Exclusive: Encuentro to Relocate and Expand in Oakland

Encuentro Café and Wine Bar is taking over a space six blocks away in Jack London Square where they will be relocating this fall with a expanded menu. Partner Linda Braz gave us the news today, noting that the new Encuentro at the corner of Second and Clay Streets "will have the same yummy vegetarian food you have come to expect with an expanded menu, including full entrées and pizza!" Construction begins in a few weeks, and they hope to be open by November. The current, compact Encuentro at Second and Jackson will remain open as a wine-and-beer bar with a limited menu of small bites, and a new name that's still TBD.

The new restaurant will still be headed by chef Lacey Sher, and Braz will continue to serve as wine director. As Braz tells Eater, "We really just needed more space and a bigger kitchen. We have the ability to do more business and have had to turn down many catering jobs because we just can't handle them at our current spot."

Also, the expansion is coming just in time as Encuentro is set to get a boost in local attention via Check, Please! Bay Area, which just did some filming there a couple weeks ago for an episode that is scheduled to air in September. "We're excited and nervous," says Braz.

Encuentro opened in 2009 as a collaboration between Braz, Sher, and Millennium executive chef Eric Tucker, and soon earned two stars from Michael Bauer.

· Encuentro Due Tonight, Anne Burrell's Potty Mouth [~ESF~]