Inside Night Heron, Uptown Oakland’s Soulful New Bar Serving 17 Different Cocktails on Draft | Eater SF

"I visited a new cocktail bar in Uptown Oakland that opened June 24, designed to celebrate Oakland’s culture and history through art. Dubbed Night Heron and named for the black-crowned night heron, the space is helmed by Sequoya Lee (Honor Bar, Miss Ollie’s) and Cory Hunt (First Edition, Soda Popinski’s), and Lee curated the art across the 3,400-square-foot room with murals by brothers Ian and Jared Jewthmal and Malaya Tuyay, a neon installation from Laura Stevenson, and a print by Emory Douglas. The drink program features 17 cocktails split into three categories — “Downtown” (on the rocks), “Uptown” (up), and “Old Oakland” (low- or no-alcohol) — with eight cocktails offered on draft for faster service without sacrificing complexity: the Milk & Honey (on draft) combines whiskey, rum, fino sherry, grapefruit, black tea and tamarind and is clarified with coconut milk; the Super Brava is mixed to order with mezcal, whiskey, Bruto Americano, garam masala, orgeat and lime over ice; the Girl Who Cried Champagne pairs vodka, butterfly pea flower syrup, lemon and Champagne and is garnished with a coconut Thai herb popsicle; and the Super Hyphy is a seasonal, low-ABV no-waste sangria whose proceeds support Yellowhammer Fund and Access Reproductive Justice. The bar also carries mostly local beer and wine — ales from Federation Brewing, a Temescal Brewing pilsner, Longevity Wines from Livermore and Subject To Change Wine Co. from Richmond — and, while there’s no kitchen, Night Heron partnered with neighboring Itani Ramen to offer two $20 bento boxes ordered via QR: the Niku Bento (chicken karaage and pork gyoza) and the Yasai Bento (furikake garlic waffle fries and veggie gyoza), each with edamame, seaweed salad and senbei rice crackers. Given the space’s contentious history when it housed Here’s How and faced neighborhood complaints and a 2019 NIMBY battle that preceded a 2020 shutdown, the team has made neighborhood appeasements including security to check IDs and keep patrons from disturbing upstairs residents. Night Heron is open 5 p.m. to midnight Monday–Thursday, 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday, and closed Sundays." - Dianne de Guzman