Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.
Chef David Jacobson is known for his pizza. What he’s not known for is Hanukkah, though that may soon change.
He’s been putting the final touches on a menu that will be built around brisket, rotisserie chicken and his grandmother’s traditional latke recipe. He plans to offer it during Hanukkah at Oakland’s Acre Kitchen & Bar, where he is sous chef.
Acre opened at 5655 College Ave. in the Rockridge neighborhood last December, taking the place of the beloved Oliveto, which enjoyed a 35-year-run with its Jewish owner, Bob Klein, and his wife, Maggie.
“I’m likely to have bittersweet chocolate in the brisket braise, to balance the tomatoes,” he said. “My mom says I’m very good at making a very tender brisket.”
Jacobson, who is 36, was raised in Oakland’s Jewish community and became a bar mitzvah at Temple Sinai in Oakland. His upbringing had several unique aspects to it. His mother, Denise Sherer Jacobson, wrote a book in 1999 called “The Question of David: A Disabled Mother’s Journey Through Adoption, Family and Life,” The book was mostly about the decision that she and her husband, Neil, made to adopt a baby as people with cerebral palsy. (I wrote about Denise’s bat mitzvah at Temple Sinai in 2005. The J. article actually started with an anecdote about David.)
His parents also appeared in J. as part of the 2020 film “Crip Camp,” which is where Denise and Neil met. She is the one who came up with the eye-catching title.
Denise is a writer. Neil, who passed away earlier this year, worked for Wells Fargo and eventually became a senior vice president.
“He was at the forefront of hiring other people with disabilities and led by example in that,” Jacobson said.
His adoption story is also an unusual one. His birth mother had fallen off a ladder while eight months pregnant, and he was born “stiff.” Denise and Neil received a call asking if they wanted to adopt a disabled baby who possibly had cerebral palsy, like his prospective parents.
They said yes, and David was placed with them — only for the new parents to learn that he didn’t have a disability at all.
Jacobson said his love of pizza began early because his preschool was near Zachary’s Chicago Pizza. He was also a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whose pizza cravings are legendary.
But the turning point for Jacobson came when he was studying molecular gastronomy at Cabrillo College in Aptos.
He went on to hone his craft at many of the Bay Area’s top pizza places, such as Delfina, Flour & Water and Kensington’s Benchmark Pizzeria. The latter is where he first learned about applying a farm-to-table ethos to pizza.
Last year and again this year, he was invited to compete in the Real California Pizza Contest, sponsored by the California Milk Advisory Board.
He didn’t win this year, but he won the grand prize last year, walking away with $15,000. Dubbed “The Gold Rush,” his prize-winning entry used California dairy products, including mozzarella, Monterey Jack, provolone, heavy cream and specialty cheeses such as a washed-rind triple crème and a nutty aged hard cheese. It also featured fingerling potatoes, pancetta and smoked sea salt.
“I was speechless — just to share the stage with these world champion pizza makers,” he said. “And I knew who everyone on the judging panel was.”
When they handed him the microphone to talk about his inspiration, he completely blanked.
“They had to pull it out of me. I was sure I was close to last place,” he said.
His win got him a catering gig, a party where one of the guests was a managing partner of the restaurant group opening Acre Kitchen & Bar. That’s how he ended up as a consultant for its pizza program, which quickly turned into a permanent job offer.
While a slow fermentation of the dough for 48 to 72 hours is the norm with many pizza crusts, Jacobson’s dough takes five to six days to ferment, which gives it a distinctly West Coast sourdough tang. He describes it as an East Coast, West Coast, Neapolitan hybrid, with “some softness on the interior, with char and leoparding,” he said, “but with structure like New York-style, which is not supposed to droop when you pick it up.”
Pizzas are only a part of his repertoire at Acre. He’s in charge of “anything with gluten in it,” he said. Pizza-wise, he loves experimenting with the incredible cheese selection from the Pasta Shop, which is right downstairs. He has also crafted a smoked salmon with an “everything bagel” seasoning on pizza, and right now one of his pies features poached pears.
“I have a lot of free expression here,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve ever had that.”