II, my grandfather ran a produce market at Blanding and Park,” Frangoulis said.

He decided to maintain the Gold Coast’s Mediterranean-style steakhouse ambience. To redesign the space and adorn its walls, “I stripped my own house of all the paintings and other artworks I’ve been collecting over the years,” he said, adding that two paintings are by the 20th-century movie star Anthony Quinn.

“I wanted to create an atmosphere that feels homey from the moment guests walk in until they’re seated and throughout their time here,” he said.

Since the April soft opening, Frangoulis has hired a waitstaff and kitchen staff who embody the welcoming yet elegant spirit he’d long envisioned.

“We take great pride in making our own demiglace and chicken stock, our own arancini, and using local ingredients. It’s a family business. I’ve got my father here with me every day, and my brothers — everyone came together to help this happen. We’re a close-knit family, and I wanted this for such a long time.”

Park Street Tavern, 1901 Park St., Alameda, 510-671-2867, TheParkStreetTavern.com.