"Bro, this is your kitchen. This is where you started your first takeout. Come back." According to KQED, the owner of Two Star Market said this to chef Eric Rivera in September, soon after a fire tore through the back of Rivera's East Oakland restaurant.
Four weeks later, Puerto Rican Street Cuisine was cooking again from the small kitchen inside the store at 2020 MacArthur Boulevard, at Cañon Avenue. On Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26, the same corner will feed more than a thousand people for free. The two events have the same cause. The Alawdi family runs Two Star Market as neighborhood infrastructure, and its kitchen has been one of the Dimond's most dependable places to eat for more than a decade, under a series of different names.
A Grocery Since 1983, and a Kitchen That Changes Hands
Two Star Market has been a family-owned grocery in the Dimond since 1983, on a corner the family describes as the former site of the Tepper Hotel and Beer Garden. Farouq Alawdi manages the store today. His father, Ali Alawdi Sr., founded it.
The counter in the back of the store has been leased to a series of cooks, and several of them became East Bay names:
- The Snack Bar served late-night burgers and fried food from the counter before the Puerto Rican era began.
- Borinquen Soul moved in around 2015 after starting as a food truck. Eric Rivera and Christopher Caraballo were co-owners, and the East Bay Express described its cooking as Puerto Rican "grandma food." The kitchen ran until 2017.
- La Perla came next, run by chef Jose Ortiz. It kept Puerto Rican food at the same counter, as the East Bay Express reported in 2018. It later moved to Castro Valley.
- Dimond Kitchen was chef-owner Carl Bolling's soul food counter. In March 2025, KQED called it some of the Bay Area's tastiest soul food, sold out of a convenience store.
- Puerto Rican Street Cuisine opened on Saturday, October 3, 2026, with Rivera back at the counter where he got his start.
For more than a decade, the cooks have changed while the room stayed the same. A chef who signs on at Two Star gets a kitchen that already has neighborhood foot traffic and an owner who has handled tenants before.
Why a Displaced Restaurant Landed Here in Days
That setup explains why the September fire did not stop Puerto Rican Street Cuisine. Its flagship on 23rd Avenue in East Oakland was damaged in early September. According to KQED's account, the fire destroyed the restaurant's back wall, its recently remodeled backyard, its walk-in refrigerator and Rivera's office. The repairs are expected to take at least six to eight months. Rivera told KQED that no one was hurt and that "anything that was lost can be replaced."
Two Star's owner had recently started looking for a new kitchen tenant, so the space was ready when Rivera needed it. The quick move also meant Rivera did not have to cancel the dozens of catering jobs already booked for the coming months. He signed a lease to stay at Two Star for at least a year. His long-term plan is to reopen the East Oakland location as a community gathering place.
KQED describes Puerto Rican Street Cuisine as, for now, the only full-fledged Puerto Rican restaurant in Oakland. Until the 23rd Avenue location reopens, the city's Puerto Rican cooking is coming from a counter in the Dimond.
What Is on the Counter This Fall
The kitchen is small, but before opening, Rivera planned to serve close to the full menu. According to KQED's preview, that means:
- Pernil, the crispy-skinned roast pork, every day the kitchen is open
- Combo plates, including pollo encebollado, grilled chicken with caramelized onions, served over white rice or yellow rice with pigeon peas
- Alcapurrias, stuffed plantain fritters, and Puerto Rican–style empanadas
- Pasteles, promised for the holidays
The store stays open late, so the plan is to serve from about noon to midnight, six days a week. The closed day was expected to be Sunday or Monday, and the exact hours were still being set at opening. Before you walk over or plan a holiday pasteles order, check the restaurant's Instagram for current hours and the closed day.
The Other Job the Kitchen Does
Every November, the store also hosts the Dimond's largest shared meal.
The tradition dates to 2002, when Ali Alawdi Sr. and his brother, Abdo Alawdi, decided to hold a free Thanksgiving meal at the store. Oaklandside counted the 2025 meal as the 23rd, which makes this year's the 24th. The idea came from a family custom in Yemen, where Farouq Alawdi's grandfather opened his home to serve meals during Ramadan. The family chose Thanksgiving because, as Farouq Alawdi told Oaklandside, "everyone is off." He also said the Dimond Improvement Association, neighbors and customers helped from the start.
The first year, the family cooked 20 turkeys for about 50 guests at most. In 2024, it cooked 100 turkeys, served more than 1,000 plates and drew an estimated 600 to 700 people. More than 200 volunteers helped. Two Star still supplies 80 to 90 percent of the food. Partners such as the Manzanita Center have added turkeys and other donations as the event has grown. The menu goes well beyond the usual holiday dishes. It has included pizza, Middle Eastern rice, BBQ chicken, spaghetti and kebabs, and volunteers add a new side most years.
Last year, Alawdi told Oaklandside that the meal is "for anyone who wants to have a good Thanksgiving meal with the neighborhood or with strangers," including customers and people passing by.
Taking Part on November 26
The 24th annual Thanksgiving Day Celebration is on Thursday, November 26, at 2020 MacArthur Boulevard. The family's GoFundMe lists the meal from noon to 4 p.m. and plans for 100 turkeys, 500 pounds of grilled chicken, pies, a jump house for children, live music and donated clothing and shoes. The Eventbrite listing has a longer window. Doors open at 9:30 a.m., the event runs until 5 p.m., and food starts at noon.
| How to take part | What the organizers list |
|---|---|
| Come eat | Free and open to all ages. Food starts at noon. |
| Drop off goods | Canned food and clothes, at Two Star Market during regular business hours |
| Give money | The GoFundMe pays for tables, chairs, a tent, serving trays, chafing dishes, volunteer aprons and gloves, decorations and the sound system |
| Volunteer | Help is needed on the day, and the GoFundMe also asks for kitchen help the week before |
Canned goods and clothing are the easiest way to start helping now. Anyone who stops in for a pernil plate this month can bring a bag of donations along.
Around the Corner on MacArthur
Two Star is not the only place on this stretch of MacArthur where a new kitchen has opened in an existing room. Dimond Halal Eatery opened Saturday, July 25, at 2129 MacArthur Boulevard in the former Mohka Kitchen space. It serves wings, burgers and steak hoagies. Farther along, Baan Thai at 2818 MacArthur was on Oaklandside's July openings list.
Older places are part of the same pattern. Club 2101, at MacArthur and Dimond Avenue, has been a neighborhood bar for about eight decades. Its current owners bought it in 2014, according to Oaklandside's profile this summer.
Some of the Dimond's community calendar has nothing to do with food. Friends of Dimond Park holds free volunteer mornings on Saturday, November 21, and Saturday, December 19, from 9 to 11 a.m. Volunteers meet at the park's historic Scout Hut, according to the City of Oakland's event calendar. The November morning falls five days before the Thanksgiving celebration at Two Star.
The Dimond's best-known food stories this fall started at the counters of a corner grocery and a former Mohka Kitchen space, so a district like this one is usually easiest to understand from its long-running businesses. At Anian Tunney and Adrienne Krumins, we follow those businesses across Oakland, Piedmont and Berkeley. If you are thinking about a move in or near the Dimond and want to talk through how the neighborhood fits your plans, please contact us.