Oakland’s downtown has been slow to recover from the pandemic. Longterm restaurants such as Calavera, Luka’s Taproom and Parlour have closed. Before the Oakland Restaurant Marketing Collective (ORMC) officially formed this year, Nelson German and Luigi DiRuocco decided they wanted to take action. Both of their respective businesses—alaMar Dominican Kitchen and the Caffè by Mr. Espresso—have been affected by the lack of foot traffic. And in German’s case, by crime. Burglars broke into Alamar twice earlier this year in May, along with two Old Oakland restaurants, La Guerrera’s Kitchen and T’Chaka.       German and DiRuocco initially planned a mixer at the start of the year to lift people’s spirits and connect local business owners. When German, who also owns Sobre Mesa, and I spoke in January, he mentioned that Nigel Jones, the owner/chef of nearby Kingston 11, had held meetings with city leaders to start conversations about the difficulties facing Oakland business owners. At the time German said, “I’ve done a lot of these interviews talking about what’s going on, and it’s definitely been way more challenging than it ever was in the past.” Kaiser Permanente had also made headlines that month for sending out an employee memo encouraging its Oakland employees to avoid going out to lunch due to safety concerns. In September, DiRuocco told me that his reaction to that news was, “This is a terrible look for Oakland, right?” From his vantage point, the headlines ignored the view on the ground. “When you come into the Caffè on any given day of the week, you see normalcy. You see life happening,” he said. On Sept. 19 a group of ORMC’s founding members, including Parche, Left Bank and Acre, met for a second time at Sobre Mesa “to form a powerful collective that supports Oakland’s vibrant dining scene.” While the organization won’t solve any of Oakland’s ongoing problems with optimistic newsletters and social media posts, German and DiRuocco and the other founding members have partnered with af&co., Andrew Freeman’s Bay Area marketing and PR firm. Andrew Freeman addresses the crowd at Sobre Mesa on Sept. 19. (Photo courtesy of af&co.) Freeman’s involvement with ORMC is a passion project. “When the pandemic hit, I experienced it the way every restaurant did,” he said. Overnight, his company went from 25 employees down to two. Freeman, who is on the board of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Restaurant Association (GGRA), said it “saved a lot of restaurants in the pandemic.” Still in its infancy, ORMC doesn’t have the same resources as GGRA yet but it has a nearby organization after which it can model itself.  “In every bone in my body, I don’t want to see the restaurant industry fall apart,” Freeman said. “But we can’t just say, ‘Oakland’s great. We have all the best restaurants in town so come out, park your car and don’t worry about it.’” The organization plans, among other things, to hire an advocate who can work directly with the city government and the police department. “I can handle the marketing and PR, but we need a person who not only helps us manage this initiative but also is our voice,” he said. DiRuocco noted that ORMC has received helpful guidance from Visit Oakland and the Oakland Hospitality Committee. “Peter Gamez [President and CEO of Visit Oakland] has been very supportive of our cause,” DiRuocco said. Visit Oakland organizes the annual Oakland Restaurant Week, an event that encourages Bay Area diners to check out the city’s range of dining options, from food trucks to Michelin-starred restaurants.  “We’ve also been in touch with Charlese Banks, of The Town Experience,” DiRuocco said. “She created the Oakland Hospitality Committee.” Her organization is responsible for the campaign, “Oakland Is Better In Person.” DiRuocco added, “We’re kind of an offshoot of that idea, that dining out is better in person.” Freeman said, “Everybody knows that Oakland is one of the most-watched cities as it relates to culinary innovation. We’re going to be working on how to make people feel more comfortable coming out.”