Geoff Davis is moving a working team across Oakland, not only adding another dining room. Nearly four years into Burdell, Davis has named the partners and kitchen lead for Uncle's, his second Oakland restaurant, slated for spring 2027 at 6317 College Avenue in Rockridge. Zara Fernandez-Aurelio, who runs logistics and operations for Burdell, will become a partner. Seth Corr, Burdell's wine and service lead, will also become a partner. Brandon Cavazos, Burdell's chef de cuisine, will move over to run the Uncle's kitchen. The hands are named before the room opens (Eater1).
Uncle's will take over the Wood Tavern space after that restaurant closes at the end of 2026, Eater SF reports. Davis is building Uncle's as a bar and grill rather than a steakhouse or supper club, with wood fire, cocktails, wine, oysters, martinis, and steaks cut from picanha, coulotte, and hanger (Eater1).
Davis is choosing his language carefully
Davis is trying to reclaim what a bar and grill can mean. Eater reports that he calls Uncle's a "classic restaurant," but he does not want steakhouse or supper club to define the place before the first service. His term is bar and grill, a phrase worn thin by years of interchangeable dining rooms. Davis is trying to pull it back toward a room where the grill matters, the bar matters, and the wine list sits close to both.
"We're trying to reclaim what a bar and grill is," Davis told Eater. "I think that went out of fashion, but that's really what it is: It's a wood-fired grill, and good cocktails, and good wine. [Uncle's is] a little bit more ambitious than just a neighborhood restaurant."
There is tension in that sentence. Davis wants a place where a diner can return to a go-to dish, add sides, start with a classic appetizer, and order a classic cocktail that fits the room, he told Eater. Too little structure, and the form collapses into nostalgia. Too much polish, and the word grill loses its use. Davis centers the work on a wood-fired grill, steaks of several kinds, cocktails, and wine. In a restaurant built around that station, the discipline lives in heat management, timing, resting, slicing, and the way a kitchen chooses cuts that reward attention rather than menu status.
Davis and his team inherit a room with nearly 20 years of service
Davis and his partners will take over the Wood Tavern space at 6317 College Avenue, according to Eater. Wood Tavern will close at the end of 2026 after nearly a 20-year run. For Rockridge diners, that timing gives the address a long handoff rather than an abrupt vacancy: one restaurant closes after its last year of service, Davis and his team begin work toward a spring 2027 opening (Eater1).
College Avenue gives the story its public face, but the more important fact is continuity of use. Davis and his team are not moving into a blank box. They are inheriting a room with a known dining rhythm and asking it to speak in another register. A restaurant room that has held almost two decades of service carries habits, memory, and expectation. Regulars know where they liked to sit. Servers know the turns. Cooks remember pressure points in a kitchen even after a concept changes.
Eater reports that Alex Spatzier Architects will work on the restaurant design, while Davis is working with landlord John Chalik on upgrades to the space. Food & Wine, cited by Eater, described the intended aesthetic as timeless-meets-1970s. The more useful detail is that Davis has named the room as part of the craft, not merely the container. A bar and grill depends on dwell time: the length of a martini at the bar, the pause between oysters and pasta, the second drink after a steak has been cut and shared (Eater1).
For visitors tracking the opening, the coordinates are simple for now: Uncle's, 6317 College Avenue, Oakland, spring 2027. No reservation platform or booking window was included in Eater's report. The move is to watch Davis's Oakland circle as the closing of Wood Tavern approaches at the end of 2026 and the handoff begins (Eater1).
What Davis is putting on the Uncle's menu
Davis is choosing cuts that ask for a different kind of attention than a trophy steak. Eater reports that Uncle's will serve steaks, but Davis told Food & Wine that he is interested in "lesser-loved cuts of beef," including picanha, coulotte, and hanger steak. Picanha carries its cap. Coulotte rewards slicing across the grain. Hanger has long belonged to cooks who know how quickly it can move from pleasure to chew if handled without care.
Those choices also clarify what Davis means by not building a steakhouse. A steakhouse often sells hierarchy by the cut. Davis, at least in his stated plan, points toward appetite and craft: the pleasure of a cut that comes off the grill with purpose, the side dish that earns its place, the cocktail that belongs before the plate arrives rather than after the check is opened.
Davis will also serve oysters, Italian American pasta dishes including rigatoni alla vodka, and martinis. Eater notes that a Burdell Valentine's Day pop-up, called the Tavern, served as a preview of the direction. That pop-up included a tableside Caesar or chopped salad, clams casino pasta with herb linguine, seared pork chops for two with pan jus, loaded potatoes, and creamed spinach.
