Brown Sugar Kitchen

"Brown Sugar Kitchen became a focal point of the Oakland community during its almost 15 year tenure. The restaurant is known for its role in the community and its connection to California soul food, as highlighted in Tanya Holland's new cookbook, California Soul."

"Holland competed on Bravo's Top Chef; is the author of two cookbooks, with one more on the way; and owned the beloved Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland, California. This past January she had to close the restaurant due to pandemic-related difficulties, high rent, and increased crime in the city." - Travel + Leisure Editors

"Chef Tanya Holland is one of the doyennes of fried chicken in Oakland, and her destination-brunch restaurant has had lines out the door since its West Oakland days. The chicken remains one of the highlights at Holland’s swankier new location in Uptown Oakland, and it’s now available — by the piece or in sandwich or salad form — for takeout Wednesday through Saturday, noon–4:30 p.m. Order online for pickup, or get delivery via Caviar." - Luke Tsai, Ellen Fort

"Tanya Holland’s Uptown Oakland Southern-inspired spot is serving a streamlined takeout menu, Wednesday through Saturday noon–5 p.m., with online orders due by 4 p.m. each day. The fried chicken is probably the headliner, but there’s also gumbo, po’ boys, buttermilk biscuits, and sweet potato pie. Customers who have the means to do so can also opt to subsidize a meal to foster youth, low-income families, and the homeless." - Luke Tsai

"Meanwhile, Brown Sugar Kitchen chef-owner Tanya Holland believes the “Black Owned” sign that she put up in her window wound up protecting the restaurant from physical harm — “like bug repellant,” she says, describing the scene in Uptown Oakland on Friday night as a “sea of mayhem.” Though many of the other businesses on the same stretch of Broadway, including a Starbucks and a branch of the Mixt salad chain, were tagged with graffiti and had their windows smashed, Holland’s restaurant was entirely untouched." - Luke Tsai