Bakesale Betty Closes Uptown Branch; Keeps Temescal Original

It's a sad day for fried chicken lovers in Oakland's Uptown

By Meesha Halm

Alison Barakat (aka Betty) not only knows how to whip up one wickedly good fried chicken sandwich; she also knows when to fold her cards. The blue-wigged entrepreneur, who along with her husband Michael Camp, grew a small Oakland empire based on sheer word-of-mouth for her baking prowess and sandwich savvy, has decided to shutter her Uptown Oakland branch of Bakesale Betty, which had already decreased its hours to just one three-hour shift on Tuesdays.

The couple tells Diablo Dish that they "want to go back to being just a single mom & pop store because that's really what we are, and we had lost the spirit of what Bakesale Betty was all about..we didn't want to jump the shark." Rest assured, devotees can still get their fill of Bakesale Betty's bitchin' baked goods and legendary fried chicken sandwiches (apparently the shop sells approximately 360-500 a shift) at the original Temescal location at 5098 Telegraph Ave, so long as they get there early: the shop is only open Tuesday-Saturday from noon-1:30 PM.