Palmetto and The Kon-Tiki Room in Oakland To Permanently Close

Palmetto and The Kon-Tiki Room in Oakland will be permanently closing at the end of the month. This is according to an instagram post that Palmetto shared just yesterday on October 6th.  This is just another blow in a long list of shuttered favorites within The Bay.

“We are closing Palmetto and The Kon-Tiki Room permanently. Our last day of service is 10/29. Come see us before then! We had a slow summer we weren’t prepared for. We really did our best and we love this town. But we can’t make it. We might talk about why later, but for now, get in here while the getting is good!”.

While the cost of living has skyrocketed, it’s hard to show up for our favorite places. However, to see that their slow summer means we lose yet another one of our favorite places… I just wonder… what can we do to help more? If we can’t show up with our wallets, how do we show up? I don’t know what the answer is. I just know that it’s hard for everyone to continually see this happening around us.

This wasn’t the first time that Palmetto shared that they were having to shift they way they serve customers (all be it they are now saying they are permanently closing). Back in early September, the restaurant shared that they were going to be closed both Tuesday and Wednesday and they would be canceling their Prime Rib Dinners indefinitely. In their Instagram post they shared, “Dining practices have shifted, and we can no longer justify staying open on nights that we aren’t covering our operational costs. We discussed changing the concept to reduce costs, but quickly rejected the idea; we didn’t open Palmetto to be a fast casual, counter service experience. We are deeply sorry to the people we had to let go. We hope that the dining public will support a larger staff soon. Until then, we are consolidating operations, and waiting for the city to improve its image. Keeping our fingers crossed that this is temporary…”

Will the city of Oakland actually clean up their image so that restaurants like Palmetto and The Kon-Tiki Room can stay open? We sincerely hope so. It would be a shame to continue to see places close that are so special in Oakland.