Food coverage is supported by a generous donation from Susan and Moses Libitzky.
Since his restaurant’s sign went up on Oakland’s Lakeshore Avenue, Ben Block has been fielding the same question: “What’s a barbecue latke?
Not a bad question considering the restaurant is called Crazy Block Cheesecakes.
“It’s caused mass hysteria and confusion,” Block joked about his “BBQ” and “Latkes” sign.
Once you walk inside, though, it becomes clear. Block is selling all three. “I’m trying to represent the food that I grew up eating,” he said.
Crazy Block Cheesecakes have been sold at Bay Area farmers markets for years, but this is Block’s first brick-and-mortar restaurant. He celebrated the grand opening in mid-March. It’s a casual place, with counter service, brick walls and street-art decor.
Block, 32, grew up in Alameda and became a bar mitzvah at Oakland’s Temple Sinai. The food he serves comes from his own cultural touchpoints. His father’s side is represented by the latkes and the cheesecakes. The original New York-style cheesecake, denser and richer than other types, was invented in Jewish delis, though Block today has a rotating menu of 160 flavors. (Yes, you read that right.) The barbecue and sides, like vinegar-based coleslaw and collard greens slow-cooked with smoked turkey neck, come from his mother’s Southern roots.
He sees himself as somewhat of a latke ambassador for customers who haven’t tried them before. Talking about latkes is something he just loves to do.
“It’s just a really tasty food that you can’t get everywhere,” he said. And there’s no reason to think of them as a once-a-year treat. “Whenever I feel like eating latkes, I just make latkes.”
He makes them with matzah meal that he buys at Oakland Kosher Foods a few doors away. He also uses Grand Bakery challah buns for his sandwiches.
Block has always wanted to start his own restaurant, beginning when he was a child obsessed with food television. He watched lots of shows on the Food Network and created his own “Iron Chef” battles with friends. Although he had no formal culinary training, he’s worked in food his whole career, he said.
He came up as a line cook, working at spots like Rick & Ann’s, a popular brunch place in Berkeley.
“I just have a lot of passion for food,” he said. “It’s so much fun to introduce people to new food.”
That’s partially how his latkes fixation started.
“At first, I just wanted to introduce all my friends to latkes,” he said. “A lot of people around here had never heard of latkes or tried them, unless they had a Jewish friend growing up.”
He continued to talk up latkes during our interview.
“Latkes are the bomb,” he said. “I love it when people who already know about latkes pull up because they’ve seen my sign and are like, ‘Whoa! Y’all got latkes? Like, that’s crazy!’”
In 2020, he began making Southern barbecue and selling it out of his house in East Oakland. “I would stay up the whole night, like 24 hours, making smoked brisket,” he said.
He also made cheesecake, but it was much less sophisticated back then. He used his grandmother’s recipe, which called for store-bought graham crackers for the crust and Philadelphia Cream Cheese.
Then he moved to the Montclair neighborhood in the Oakland Hills and could no longer barbecue due to the fire risk. So he decided to focus on just one thing: cheesecake. Block stuck with his grandmother’s recipe but worked to upgrade the ingredients.
“It took a year and a half to develop the graham cracker recipe alone,” he said.
When we visited earlier this month, the cheesecake menu included “OG NY style, Grandma’s Recipe,” cookies and cream, strawberry, ube (a Filipino purple yam), lemon, mango, Vietnamese coffee, “banilla,” lemon-blueberry and matcha-white chocolate. There are also “crazies,” which cost a bit more, such as Dalgona (a Korean candy), choco-caramel and Henny Praline (made with Hennessy cognac). The cheesecakes come in mini, medium and large with most flavors at $6, $11 and $30, respectively.
We tried a combination barbecue plate otherwise called the chiblam, which has chicken, brisket and lamb ($28 with two sides) and felt it was comfort food at its best. The lamb was marinated in rosemary and garlic, Block told us. Even his garlic aioli and barbecue sauces are housemade, he said.
The latkes (2 for $6) were crispy and dense with fine potato shreds. Non-meat-eaters will find barbecue salmon and jackfruit on the menu. All barbecue items can also be bought in sandwiches or by the pound ($20 for chicken to $35 for ribs).
Block has a big personality, and it shows up on his menu and his high-energy social media. He’s a chef made for the Instagram era.
“I’m basically trying to give people as much energy and positivity as I can,” he said. “I want to make sure that everybody’s bellies are full and their plates are empty, because that makes them happy.”