Barbecue Restaurant Crave BBQ is Coming for Oakland’s Historic California Hotel | Eater SF

"I learned that once a famed 1930s–40s venue hosting Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington, the California Hotel closed in 1971 and fell into disrepair before the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation renovated it into low-income housing with a community garden and on-site social services. The building is now being transformed into a cultural, arts, and music campus that houses Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito's studio and the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, and it's slated to include a blues cafe in collaboration with Crave BBQ." - Janelle Bitker