Hopscotch is a pretty upscale wanna-be ‘hipster’ joint in the new Uptown Oakland, and by hipster I mean the special brand of trendy dressing white people who buy properties in dilapidated neighborhoods, then turn them in to small over priced cafes. All while pushing out the local residents and snubbing other wise good patrons. Oakland is now full of them, and Hopscotch is one; an awfully smug hipster cafe. I have visited this place a couple of times, once for lunch by myself and another time with a girlfriend at Happy Hour. In both instances the food was great, however, the service was neither great, nor terrible, just not much to write about…. Except for the fact that they have AMAZING fried chicken, which is no huge feat as all of the East Bay restaurants want to have a delicious fried chicken on their menu. In all fairness, Hopscotch does it right. In fact, they actually have the best fried chicken that I have found in the whole east bay, San Francisco included. I kept returning for the chicken until this happened.

I took my husband there one evening on our date night, and we had a completely negative experience. Upon arrival, we were rudely smirked at by the hostess as soon as she saw us together. She could not seem to fix her face, as she began to address us looking very upset that she even had to. Never had we been received so hostile while dining out, especially not in the so-called ‘liberal’ Bay Area. She hurried to inform us that if we did not have any reservations that they would not be able to serve us that evening. At all…..the restaurant was empty except for two men chatting at the bar. Meanwhile, the bartender was looking at us sideways, as he rushed over to back up her claims that there was no space for us for the night. Besides the two men at the bar, the WHOLE restaurant was totally empty. We looked around, incredulous that this restaurant refused to serve us, and didn’t want to take our money. She insisted that they would fill up within five minutes to try and cover for why they were turning away business while the restaurant was empty. She said that we could sit on the porch if we wanted to. That night was a very windy and cold night in Oakland, and there were street vagrants all in their porch space. She repeated herself, pointing us towards the door. We were horrified. For all of the times that I have come home sad and upset, describing to my husband the terrible tableside racism I had experienced, in that very moment, he knew clearly what I had been talking about. It is really inhumane to treat people that way, and from these types of unnecessarily hostile, horrid experiences, a food service blog was born.

In the middle of it all, I even told the people that I was a huge fan of their chicken, and really wanted my husband to try it too; that’s why I came back, and brought him here for our date night.   Even after explaining that I was a returning customer, with her face still screwed up looking at us, she repeated once again that there was no space with out a reservation, and that we were welcome to sit out on their windy cold front porch to dine. We walked out of there feeling embarrassed, hurt, and angry at the level of smugness that she and the bartender had. For an all white staff to be working in a pretty colorful neighborhood like Uptown Oakland, one would expect for them to be more receptive to an interracial couple. Instead, they handled us like racist snobs, and were happy to not have our business for the evening. My husband sat in the car astonished, upset, and sad as he apologized to me for being insistent on trying to make it work for us in there ~ when they were clearly not trying to serve us, or work with us at all for that matter. They would rather have their restaurant empty than take their chances with seating us, ensuring more repeat business in the future. The experience was horrific, and hurtful to say the least. We went on to find a more welcoming space to dine in for that evening, but it took us a long while to shake off the anger, the embarrassment, and the sadness that we had suffered earlier at the hands of this rude & callous staff.

If anything, they just do not know how to welcome, serve, or talk to people properly. Their customer service is any thing but personal, and they are short, dry and snobbish. Far from warm and welcoming like some of my most positive dining experiences. Their chicken is the rave, but their customer service is the pits. For that reason, I am giving Hopscotch 2 (two) forks; for their delicious food, yet crappy service.