"He was like, 'Bro, this is your kitchen. This is where you started your first takeout. Come back.'" Chef Eric Rivera told KQED that this is how the owner of Two Star Market reached him in September. Rivera's East Oakland restaurant had just been damaged by a fire, and the small kitchen inside the convenience store at 2020 MacArthur Boulevard happened to need a new tenant.
The neighborhood ends up with a homecoming. Puerto Rican Street Cuisine was scheduled to reopen on Saturday, Oct. 3, in the same corner-store kitchen where Rivera's first restaurant, Borinquen Soul, got its start more than a decade ago. The kitchen counter at MacArthur and Cañon has been one of the neighborhood's steadiest places to eat. The cooks have changed. The store that keeps the counter going has not.
A Counter That Has Changed Hands, Not Purpose
Few restaurant addresses in Oakland have a lineup like this one, and it all fits inside a convenience store.
- 2015: Borinquen Soul moves in. The East Bay Express reported that Borinquen Soul took over Two Star Market's food operation in 2015 after starting as a food truck. Co-founders Eric Rivera and Christopher Caraballo built the business, with Caraballo as head chef, and the menu ran to arroz con gandules, pernil, pasteles and plantains. KQED later dated that run to 2015 through 2017.
- 2025: Dimond Kitchen and late-night soul food. In March 2025, KQED profiled Dimond Kitchen, chef-owner Carl Bolling's counter in the same store. It served fried chicken wings, smothered pork chops, garlic shrimp, oxtails, candied yams, jalapeño mac and cheese, dirty rice and collard greens, open until midnight Friday through Sunday. The counter closed later in 2025.
- Fall 2026: Puerto Rican Street Cuisine comes home. Rivera has signed a lease to stay at Two Star Market for at least a year, according to KQED.
Each of these was a full restaurant identity working out of a corner-store kitchen. Each drew people from beyond the immediate blocks: KQED described Dimond Kitchen as some of the Bay Area's best soul food, and Borinquen Soul was a food truck that found a permanent home here. Rivera describes the weekend crowds at his newer 23rd Avenue location the same way. "On weekends, customers would come all the way from Watsonville and Redding," he told KQED.
Why the Call Came From the Store
The reason this kitchen keeps landing serious cooks lies with the family that owns the building. Two Star Market has been run by the Alawdi family for decades. The Oaklandside reported that the store opened nearly two decades before 2002, which puts its founding by Ali Alawdi Sr. in the 1980s. His son Farouq Alawdi runs it today.
When the kitchen went quiet, the owner was already looking for a new tenant. KQED reports that once he heard about the fire at Rivera's restaurant, he reached out right away. He went back to a cook with history at the address, a menu the neighborhood already knew, and catering orders that needed a home.
Those catering orders matter. KQED notes that finding a kitchen this quickly meant Rivera would not have to cancel the dozens of catering gigs already booked for the coming months. Repairs at the 23rd Avenue flagship, at 1430 23rd Ave., will take at least six to eight months before he can think about reopening there. For now, the Dimond counter is where Oakland's only full-fledged Puerto Rican restaurant operates.
What's on the Counter Now
The kitchen is small, but Rivera told KQED he planned to offer close to the full Puerto Rican Street Cuisine menu:
- Combo plates, including the pollo encebollado, grilled chicken with caramelized onions, over white rice or yellow rice with pigeon peas
- Pernil, the crispy-skinned roast pork, every day the restaurant is open
- Alcapurrias, the stuffed plantain fritters
- Puerto Rican–style empanadas
- Pasteles for the holidays
The opening plan included a free empanadilla with the purchase of a combo plate. KQED listed hours of roughly noon to midnight six days a week, closed either Sunday or Monday, with exact hours still to be set. The Oaklandside's late-September roundup also listed the Oct. 3 opening as upcoming. We haven't seen coverage confirming the final schedule since then, so check the restaurant's Instagram for the closed day before you walk over.
Midnight hours make sense in a store that stays open late. KQED reports that Rivera planned to keep the kitchen open for night owls for exactly that reason. That puts a late-night plate of pernil back on MacArthur where Dimond Kitchen once served oxtails.
The Store's Biggest Meal Is Nov. 26
The same family instinct that brought Rivera back runs the Dimond's best-known community meal. In 2002, the Alawdis started a free Thanksgiving feast at the store. The Oaklandside traced it to Farouq Alawdi's grandfather in Yemen, who invited people into his home for meals throughout Ramadan. The family chose Thanksgiving to carry that tradition forward in Oakland "because everyone is off," Alawdi told the outlet, and the Dimond Improvement Association, neighbors and customers helped from the start.
The growth is easiest to see year by year. According to The Oaklandside:
The first year, they cooked 20 turkeys and, at most, 50 people showed up. Since then, the event has kept growing, simmering into something richer each year. Last year, they cooked 100 turkeys, served over 1,000 plates, and some 600-700 people attended.
That "last year" was 2024, when more than 200 people volunteered. For 2025, the family expected more than 1,000 guests. The store provides 80 to 90 percent of the food, and the menu goes well past turkey to pizza, Middle Eastern rice, barbecue chicken, spaghetti and kebabs, with volunteers adding a new side each year. "It's for anyone who wants to have a good Thanksgiving meal with the neighborhood or with strangers," Alawdi told The Oaklandside.
This year is the 24th. A GoFundMe page created Sept. 16 lists the free celebration for Thursday, Nov. 26, from noon to 4 p.m. at 2020 MacArthur Blvd. The store accepts canned food and clothing during regular business hours, and the fundraiser covers supplies and furniture rental. It will also be the first Thanksgiving with Puerto Rican Street Cuisine back in the kitchen since its Borinquen Soul days, in the season Rivera has said he'll be making pasteles.
The Rest of the Fall Along MacArthur
The corner store is one piece of a stretch of MacArthur where neighborhood groups do much of the organizing. The Dimond Improvement Association and the Dimond Merchants Association presented Oaktoberfest at Fruitvale Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard on Oct. 3 and 4, the same weekend Rivera's counter was set to open. Coming up:
- Keep Dimond Clean, a Dimond Improvement Association program, is on the City of Oakland calendar for Wednesday, Oct. 14, at 2055 MacArthur Blvd., across the street from Two Star.
- Friends of Dimond Park has volunteer mornings on Saturdays Oct. 17, Nov. 21 and Dec. 19, from 9 to 11 a.m., meeting at the Historical Scout Hut.
- Dimond Halal Eatery opened July 25 a block up at 2129 MacArthur Blvd., serving wings, burgers and steak hoagies. The Oaklandside's Nosh reported it as a revamp by the owners of the former Mohka Kitchen, which served shawarma and other Middle Eastern dishes.
On a busy Saturday, the Dimond Park cleanup ends at 11 a.m., and Two Star's kitchen is scheduled to open around noon.
A corner like MacArthur and Cañon shapes how a part of Oakland feels to live in, and it's the kind of local detail we talk through when Dimond-area owners ask what their home is worth today. If you're curious where your place stands, Teri Carlisle & Alexandra Dierkx would be glad to put together a complimentary home valuation, with neighborhood context that goes beyond the comps.
