OAKLAND — An Oakland native who followed her passion was hoping to be part of the change that helped turn her hometown around. Instead, Chef Leilani Baugh is closing the doors of her restaurant.
Baugh started cooking meals out of her home and eventually opened a restaurant in West Oakland, blocks away from where she grew up. Now her restaurant will close at the end of the month.
“It’s hard because I grew up here. This is like my baby,” she said.
Chef Leilani named her restaurant Magnolia Street Wine Lounge and Kitchen after the street where her childhood home stood. Leilani learned how to cook from both her grandmothers and she serves up soul food dishes with an Asian twist.
She says just in the last year, her business has plummeted. Her sales are about a third of what they used to be.
“I think things started declining six months ago. It was like ‘Oh OK, it’s Friday. Nobody is coming for fish fry Friday. What’s going on?” she said.
With a group of loyal customers, Leilani tried to hang on for as long as she could.
“We should’ve probably closed two months ago but I didn’t because I wanted to see if it would turn itself around,” she said.
In the end, she says crime in Oakland drove her customers away.
“My patrons don’t feel safe. Not necessarily not safe coming here, but they don’t feel safe coming to Oakland,” she said.
While Chef Leilani still has a successful catering business, she was hoping to help in the revival of Oakland.
“There’s this rich history of culture and music that we’re trying to bring back and we can’t. So I always say ‘Oakland, I love you but you don’t love me,'” she said.
Chef Leilani says for the first time in her life, she feels unsafe in Oakland. She hopes city leaders can make concrete changes to bring back the Oakland she used to know.
“It’s like a zombie apocalypse around here and, so, it’s frustrating that the police can’t police. It’s frustrating that we have a district attorney that doesn’t prosecute. It’s frustrating that we have a mayor that I don’t know what she’s doing,” Leilani said.
Leilani hasn’t ruled out opening her restaurant again in the future. She says that, unfortunately, it won’t be in Oakland.
“I’m sad overall. Not necessarily for my business, I’m sad about that too. But I’m mostly sad for Oakland. For what it was, what it is and what it could be.”
