The Elmwood's Morning Map Changed Hands This October

Three things happened to Elmwood breakfast in one October week. Kat's Kitchen opened at 2922 Domingo Avenue, the old Rick & Ann's space, after more than a year with no tenant. Nabolom Bakery & Pizzeria sold its last challah on Russell Street on Sunday, October 18. And Elmwood Subs began serving breakfast bagels at the corner of College and Webster.

All three follow the same pattern as the neighborhood's longest-running spots. In the Elmwood, places tend to survive by passing to a new owner at the same address. They rarely stay with one owner forever, and they rarely give way to something entirely new. Nabolom has already been through one handoff. Rick & Ann's space has just been through another. The neighborhood's movie house went through its own decades ago.

2922 Domingo Avenue Came Back as a Diner

The Domingo Avenue storefront went quiet in summer 2025. Owner Ann Lauer told Berkeleyside she was retiring and had decided not to renew the lease. Ann's Catering was set to keep running out of a commercial kitchen.

The space reopened as a diner. Berkeleyside's Nosh column reported on October 20 that Kat's Kitchen has soft-opened under chef Michael Fornasero, whose résumé includes Foreign Cinema, A16 and The Boonville Hotel. Some of the produce comes from his own farm in Lake County.

The breakfast menu lists toasts, waffles, bowls, a Dutch baby, pancakes and a list of savory plates. Kat's serves breakfast and lunch Thursday through Tuesday, so it's closed on Wednesdays. A wine bar is listed as coming soon.

Nosh called it "long-awaited," and the wait was real. In early August, Nosh was still describing Kat's Kitchen as "set to open soon," and a planned August 9 meet-and-greet was postponed. Two months later, it opened.

2708 Russell Street Has Done This Before

Nabolom's closing hits hard partly because the bakery had already beaten one closing. Per the San Francisco Chronicle, Nabolom opened in 1976 as a worker collective and became known for challah, fruit Danishes and cinnamon twists. The original collective closed the business in 2015. Julia Elliott and Sabra Stepak bought it and reopened about six months later, adding vegetarian sourdough pizzas.

That second run lasted roughly ten years. Berkeleyside reported that a sign in the window set the final day for Sunday, October 18, with hours of 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. The owners confirmed the closing by email. Before that, the bakery was usually open Wednesday through Sunday.

The owners told the Chronicle that Nabolom's business depends on volume, and that rising costs for ingredients, utilities, labor and capital improvements had made it harder and harder to run. They haven't ruled out the same kind of rescue that saved the bakery in 2016. In their farewell, as quoted by the Chronicle, Stepak and Elliott wrote:

"We still hope a young energetic, experienced food lover who can afford it wants to take Nabolom to the next level and save this treasure for future generations and our still amazing community."

For now, that's a hope, and no new operator has been announced. The building did go through this exact situation a decade ago, though, and the gap between closing and reopening was about six months.

The Same Pattern, Address by Address

The Elmwood's best-known morning and evening spots line up like this:

The theater shows the long version of this pattern. Berkeleyside's 2024 history describes a 1994 reopening after renovation, then the 2024 addition of a menu with beer and wine. The building and its job on the block stayed the same while the offering grew. The Rialto's upcoming schedule includes a Sunday, November 15 noon showing of Noël Coward's Fallen Angels.

Elmwood Subs is the one entry here with no backstory yet. Nosh reported that it serves breakfast bagels and avocado toast in the morning, plus subs that range from a meatball melt to pastrami, buffalo chicken and falafel. Right now it's simply a new counter on College. If the table above is any guide, its story will be told in terms of who owns that corner next.

This isn't just an Elmwood habit. A few blocks south on College Avenue, the most talked-about recent restaurant arrivals in Rockridge were established Oakland restaurants that moved in whole. Along this stretch of College, long-running businesses tend to keep going by relocating or changing owners. Brand-new concepts are less common.

What Changed for a Weekday Morning

For anyone who used to start the day on Russell Street, the practical shifts are small but real:

• Wednesday is the gap day now. Nabolom used to cover Wednesday through Sunday. Kat's Kitchen runs Thursday through Tuesday, so the old Nabolom days and the new Kat's days overlap everywhere except Wednesday.
• Bakery and sit-down breakfast used to be separate stops. Nabolom made bread and pastries to take home. Kat's offers waffles, a Dutch baby and plated savory dishes, with no bakery case mentioned so far.
• College and Webster now has an early option. Elmwood Subs' breakfast bagels add a grab-and-go stop on the main commercial block.

For a broader look at how Berkeley's food scene moved earlier this year, our August piece on downtown's reorganized food map covers the North Shattuck and downtown side of town.

Halloween Weekend on College Avenue

The Elmwood Business Association used October for a string of free family events. The in-store trick-or-treating on Saturday, October 24, used maps from Mrs. Dalloway's at 2904 College Avenue and Your Basic Bird. Two events remain for Halloween weekend, Friday and Saturday, according to the association's calendar:

1. Friday, October 30: Halloween Scavenger Hunt. It's free. Pick up a player card, or print the "Bingo 2026" card, and find each pictured object inside the participating stores.
2. Saturday, October 31, 10:30 a.m.: Free Family Matinee. The film is Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, in which the duo run a humane pest-control outfit called Anti-Pesto.

On Friday, the scavenger hunt fits around a stop at Kat's Kitchen on Domingo, which is open that day. On Saturday morning, the 10:30 matinee is the main event. Nabolom will be missing from those walks for the first time in a long while. Its owners say they hope someone will take it over, and the building has reopened under new owners once before.

If you live near College Avenue and want to know how these changes play out block by block, or want to talk about what your own Elmwood home is worth this season, Mike Lane Group is glad to help. Start with a free home valuation, or see our Berkeley neighborhood page.