STARLINE
Open again under its old name, with Sistas Wings in the kitchen.
Published
Reasons to check it out
- The 1893 Odd Fellows hall at MLK and West Grand is trading again — three storeys, a ballroom on the second floor, a sideroom the old operators called the speakeasy
- Yelp still lists Starline Social Club as CLOSED and still shows the previous operation's opening hours; both are out of date
- Sistas Wings runs the kitchen: wings, plus oxtail, pork chops, lamb chops and sides
- Programming leans DJ nights and dance collectives rather than the indie-rock bookings the old room was known for, with Urban Prodigy as the resident promoter
- The venue's own Instagram bio is the only hours source worth trusting — they have already changed once since the relaunch
- The original club ran 2015-2022 and genuinely did close; this is a reopening, not a listing that was never updated
The building on the corner of Martin Luther King Jr Way and West Grand has a bar in it, a kitchen serving oxtail, and a dance floor. Yelp has it listed as closed.
That listing is wrong, and it has been wrong for months.
The part that is true: it did close
The original Starline Social Club opened in 2015 in an 1893 Odd Fellows hall — three storeys, a 400-capacity ballroom on the second floor, a ground-floor sideroom the owners described as a speakeasy. The owners bought the building in 2018, then put it on the market in October 2020 to avoid a foreclosure as the pandemic ground on.
It really did shut. The last show was a New Year's Eve party headlined by Los Rakas on 31 December 2022.
"We have had an amazing run but it is time for new operators to take over the space and create something new for Oakland," Sam White of the club announced at the time.
New operators, three names, one address
They took him at his word. The room was briefly A Capella. New owners took over the following January and opened as Bad Decision in late February 2026. By that May they had reworked the concept, brought in Sistas Wings to run the kitchen and put the old name back up.
Sistas Wings is the reason to eat here rather than only drink: wings, yes, but also oxtail, pork chops and lamb chops.
The programming has moved. Where the old Starline booked rap shows, indie rock and weekly karaoke, the current room runs DJ nights and dance collectives, with Urban Prodigy as resident promoter and recurring nights that carry their own names.
Check the hours before you go
The hours have already changed once. The relaunch ran Wednesday to Saturday from 5pm; the venue's own Instagram bio now reads Wednesday to Saturday, 3pm to 2am or last call, with more days promised. This is a room still deciding what it is, so read the bio rather than any listing.
Nobody told the aggregators. Yelp carries the closed banner and the previous operation's hours. Reddit's most recent thread about the place is two years old. The East Bay food press caught it and almost nobody else did.
For the rest of a night around it: Bar Skula is over by the lake, 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is the Temescal record shop worth an afternoon first, and Heinold's down at the estuary is the other Oakland room that refused to disappear.
Sources: STARLINE — Instagram (@starlinecomplex), read 2026-09-07 for current name, hours and programming, The Oaklandside (Nosh) — Starline renamed, Sistas Wings takes the kitchen (Momo Chang, 6 May 2026), The Oaklandside (Nosh) — Bad Decision takes over A Capella; opened late February 2026, Wed-Sat to 2am (Momo Chang, 7 April 2026), KQED — Starline Social Club to Close at the End of the Year (Kristie Song and Gabe Meline, 17 Dec 2022; closure date, Los Rakas final show, Sam White quote), KQED — End of an Era: Oakland Venue Starline Social Club is On the Market (Oct 2020 listing, building history, 2015 opening, 2018 purchase), Starline Social Club — the previous operation's own About page (building description: 1893 Odd Fellows hall, floor-by-floor capacities, speakeasy sideroom). STALE for hours and status; used only for the building., Yelp — Starline Social Club, still listed CLOSED as of 2026-09-07 (cited as the error the piece corrects, not as a fact source)
