Ruby Room
One of Oakland’s most notorious dive bars will close after a final New Year’s Eve bash
Just shy of 25 years, Ruby Room is shutting down. Here’s why the owners simply said, ‘it’s time to move on.’
- by Azucena Rasilla Dec. 6, 2023, 1:55 p.m.
Ruby Room, the treasured dive bar on 14th Street known for its crimson luminescence and cheap drinks, will announce “last call” for the final time on New Year’s Eve.
The bar, a go-to for the East Bay Rats Motorcycle Club—their clubhouse in West Oakland shuttered in 2019—and known for adjoining rooms for smokers and pool players along with 80- and 90-cent shots on special event nights, will close just shy of a quarter century in business.
Rather than mourn the closing, the bar’s owners are encouraging dedicated patrons to celebrate the good times and make a few more before the end of the year. It’s time to move on, they say.
Alfredo Botello opened the Ruby Room in 1999 with his then-business partner, Liad Mawikunich. Years later, after Mawikunich left the business, Trevor Latham (then president of the East Bay Rats) and Tim Tolle joined as co-owners. The three partners also own Radio Bar on 13th Street. There are no plans to close Radio, according to Botello.
The first New Year’s Eve party at Ruby Room in 1999. Credit: Alfredo Botello
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When The Ruby Room opened, it was an oasis in the desert of Oakland’s nightlife scene. At the time, East Bay residents felt compelled to travel to San Francisco for vibrant bars and clubs. Botello was one of them. He would ride BART into the city but felt limited in how late he could stay out due to the train’s midnight cutoff.
“We did feel a real need here in Oakland,” Botello told The Oaklandside on a phone call on Monday night. “That was the genesis of the bar.”
When it first opened, Ruby Room attracted non-pretentious folks, often artists, and quickly filled a void as a place where people could hang out and get a cheap drink. In those early days, patrons could find Latham working as a bouncer and Bolle and Botello behind the turntables.
East Bay Yesterday journalist Liam O’Donoghue was one of those creatives with many memories of the sanguine-shaded bar.
“The dancefloor is small, the drinks were sometimes too strong, but that’s what made it great,” O’Donoghue said. “That is what your 20s are all about. It’s going to these dives. It was always informal, and you didn’t have to dress a certain way. It was eclectic and had good music. Ruby Room was grungy but in a good way.”
According to O’Donoghue, the bar also served as a haven and preferred watering hole for activists during demonstrations and civil unrest.
“You’d end up at Ruby or Radio when the protest winded down and grab a drink to recap,” he said. “It was one of those bars.”
Fire shots were popular at the bar. Credit: Alfredo Botello
Patrons playing a game of pool. Credit: Alfredo Botello Botello said that while the bar has weathered additional challenges since the pandemic decimated Oakland’s nightlife, the primary reason for the closure is the owners felt the time was right.
“We’re aged out,” he said. “We’re north of 50.” Tolle splits his time between Oregon and Mexico, Latham moved with his family to Reno, and Botello says he can’t stay out past 2 a.m. like he did when he was younger.
Similar to other bars and restaurants in Oakland, he added, they’ve dealt with street crime, a lack of police response, and evolving customer patterns and habits.
“The biggest challenge has been figuring out the new normal,” said Botello.
Pre-COVID, the business’ cadence was more predictable, so staffing and stocking were easier to manage. Since the pandemic, the days with the most customers have become more random and are not always on the weekend.
“Oakland is different in each of its pockets. You go to Temescal, and it’s lively, feels safe, and has plenty of life on the street at night,” he said. “Ruby Room has always been a destination bar, meaning it’s not in the middle of Lakeshore Avenue, Telegraph, or Broadway. You have to want to go there.”
Since COVID, Botello said, there’s been an increase of shuttered and abandoned storefronts where crowds gather, creating “an intimidating presence” for patrons at the bar. “The crime and financial reasons, that’s added pressure [to close the bar].” He added that the glass window at the bar had to be boarded up to prevent after-hours vandalization.