There is a service lesson in that preview. Tableside Caesar changes the pace of a meal because someone has to stop at the table and work bench-side. Pork chops for two require the kitchen to think in shared portions and resting time. Creamed spinach and loaded potatoes are not decorative sides when a grill is at the center of the room; they carry salt, fat, heat, and the memory of a certain American restaurant grammar. Davis is not hiding those references. He is choosing them.
He is also trying to keep the occasion within reach. "There's a way to go and have dinner for a reasonable price, and come on a Wednesday night and not have it feel like it's a steakhouse kind of occasion," Davis told Eater. "You don't have to take out a loan." No prices have been announced, so that sentence should be read as intent rather than tariff. The test will come later, on the menu.
Davis moves from Burdell's matriarchs to Uncle's family table
Burdell remains the reference point because it is where Davis's current Oakland audience learned his hand. Eater describes Burdell as known for produce-driven soul food that celebrates Davis's family matriarchs and their food, citing Food & Wine. Nearly four years after opening that restaurant, Davis is turning toward another branch of family memory: his fondness for spending time with his uncles.
That shift changes the archive. At Burdell, the lineage Davis named in the source runs through matriarchs and soul food, with produce as a central discipline. At Uncle's, the memory moves toward a bar-and-grill format, classic cocktails, wood fire, wine, and food that can sit between oysters, pasta, steaks, and sides. Davis is not disowning the first restaurant. He is building a second room from a different set of family cues.
He told Eater that cooking soul food can come with limitations, including limitations in how people perceive it. "I've decided to show off more range... My background really is in more classic stuff like this, and I worked at a lot of French- and Italian-leaning places. So I think being able to flex those muscles is good."
The quote gives Uncle's a clearer craft lineage than a concept board could. Davis worked in French- and Italian-leaning kitchens, and those places leave marks on a cook: sauce work, pasta timing, the discipline of a composed plate, the habit of building a meal through courses rather than a single centerpiece. The line stops there. What can be said is that Uncle's gives Davis a format where those muscles can surface without forcing Burdell to carry every part of his background.
Fernandez-Aurelio, Corr, and Cavazos step into ownership and kitchen leadership
The most important succession inside Uncle's may be internal. Fernandez-Aurelio, Corr, and Cavazos are not appearing as vague support around a chef-owner. Eater names their roles. Fernandez-Aurelio runs logistics and operations for Burdell and will become a partner in Uncle's. Corr leads wine and service at Burdell and will become a partner. Cavazos, Burdell's chef de cuisine, will move to Uncle's to run the kitchen.
That distribution tells you how Davis is building the restaurant before the room opens. Operations has a seat at the ownership table. Wine and service has a seat too. The kitchen has continuity through Cavazos, a chef already working inside the Burdell system, now taking charge of a different station and a different grammar of food. The Uncle's Oakland restaurant story is also a promotion structure made public.
For a bar and grill, that structure is not incidental. The format asks the dining room to do heavy lifting. A martini program only works if Corr and his service team understand temperature, timing, and repetition. A wine program attached to wood-fired beef has to think about smoke, fat, salt, and the customer who may want one glass on a Wednesday rather than a bottle for a celebration. Fernandez-Aurelio's operations will decide whether the restaurant can feel easy without becoming loose.
Cavazos's move is just as telling. A chef de cuisine stepping from Burdell into the Uncle's kitchen gives Davis a trusted hand on the pass while allowing the second restaurant to develop its own habits. The menu preview suggests a kitchen that will need to handle raw bar pacing, pasta pickup, grill work, shared proteins, sides, and classic appetizers under one roof. That is a lot of stations for a word as plain as grill.
What to watch before spring 2027
The next hard date is the end of 2026, when Wood Tavern is expected to close after nearly 20 years, according to Eater. After that comes the buildout, the transfer of the address into a new identity, and the announcements diners will need: reservations, hours, opening menu, bar seats, wine direction, and whether Davis and his team offer any preview meals before the first public service.
Until then, the available facts are enough to mark the shape of the project. Davis will open Uncle's, a Rockridge bar and grill, in spring 2027 at 6317 College Avenue. He has named Fernandez-Aurelio and Corr as partners, and Cavazos as kitchen lead. The restaurant will carry wood-fired steaks, cocktails, wine, oysters, rigatoni alla vodka, and martinis.
The restaurant to watch is the one that forms between those facts: Davis leaving room for family memory without repeating Burdell, a nearly 20-year College Avenue space changing hands, and a working team from one Oakland kitchen taking on a grill, a bar, and a new nightly rhythm.
