"We make gochujang, doenjang, ganjang. We make everything," chef-owner Sujin Kim told Berkeleyside about Chez Maeju, the Korean restaurant she opened this fall in the blue building at 6200 Claremont Ave. Those three are jang, the fermented soybean sauces behind Korean cooking. Kim's are made with few ingredients, then aged and kept at 41 degrees Fahrenheit.
The sauces matter because of the corner they sit on. Since 2019, the spot where Claremont meets College has had four different restaurants. Chez Maeju's answer to that turnover is a narrow menu built around fermentation. It also serves ganjang-gejang, a raw marinated crab that, according to Berkeleyside, only two other sit-down restaurants in the East Bay serve. It opened in the same season Wood Tavern started its last months on College Avenue.
Four restaurants in about seven years
Here's the address history, pieced together from local food coverage:
- Momo Ramen was open by July 2019 in the old Ricephoria and Pho U space, according to Berkeleyside. CBS San Francisco reported that the Pho U owners were behind the new ramen concept.
- Haruki, from the same owners, came next and closed after a little over a year, according to The Oaklandside's August 2024 closings roundup.
- Oken, Albert Ok's sit-down restaurant, soft-opened in May 2025. Ok also owns Ok's Deli. The Oaklandside described the menu as contemporary Korean and Japanese food. Its last service was May 31, 2026.
- Chez Maeju soft-opened on September 18, 2026, Rockridge Voice reported.
The gap between Oken's last night and Chez Maeju's first was less than four months. A storefront that refills that quickly at a corner that has seen this much turnover suggests operators keep wanting the address. The corner sits right where Claremont runs into College, and every tenant so far has served Asian food.
What's changed this time is who's running it. Berkeleyside reports that Micah Oh, founder of OMC Hospitality Group, recruited Kim for the space. San Francisco Chronicle critic Cesar Hernandez has called Oh the East Bay's "godmother of Korean restaurants," and her group opened Koryo Wooden Charcoal BBQ and Ohgane. Under the deal, OMC handles operations, staffing and setup, which leaves Kim free to cook. Hoodline describes the same split. Donghyuk "Dustin" Lee, OMC's director of operations, told Berkeleyside he knows the risk of opening where a popular restaurant has closed.
The cook behind the sauces
Kim grew up in Seoul and moved to San Francisco in 1998, where she trained at the city's Le Cordon Bleu branch. She cooked in hotels and corporate dining rooms, then started a catering and meal-kit business called Chez Maejoo in 2013. It cooked for companies including Apple, Netflix and Google. In 2018 she opened Maejoo Korean Restaurant in San Leandro's Pelton Center, known for its Korean fried chicken and bibimbap. It ran until 2022.
Some of her San Leandro regulars have followed her to Rockridge. Lee told Berkeleyside that during the soft opening, quite a few guests had come from Kim's San Leandro restaurant, and they told her they'd been waiting years to eat her food again.
The name is a short summary of the concept. "Chez" refers to Kim's formal training. "Maeju" is the dried fermented soybean that jang is made from. Maejoo in San Leandro had the long comfort-food menu common at Korean restaurants. Chez Maeju goes the other way, with a shorter list of classic Korean dishes and fermentation at the center.
What to order, starting with the crab
Ganjang-gejang is raw crab marinated in soy sauce infused with pear, garlic, ginger and onion. It comes topped with green onion and thin chili threads, with fish roe rice on the side. Berkeleyside traces the dish back as far as the Joseon Dynasty. It also notes that before Chez Maeju, the only East Bay sit-down restaurants serving it were Tuum and Don Blanc, both in Temescal. Rockridge residents now have it a few blocks from home.
The rest of the menu, as Berkeleyside describes it:
- Mung bean pancake: thin, crispy, gluten-free and filled with pork and kimchi.
- Garden crudité and jang trio: organic vegetables served with caramelized apple gochujang, tahini doenjang cream and perilla ssamjang.
- Bossam: pork belly boiled in spices and aromatics, served with lettuce wraps, radish kimchi and house ssamjang.
- Tteokgalbi: grilled beef patties in a ganjang marinade, served with grilled rice cake.
- Tomato and olive kimchi: made without fish sauce, which makes them an option for vegan and vegetarian diners.
- Dessert: vanilla ice cream topped with red bean paste and a fried Korean honey pastry, or sujeonggwa, a chilled cinnamon-ginger punch served with walnut-filled persimmon rolls and pine nuts.
Bulgogi and crispy shrimp-and-pork dumplings round out the familiar side of the menu. Most of the menu is gluten-free, and Kim told Berkeleyside she'll adjust most dishes for allergies and dietary restrictions.
Fitting it into the neighborhood's dinner calendar
Chez Maeju is dinner only for now. It's open Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., and closed Tuesdays. The Oaklandside's September openings roundup said it was taking walk-ins. The kitchen has an eight-person staff, and Kim plans to add lunch later. The current menu is on the Chez Maeju website.
Chez Maeju opens just as the College Avenue restaurant everyone knows is counting down. Rich and Rebekah Wood opened Wood Tavern at 6317 College Ave. in 2007. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that it will close when its lease runs out at the end of 2026. Its own website says, "We'll be here through the end of the year," and asks guests to come for dinner one more time. It hasn't posted an exact final night.
Here's how the nearby dinner options line up from now through spring:
| Address | Restaurant | Status |
|---|---|---|
| 6200 Claremont Ave. | Chez Maeju | Open for dinner, closed Tuesdays |
| 6317 College Ave. | Wood Tavern | Open through the end of 2026, reservations taken |
| 6317 College Ave. | Uncle's, from chef Geoff Davis | Targeting spring 2027 |
| 5415 College Ave. | Gamsa Sushi, chef Dahan Kim | Reported in September as opening that month |
| 5337 College Ave. | Former Pucquio | Listed as available in September |
The Wood Tavern seats are the ones that run out. Its posted hours are Tuesday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., Saturday 3 to 9:30 p.m. and Sunday 3 to 9 p.m. You can book through OpenTable or by calling 510-654-6607. Holiday weekends in its last month are likely to fill first. Chez Maeju has more room. A Tuesday visit doesn't work, but on Sunday and Monday evenings it's one of the few spots on that corner taking walk-ins.
The Oaklandside reported that Geoff Davis's Uncle's will take over the Wood Tavern space, aiming for spring 2027, with partners Zara Fernandez-Aurelio and Seth Corr. Down the avenue, Rockridge Voice reported in September that Gamsa Sushi planned to open at 5415 College Ave., the former UZEN, with omakase and à la carte service. Check its current hours before you walk over. Pucquio served College Avenue for about 13 years before closing this summer. In September, Rockridge Voice listed its space at 5337 College Ave. as available, with no successor named.
Until the end of the year, Rockridge has a longtime restaurant saying goodbye a few blocks from one that just arrived. Wood Tavern is in its final weeks after nearly 20 years. At the corner that has turned over most often, a cook with decades of Bay Area experience is aging her own soybean paste and serving a crab dish you used to have to leave the neighborhood to find.
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