Ruby Room was a favorite among Oakland artists and other creatives. Credit: Alfredo Botello
In the two decades since Ruby Room opened, Botello has heard countless anecdotes from folks who have supported the popular dive bar. In 2017, East Bay Express called it the “Best Place to Drown in Well-Priced Drinks and a Red Hue.”
“Once, two patrons figured out I was the owner,” Botello recalls. “They were so grateful, and I’ll never forget what they said. They said: ‘This place means everything to me. This is Oakland’s living room.’ I took so much pride and joy in it because when I hear the word, living room, I think of comfortable, friends and family, cozy, approachable, welcoming.”
Botello also recalls that in 2015, the staff got matching tattoos of little rubies in honor of the bar. “I was so touched because I thought: ‘Wait a minute, what other business do the employees love so much that they want to get a tattoo of it?'”
Since Botello doesn’t want this to be a somber goodbye, he is looking forward to hearing more stories from other patrons who visited Ruby Room at one point or another. Some locals have already started sharing their anecdotes on Reddit.
“Anybody who has been there, who’s curious about this place, just come by,” he said. “Enjoy the time we have.”
Correction: In a previous version of this story, Tim Tolle’s last name was misspelled.
Update: February 23, 2024
Oakland’s Ruby Room is reopening under new ownership The new owners want to keep the bar’s legacy alive and rehired several former employees. by Azucena Rasilla Feb. 23, 2024, 10:00 a.m. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
Ruby Room had a packed house for their final NYE party. Credit: Alfredo Botello When Ruby Room announced its permanent closure on Dec. 6, fans of the popular dive bar flocked to social media to share stories about what made it special. “The wildest time with the best people,” one person commented. “Where will I go when when I visit home each summer that has both an acceptable amount of daylight exposure AND maraschino cherries?” another posted on Instagram.
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But it wasn’t a forever farewell. To pursue potential buyers, current owners Alfredo Botello, Trevor Latham, and Tim Tolle had to open the bar at least once a week to keep the liquor license active and pursue potential buyers. In early January, Botello launched Ruby Fridays.
Shortly after Ruby Room’s final bash on New Year’s Eve, Botello said he was approached by Dawit Kidane and his wife Gibtsawit Abraha, owners of Blue Nile, an Ethiopian restaurant about a block from the bar, who wanted to buy the bar.
Kidane and Abraha opened Blue Nile as a family-owned-and-operated restaurant in 2018. For the couple, investing in keeping a legacy establishment like Ruby Room active in the community made sense.
“My vision is to keep it the same. I’m not changing anything,” Kidaee told The Oaklandside. “It’s sad that a lot of places are closing around here.”
Kidane grew up in Fresno and moved to Oakland in 2011. He and his wife are raising three kids in Oakland and will soon handle the restaurant and the bar.
The couple has already hired several former employees, and a family member will help as a bartender on the weekend. They also did not seek out investors to purchase the bar, using their savings instead.
Kidane said purchasing the bar, much like when he first opened Blue Nile, is about “taking chances.”
The stretch on 14th Street where Blue Nile, Ruby Room, and the Oakland Public Library main branch are located has changed throughout the years, with less foot traffic since the pandemic, according to Kidane, and crowds gathering in front of shuttered businesses along the street. Pre-pandemic, Kidane said, there was much more foot traffic during the lunch rush, which carried into the dinner hour.
Despite the risk in their investment, the couple is excited to continue building community in Oakland and welcome back Ruby Room patrons who thought they had seen the last of the bar’s crimson-hued interior and cheap drinks.
“Everybody is welcome,” Kidane said. “We are just trying to grow and be successful business owners.”
The Ruby Room will open one last time under the stewardship of Alfredo Botello, Trevor Latham, and Tim Tolle for Ruby Fridays on Feb. 23. The bar will reopen under the new ownership on Thursday, March 1. It will be open every day from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m.
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