Local with Lisa: Park Burger

Since 2012, Park Burger in Oakland’s Glenview neighborhood has been serving local, sustainable, comfort food. Tic Barber is one of the owners.

You and your husband are both parents and food lovers. How did Park Burger begin?

Well, we started in 2012. My husband and I have lived in this neighborhood for over 20 years, and I’ve been an Oakland native since 1976. What we realized that was missing in this neighborhood was a kid-friendly restaurant where parents would come to enjoy great food, clean ingredients, and have beer and wine.

Tell me about the ingredients that you use at Park Burger.

So we get our meat straight from the farm. We use Cream Co. Meat, which is organic and very clean. Our produce is delivered daily. We make our fries and our onion rings in-house. We get our bread delivered from Panorama, and that also gets delivered every day.

I know you’re really conscious about the beers that you provide. They’re all Oakland-based breweries. Is that correct?

Correct. We have Line 51, Temescal, Drakes, and we have Oakland United.

I’m a big fan of Oakland United. So you’ve received some awards, right? You were on the list of one of the best 15 burgers in Berkeley and Oakland. That’s a big honor.

I’m very happy. We have great customers. We have a huge community where everybody supports us and it’s just a very loving neighborhood. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

So what happened a few weeks ago here?

Somebody came in, broke a window, and took our register, which we no longer have anymore. And it’s just a constant frustration that’s been going on in the neighborhood. Whether it’s Marzano, Paulista, the espresso bar, or Diggery. It is just an ongoing problem that I feel needs a solution to get addressed. What’s the solution? I don’t know. It’s just do something.

For a small business owner, it is very frustrating and very upsetting. Luckily our community feels our frustration and they come out and they help us. And, you know, it’s just the love that they show us here. But I can’t keep fixing my window.

Right. How has business been?

Business hasn’t been the same since COVID. For the last two years, we’ve seen a 30% decrease in business. The cost of produce is very high, and we can’t keep raising prices on our customers. So we’re thinking about doing something different.

I know it’s important for you as an Oakland business to give back to the community that you’re raising your family in. Tell me about that.

We do a lot of fundraising for the schools that are in our neighborhood, and we normally host an event night where we donate 15% of our proceeds to the school.