Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.
Pomella, the Israeli-Californian restaurant on Oakland’s Piedmont Avenue, announced Monday that it will close after five years in business. Its final day will be May 26.
Chef and owner Mica Talmor cited months of declining sales, as well as the rising costs of ingredients and labor. But she also said the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent Israel-Hamas war had taken a toll on her personally.
Talmor saw her sales slowing noticeably at the end of 2023, she said, and she might have made different decisions if she’d been more clear-headed at the time.
“I’m just one person, and I wasn’t functioning at 100%,” said Talmor, an Israeli who came to the U.S. some three decades ago when she was in her 20s. “It was a missed opportunity for me to move the brand where it needed to go.”
The war had both negative and positive effects on the restaurant, she said.
After sharing thoughts about the war in marketing emails that expressed solidarity with the Israeli people days after Oct. 7, Talmor received some negative responses personally directed toward her.
“Some people in my community turned against me because of my country of origin,” she said.
The Jewish community more than made up for it, she said, with congregations and groups scheduling events and using Pomella as a community space. The local Israeli community has had frequent meet-ups there, too. To everyone who showed up, she personally said “thank you.”
“Pomella was a home for a lot of people,” she said. “I’ll always remember that Hanukkah after Oct. 7, lighting candles on the patio. We’ve had so many great events.” The restaurant hosted “meet the candidate” evenings with Oakland mayoral candidates. And on April 13, Pomella held its third annual seder in partnership with the Israeli caterer Bishulim SF.
The restaurant used organic ingredients and got praise for its cheese-stuffed falafel, silky hummus, creative vegetable salads like beet ras el hanout salad with romaine and feta cheese, rice dishes such as mujadara and rotating dessert specials.
Ba-Bite was Talmor’s first Israeli restaurant, just up the street, which she ran for several years with her then-husband, Robert Gott. She opened Pomella in late March 2020 right after shelter-in-place went into effect during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the first year it served only takeout, as did all restaurants at the time.
In addition to the pandemic and then the Israel-Hamas war, Pomella also dealt with a crime wave in Oakland. For a while, Talmor said, cars in her parking lot were broken into nearly every day, in broad daylight. That situation is much better now, she said, but she doesn’t have the resources to wait for Oakland to improve further.
“I believe in Oakland, and I know it will recover,” she said. “I wish I had the ability to stick it out.”
As for what’s next, the chef and caterer said she hopes to be “adopted” by a restaurant group. “A group is there to have your back,” Talmor said. “Being a single operator is just really hard. I’ve managed to do a lot with this project, but I’ve also learned my limitations.”
Pomella is open through Memorial Day, May 26, at 3770B Piedmont Ave., Oakland.
A community appreciation event is planned for 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 18, when supporters are encouraged to buy a meal and thank Talmor in person.