Nelson German’s supply of patience and positivity was exhausted. He awoke early Friday morning to find thieves had crowbarred open a back door of his Uptown Oakland restaurant alaMar and ransacked his “baby,” around 4:30 a.m.
Then, two hours after the initial May 10 break-in, German watched his security camera feed from home in disbelief as thieves once again entered the restaurant. He snapped.
“I watched it live as it was happening,” said German, who believes it was the same people returning for a second round. “I started yelling into the Nest camera. ‘Please, don’t do this!’”
The thieves heard German’s pleas over the speaker. One of them tried to break the camera. Then they carried on, stealing expensive liquor bottles and kitchen equipment.
The damage, both mental and financial, led German to do something he’d never done before. He posted a heartfelt message begging for support on Instagram: “It’s too devastating. I’m too angry,” he said in the video. “Part of me is done, and we’ll be done if things don’t go well this weekend.”
German, a New York City native who also owns the Oakland cocktail lounge Sobre Mesa and appeared on season 18 of “Top Chef,” opened up on Instagram because alaMar needed a big weekend to survive, but also because his frustrations had boiled over.
“I had to let it out,” German said Monday in a phone interview. “For me, I’ve always been uplifting others, always smiling and talking about the positives. I was defeated. I had no positive energy left in my body. I’m always trying to talk about the good things happening in Oakland, highlighting the art and events and countering the stigma. Recently, I’ve felt things are improving in Oakland, but then this happened. I felt violated.”
Customers responded, opening their wallets and delivery apps. Regulars made reservations; diners traveled from San Francisco, San Jose and as far away as Sacramento; some who had never tried alaMar before turned out to sample the braised oxtail, fried goat, Criolla shrimp and other Dominican dishes that are the restaurant’s specialty. Take-out and delivery orders poured in. From Friday through Sunday, German estimates alaMar saw three times its normal business.
“It filled my heart,” German said. “We saw a big lift, and the community came out really strong. I was down and they lifted me up. It’s been a long time since I felt that way.”
AlaMar was not the only one asking for support following a break-in this past weekend. Swan’s Market in Old Town was also vandalized, and La Guerrera’s Kitchen posted to Instagram about the incident.
“We’re sad to share news of a break-in at our business, alongside several others in Swan’s Market and downtown,” the post stated, while adding that the planned Mother’s Day brunch was still happening on Sunday. “We urge you to stand with us, showing support during these challenging times.”
German said many more break-ins at Oakland small businesses never get reported.
“Everyone is going through this,” he said. “Every day there is a small business getting broken into. It’s exhausting. I keep trying to tell people it’s going to be OK, but we continue to get hit really hard.”
German estimates that the damage and loss of goods cost him $8,000, but he does not plan to report the burglary to his insurance company because he worries his premiums will rise and that break-ins at Oakland businesses have made insurance companies skittish to issue policies in the first place. Margins in the restaurant business have always been thin, and the last few years of inflation and rising staffing costs have reduced them further.
“We are here to stay,” German said Monday. “But what’s happening has to be not just a weekend. We need people to come out and show support for everyone.”
While the double-burglary was an acute wound to alaMar, he noted that many of the persistent troubles that emerged following the lifting of COVID-19 lockdowns—lack of foot traffic, decline in to-go orders—are slowly improving.
Through the first four months of the year, crime in Oakland has dropped by one-third compared to the same period in 2023. German sees progress but says that message has not yet reached the wider public and he worries the momentum could be lost. In May, alaMar introduced lunch service, partly because of the positive signs.
“Uptown has gotten some new restaurants, some new concepts, but it’s still a struggle when the narrative shown on TV is Oakland is unsafe,” German said. “Being realistic, it was, but public safety has improved. There are less car break-ins. I think there’s been an improvement in city leadership doing the work and OPD has had a bigger presence in the area. More and more people are coming out, but that’s got to continue.”
After both of the burglaries early Friday morning, German said OPD officers showed up at the restaurant within seven to 10 minutes—a much faster response than he had gotten previously—but not in time to catch the culprits. Adding salt to the wound, based on appearance and mannerisms, he believes the leader of the double break-in on May 10 also burglarized the restaurant last year in November.
“We’ve been seeing it recently, a positive energy in Oakland,” German said. “Especially the last few weeks. The start of the year was slow, but it’s been increasing here and there. But then [the burglary] happens, and it feels like one step forward, two steps back.”
