Natural Wine Mecca The Punchdown Has Returned to Oakland

The Punchdown may have been knocked out (sorry) with the loss of its uptown Oakland lease in 2013, but it’s making a comeback. The natural wine bar is reopening tonight at 1737 Broadway with the same owners in an even larger location (6,000-square-feet bigger, to be exact) that they designed with Black Creek Builders. There’s a retail space, a temperature-controlled storage room and a small kitchen. Like the wine, the decor is eco-friendly with details like a reclaimed wood communal table and a bar made from old wine casks. "It was really a heartbreak to lose the old space; we loved it," owner D.C. Looney said. "But now I look at it as if the old Punchdown was almost like my Ph.D. and [the new space] is what I’ve finally been working up to my whole life. This is like the completion of The Punchdown."

The wines have a Georgian focus, and so does the food, which will include soups, cheese, charcuterie and a hot dinner special each night — tonight’s is short ribs and polenta. Punchdown will feature a wine club and events in the months to come and is open after 5 p.m.