The intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Dimond Avenue is frenetic on a recent Monday in May. The AC transit drivers compete with construction workers to see who can be the loudest. A few feet away from the hissing air brakes, and jack hammers, Club 2101 is quiet. Richard Perez is setting up stools and turning on the bar’s five TV screens. Then he goes about filling the ice chest and prepping the garnish trays with fresh wedges of lime and lemon.
It’s 8:12 a.m. and he’s starting his shift at the neighborhood bar, one of a few in Oakland that open this early.
8:20 a.m.
The dive bar has been in Oakland for eight decades. An Oakland Tribune edition dated Oct. 9, 1941, features a Notice of Hearing for a cabaret license for a place called The 2101 Club. The place appears to have retained “2101” as part of its name through its many iterations. In the 1920s, the bar used to be a store called Hopkins Street Grocereria. The bar is now owned by two brothers, Tony and Danny Duncan. They bought this bar in 2014, and Laurel Lounge, just one neighborhood over, in 2017.
Perez, who was born and raised in Oakland, has a long history with the Duncan brothers, dating back to when the 19-year-old Perez worked at Sportmart — a shuttered sports store in San Leandro — with Danny…