Bay Area

Black-Owned Eateries in Downtown Oakland Get a Boost a Special Customer Base: OSA Students

When Oakland School of the Arts students get a break from class, they frequently stop at their favorite hangouts for food and drinks in downtown Oakland, including three Black-owned spots, Dusk Coffee, Mama T’s, and Rare Blend Coffee. Black-owned businesses tend to be hard to find because they are hard to keep around. However students at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) help keep these businesses around by visiting so frequently.

Published

3 years ago

March 20, 2023

Oakland Post

The owner of Mama T’s offers discount prices and even named a couple of menu items for a special group of customers - Oakland School of the Arts students. Photo by Daisha Williams.

By Daisha Williams
Post News Group Intern

Black-owned businesses tend to be hard to find because they are hard to keep around. However students at Oakland School for the Arts (OSA) help keep these businesses around by visiting so frequently.

A high schooler’s day is long, with eight hours of school, and for many, extracurricular activities after school. Caffeine is a much-needed energy boost for many students, and coffee is an easy, delicious, way to get it.

Both Dusk Coffee and Rare Blend Coffee get a significant amount of business from OSA students.

A rose latte is one of the appealing drinks that Oakland School for the Arts students buy at Dusk Coffee. Photo by Daisha Williams.

Rare Blend is a small cafe that sits on the corner in between the school and the parking lot on 19th street. There are tables and little booths inside, but students tend to prefer sitting outside in the alleyway in groups of six to eight, with a few at a time going inside to get drinks. In addition to coffee, Rare Blend offers small pastries and smoothies.

Dusk Coffee is a little farther away, on 16th street, but still incredibly easy for students to go to on their lunch break. There are many tables and chairs outside their cafe, so students often eat lunch here as well. The cafe is decorated in neutral colors, contrasting with Rare Blend’s colorful aesthetic. In this sense, Dusk is a very traditional coffee shop. In other ways it is incredibly unique, one example being their inclusion of fun menu items like their rose latte.

OSA’s high school students are able to go off campus for lunch and a popular spot for them is Mama T’s, named after the owner. Unlike many local restaurants, Mama T’s has been around for almost 15 years, so it has a long-standing reputation with OSA students.

While many small businesses shut down during 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions. Mama T’s was one of the few businesses that stayed open.

When asked about the pandemic affecting her restaurant, Mama T said, “It definitely impacted me, not only not having the school, but also the City Hall workers and everyone else. The thing that saved me was that I got a contract to make lunches for homeless people.”

Formerly known as Catered 2 U, after restrictions were lifted the restaurant rebranded to Mama T’s, named after the owner. Located less than a block from OSA’s main entrance, the business has no seating area, just a kitchen and a counter.

Still, kids don’t mind standing as they wait for their food before going elsewhere. When asked about the amount of business they get from OSA students, Mama T replied, “Enough so that I created the OSA menu. There are several other schools in the area but I don’t do it for them because they come once every three or four months… I get students from OSA every single day.”

The OSA menu has specific meals for the students, as well as discounts on normal menu items. One menu item that is extremely popular with the students is their fries, which is featured on the OSA menu for only $3 a serving. Robert O’Grady, a junior at OSA said, “Their fries were legendary…. There’s no word to describe it, their fries were on everybody’s mind.”

Other popular menu items include their chicken nuggets and their “famous” fish sandwich.

William Truong, OSA’s student body president, called Mamma T’s “the place I go to treat myself to something good.”

If you’d like to visit, here are the addresses for all the places mentioned.

Mama T’s: 1711 Telegraph Ave

Rare Blend Cafe: 555 19th St

Dusk Coffee: 1615 Broadway

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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

5 days ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

August 29, 2026

Post News Group

Dawna Williams, EOBA executive director speaks to attendees at the Black August Eperience on Aug. 21. Photo courtesy of Carolyn Flynn of EOBA.

By Jana Lang Propel Youth Reporter

Youth-Led Black August Event Brings Past to Present at East Oakland Boxing Association

The East Oakland Boxing Association (EOBA) and Youth Alive! came together on Aug. 21 to share with their community all that Black August means to them.

Held on EOBA’s patio at 816 98th Ave. in Deep East Oakland, the two organizations hosted their second annual Black August Experience, featuring a food tasting, financial literacy and mindfulness workshops, and voter registration with the League of Women Voters Oakland (LWV).

Black August is known as a time to uphold the legacy of prisoners who protested their conditions by fasting, fighting, and educating themselves on the economic and political circumstances that contributed to their incarceration.

According to its website, “EOBA is a multi-service youth and community development hub that goes far beyond the ring. While rooted in the discipline of boxing, for nearly 40 years EOBA has also integrated robust programs in workforce development, food justice, afterschool enrichment, financial literacy, mentorship, and wellness.”.

The mission of Youth Alive! Is to “break the cycle of violence, heal trauma, and uplift a thriving community of leaders, to save lives in Oakland and beyond” by serving “as mentors, youth leaders, counselors, case managers, intervention specialists and violence interrupters,” working “to help violently wounded people heal themselves and their community.”

Through Coro California, another leadership organization serving young people across the state for 80 years, they gained a broader understanding of Black August.

EOBA Executive Director Dawna Williams spoke about how much she learned about Black August from the youth who created it. “I let them educate me,” she said. Instead of talking about prison reform and mass incarceration, Williams and youth interns found that Black August meant so much more. “We would have done a disservice if we had just focused on who the people were and what their situation was…We tried to take their message from back in the day and make it relevant to the young people today. What do they need to know?”

Youth interns created and placed posters around the patio to help participants understand how traditional Black foodways, civic engagement, financial literacy, and the power of education are relevant to Black resistance today.

An EOBA member described Black August with Youth ALIVE! as “a whole vibe. “This year we added the Fun Zone for the kids, because you really cannot go wrong with a Fun Zone. I also loved seeing everyone chillin’ in the outdoor lounge, catching some Vitamin D and just enjoying a Friday evening together.”

The food tasting, a popular event from last year, featured traditional Black foods such as black-eyed peas, johnny cakes, and fried chicken. Led by Williams, the tasting included a talk about how these traditional foods were made and why they are forms of Black resilience.

The “‘Plate of History’ was a favorite of the online writers. “Fun, educational, and did I mention delicious? Our Taste of History cook, Angela Southall, served up some good eats while connecting food to history and culture.”

The writer also commended the “League of Women Voters Oakland for their civic leadership and for getting our young people informed, ready, and registered to vote.”

Overall, it was a “good Friday event in East Oakland,” the writer said.

Upcoming Black August events: Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS), will host “Black August: The Arc of Liberation” at Oakland City Hall on Sat. Aug. 29, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The websites for East Oakland Boxing Association, Youth Alive! and CORO are sources for this report.

Jana Lang is an Oakland resident, teacher, gardener and poet participating in the Propel News Initiative.