Local with Lisa: La Loulou Wine Bar

Say hello to Oakland's newest wine bar.

La Loulou is chic, cozy, and perfectly curated. This is your new go-to spot on Piedmont Avenue.

Meet Lou, the owner behind Piedmont Avenue’s newest hot spot, La Loulou wine bar. 

Lou: Because I’m from Paris, I wanted something with a Parisian ambiance. There aren’t many. There are some Parisian restaurants in SF, but not that many wine bars, and I wanted to have a true ambiance, not just put up a couple of French posters. I wanted something that feels like you’re in Paris.

Lou moved to Oakland in 2020, and with the help of her husband, a contractor, her Parisian vision became a reality. 

Lou: To me, I really wanted green because it’s a Parisian color, dark green. All the fences in Paris are like that, and then we wanted a whole wall of art nouveau mirrors.

Since opening in May, the Oakland community has embraced La Loulou with open arms. 

Lou. They really like it. People are very excited. I didn’t know that many Americans speak French. Really good French. A lot of people get nicely dressed. I had a group of ladies who came in with a yellow beret, and they were doing a French birthday, and they were all Americans. We also have a lot of French people coming in.

La Loulou features a curated selection of wines, mostly French, with Italian and Portuguese favorites rounding out the menu.

Lou originally sold wines to restaurants and shops before realizing she wanted a space of her own to share her passion directly with guests. 

Lou: Our best seller is the cheese and charcuterie board, and we have different types of French cheese that are very nice, but we make a homemade quiche every day and escargot because people are asking for escargot, so we added that, and we make a French sandwich, and we added caviar. It’s more like little bites, but you can eat well. It’s a lot of food for a wine bar but a little less than a restaurant.

Inspired by Paris, Lou loves how the spaces there are beautiful, stylish, and welcoming to everyone, and that’s exactly the feeling she hopes her guests take with them. 

Lou: I hope they feel like they went to Paris. Anyone can come to a wine bar and have a glass and be in this very pretty historic ambiance, very architecturally pretty. I hope they enjoy their time.

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Who should I interview next for Local with Lisa? If you have a suggestion, I’d like to hear it! Or if you’d like to talk about real estate and want to know your home’s current market value, I’m happy to provide you with a complimentary assessment. Get in touch!