La Loulou is chic, cozy, and perfectly curated. This is your new go-to spot on Piedmont Avenue.
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From a Piedmont native, Emmy award winning television journalist turned Broker Associate at The Grubb Co., UCLA graduate, wife and mother of 3.
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.
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