Fresh seafood and ceviche with Oakland's Bar Skula

If you were a fan of Oakland staple Luca's Taproom, you're going to love this next chapter. The former owner and longtime kitchen team member have joined forces to open a new seafood forward, Cevichiria Grill, making Latin flavors and Iberian flavors coming together. Welcome, Wilson Medez from Bar Skuela. Chef, hello. Nice to see you. Nice to see you, too. I know that you were very early on in Luca's. Absolutely. I think I actually remember seeing you there because I love Luca's. Yeah. You know, to not go that far, I was the very first employee at Lucas, starting as a dishwasher, and thank goodness, you know, they gave me the opportunity to be all the way up. Yeah, this is Ceviche now. Ceviche is so popular. By the way, let me tell folks, you're in the old space that used to be called Sidebar, right there, the Grand Lake area. I remember that spot. You say it's a little small, so people have to line up to get the food. They've been waiting for hours sometimes. What is it about this food? Well, I think it's because it's very unique. For example, here we have our Nayarit ceviche, which is albacore tuna, fresh onion, cilantro, fresh mango. And we call it tiger's milk and a little bit of chili oil. Nayarit, nod to that Mexican area. Basically, Puerto Vallarta area. Absolutely, yeah. Because I've had this kind of stuff there, and it's very good. so you can get it now in Oakland. Absolutely. And that's why there's lines. That's why there's lines. Where do you source your fish? Well, right now we have Corfini, which is in San Francisco. Right. We also have Royal Hawaiian, Monterey Bay. It's all fresh. Yep, all fresh. Every day you get the right. Every single day, yeah. And I know that seafood places, people say, really, seafood, but it's so popular. It is popular. I mean, when Rick and Maria thought about this idea to bring you know seafood uh place especially in that area because there is no no fish seafoods around and i was i was very excited you know because seafood is one of my favorite foods too now i haven't been there yet i know that your Lucas Taproom was a taproom correct do you have any beer at all we do have a few beers okay good not like like it's not like a tap room but i can go there and get a cold beer and drink uh drink a cold beer and have some of this absolutely chef What do you suggest I have with something like this? I will say a glass of wine. A glass of wine will be nice, absolutely, yeah. A red wine is good. Really? Yeah, it's really good. Okay, I hear from the chef himself. Now, these are beautiful. These are actually albacore tuna tostadas, which is a little fresh onions, albacore tuna as well, and then a little rounds of red fresno chilies olive oil and a little lemon juice salt they were super simple but at the same time is one of the top sellers at our space how long has bar school had been open we've been open for about four months now four months yeah okay still kind of near like driving a new car yep exactly how do you feel going to work every day when you see lines out the door i love it i mean you know it's just uh it's just amazing you know the way people responded to that, so it seems like people have been waiting for Lucas to come back. Of course, it's nothing like Lucas, but... No, it's a new chapter. It's a new chapter, right? Yeah, absolutely. And I know Rick's not here, but he must be really happy with this, right? Oh, he's happy. And if he's happy, I'm more happy. Right, right, right. Yeah, exactly. I get it. I get it. The last question is, okay, so I come... This is actually cooked fish. This is actually halibut, which is wrapped in corn husk and a little avocado, a little I'm going to try some of this, Chef, if you don't mind, because I'm not sure if I have two hours to wait. Yeah, let me finish this up real quick, okay? I'm going to do a little chipotle sauce on top. There we go, okay. And let me put a little cream on there, too. Oh, okay. One more thing. Obviously, I can get this exact dish when I come? Oh, yeah, you can get this one anytime. It's called just halibut. Halibut? halibut and it's basically wrapped in uh in corn husk and it's marinated with uh olive oil garlic salt pepper super simple but at the same time it's these three are the top sellers very good all i need is a glass of wine chef right wilson mendez thank you for coming chef congratulations i liked your work at lucas thank you this place is called Bar Scuola all right we're going to be taking a quick break by the way it's at the old sidebar location there you go it's at the old sidebar location in case you remember that. We'll be right back after a short break and maybe I'll eat a little more. Stay with us.