It was the last hour of the last day that Branden Nichols, the owner of Small Change Oyster Bar, was working at his old oyster bar in the food market of his hometown of Martinez, California. A father and his 5-year-old daughter walked in, and it was the daughter’s first time trying an oyster.
Nichols told them it was on the house, shucked the oyster and, for the first time in his oyster-shucking career, found a pearl. He gave it to the daughter to take home.
It’s rare to find a pearl in the kind of oysters that we eat around the Bay, Nichols explained, and this was the only time that Nichols has ever found a pearl so far among the thousands of oysters he’s shucked.
“I thought it was almost like a weird sign that, on my final day shucking at that spot, it was just kind of symbolic that I found a pearl,” Nichols said.
Nichols’ last day at his old oyster bar was on March 30, 2022, and by June of 2022 he signed a lease at a new place in Temescal. He expected to open this new oyster bar right away but delays and other major life events got in the way and he had to keep pushing back the opening date. Now, he expects to finally open the door on his first brick-and-mortar restaurant soon – the back patio is set up for use and he just bought a small row boat to decorate the interior – but still, experience has taught him not to put a firm date on it.
Nichols almost named his new restaurant the Temescal Pearl after finding the pearl on his last day in Martinez, but eventually decided to go with Small Change, a more personal name that pays homage to his grandfather who was a bass fisherman. Small Change was the name of his grandfather’s 24-foot offshore boat. His grandfather originally named the boat Small Change because buying the boat “left small change in his pocket,” plus it was a fun play of words on their last name, Nichols, pronounced like “nickels.”
“He was legit,” Nichols said.
Nichols’s full-time job for the past eight years has been in demolition, specifically the demolition of restaurants. He acknowledged the irony of deciding to open his own restaurant while still working his day job of tearing them down.
“Destroying restaurants doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of experience with building restaurants,” he said.
Nichols became interested in oysters while working for Wilma Lott Catering. He was tasked with running the oyster station at a wedding and was hooked after that.
Starting in 2018, Nichols filled his free time doing oyster pop-ups and occasionally stand-up comedy — he said he doesn’t have any good oyster jokes, but he has always wanted to host an oyster-shucking event called Shuck Yourself. His first pop-up was at Bar Cava at the invite of owner Corey Katz.
“[T]hat’s what I’m excited about. I just want it to be a place where people can come and enjoy themselves and enjoy seafood and just generally have fun.”
Branden Nichols
After hosting many pop-ups, including some at the Punchdown in Oakland and others in Martinez, he was approached and asked to open an oyster bar inside of a public market in Martinez. He jumped on the opportunity, opening the oyster bar in 2021. After five months, he left the market, but he knew his oyster journey wasn’t done.
Right away, he started looking for a new place to open.
“I felt like if I didn’t go get into a new space right away, that it would kind of slip through my fingers and I would just go back to my day-to-day,” Nichols said.
Luckily, partners Matt and Tiffany Lipelt at Allied Demolition, the construction company Nichols works for, knew about his dreams and backed him up, helping him with the financing of his brick-and-mortar spot. The first place that Nichols saw available was the space in Temescal that used to be home to Doña Tomas, now in Piedmont. It happened to be one of Nichols’ favorite restaurants in the Bay, and he still has photos on his phone of past meals and margaritas at Doña Tomas with his mom. He immediately called his broker and got the space. The day after he got into the lease on the location, he found out he was going to be a father. Suddenly, he launched into two major life changes, becoming a restaurant owner and a dad.
It’s funny, he said, that after moving so quickly on the space, it’s been a little less than two years and he still hasn’t been able to open. The delays are due to permitting issues. Nichols did not want to go further into the details and expressed extreme frustration.
Small Change is tentatively slated for a February opening, but Nichols has learned his lesson and refuses to set a specific date.
The years of delays have been hard for Nichols, he’s had to balance opening a restaurant while raising a newborn and working a day job. Financially, he’s been able to make it through by pushing hard at his demolition job.
“If things are thriving in the day job, it helps me kind of get through with the restaurant,” Nichols said.
He started doing pop-ups again as he waited for the permitting process to play out. He said that when he was doing pop-ups frequently, the community response was amazing. At one pop-up at Redfield Cider Bar, there were lines around the corner even though it was raining.
“It was so packed inside, there was no room to even breathe,” Nichols said.
His space on Telegraph is right between Roses’ Taproom and Poppy Bagels. Nichols said he, along with his general manager Martin Guerra and chef Lauryn Dakota Holbert, are most excited to open to just be part of the Temescal neighborhood, which he has been taking the time to get to know during his two years waiting to open.
“I think it’s kind of like that saying, rising tide lifts all ships,” he said. “I think the more things there are to do out here in Temescal, the more people will want to come spend their nights out here. And, that’s what I’m excited about. I just want it to be a place where people can come and enjoy themselves and enjoy seafood and just generally have fun.”
Check out Small Change before they open at their upcoming pop-up at The Punchdown (1737 Broadway in Oakland) on Saturday, Jan. 27 from 4 p.m. to 9 pm. When it opens Small Change Oyster Bar will be at 5000 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland.
