It was set to be Oakland’s coolest new cafe and bar: an acclaimed chef serving top-tier coffee and snacks during the day, then wine to a soundtrack of vinyl records until 2 a.m. It looked like a residential apartment. That’s because it was one.In early March, chef Andres Giraldo Florez opened Upstairs in the second-floor unit above his popular restaurant Snail Bar at 4935 Shattuck Ave. Customers poured in on opening day, posting Instagram selfies while sitting among mismatched pillows on couches and dancing with glasses of wine as the sun set.
Five days later, city officials abruptly shut it down, citing a lack of permits. For weeks leading up to the closure, Florez, city staff and neighbors had been clashing over the unusual proposal to turn a residential apartment into a bar. City staff wrangled with complications such as an ice machine in a bedroom closet and a “problematic” bathtub, according to emails the Chronicle obtained under the Public Records Act. Depending on who you asked, the challenges of Upstairs represented another example of city bureaucracy hampering a small business — or an owner with a history of flouting regulations.
In an interview with the Chronicle, Florez acknowledged that he opened Upstairs without all of the required permits. He was frustrated, he said, by the slog of a city process that left him paying rent without bringing in income for months…