Clove & Hoof Does Dinner Now

Clove & Hoof Does Dinner Now

PHOTO BY LORI EANES

Clove & Hoof is now open for dinner; diners will find meat-centric dishes and a fried chicken sandwich.


An upscale butchery and restaurant on the Broadway corridor of East Temescal expands hours to bring dinner to the meat-oriented masses, though includes plenty of meatless side dishes.

If you’ve ever wondered what those 4-H students grow up to be after they’ve finished raising livestock for auction at the county fair, maybe they turn out like Analiesa Gosnell, still taking care of whole animals, but now in the service of serving their finest cuts to discerning carnivores. That’s what the California-reared meat specialist has been doing with co-owner John Blevins at Clove & Hoof Butchery and Restaurant since opening it in November 2014.

The rapidly developing corridor along Broadway from roughly MacArthur Boulevard to Oakland Tech used to be anchored mainly by Ohgane, Mama’s Royal Café, and Art’s Crab Shak, which is soon to become the Copper Spoon. Now, the Temescal East neighborhood’s eateries and cafés include Monster Pho, Hog’s Apothecary, Underwood, TrueBurger, and Blue Bottle Coffee. Clove & Hoof has garnered a following for its sandwiches, including burgers, pulled pork, cheesesteak, fried chicken, and eggplant “Parm.” Patrons, too, like the sides: beef tallow fries, potato salad, pork ’n’ beans, Memphis slaw, Koji watermelon, and Mexican street corn salad. So Clove & Hoof has has raised the “steaks” by opening for dinner.

The airy corner storefront’s butcher case, where impeccably displayed chops, roasts, rib-eye, and New York steaks, and more beckon the judicious meat lover, only hints at the supper menu, which made its debut in early September. A market-price Butcher’s Cut of the Day, accompanied by the likes of horseradish bone marrow mash, broccolini, and pickled fig demi glacé, will always be on offer, as will a fresh charcuterie board, pig head cakes, the vaunted C&H double-patty cheeseburger, the cheesesteak, and the unique fish sauce caramel fried chicken, which is served in the evening with a waffle and red-eye gravy. But salad and seafood enthusiasts won’t be shut out. Look for Blue Lake and charred romano beans; burrata with purple Cherokee tomatoes; fried onion petals and pickles; olive oil poached shrimp with saffron rice; barbecue shrimp with pimento gritcakes; and indulgent desserts (pudding, floats, pot de crème).

With combined experience at Café Rouge, Lalime’s, Gather, and the famed Chapolard Farm and Kitchen at Camont in France, Gosnell and Blevins approach dinner with refined preparations of locally sourced, seasonal ingredients, as well as their commitment to ethical butchery and consumer education about “good, honest meat.”

Clove & Hoof Butchery and Restaurant, 4001 Broadway, Oakland, 510-547-1446, www.cloveandhoofoakland.com.