In September, sandwich boards went up around Montclair Village advertising a restaurant called Piggie's. They were set out on the sidewalks for a mother-daughter bistro with ties to Daughter Thai, which was getting ready to open behind Safeway in the space Pagarung Thai had just left, according to the East Bay Times.
In that space, one family-run Asian kitchen is taking over from another. Around the corner on Antioch Court, a banh mi shop is moving in where a sandwich shop used to be, and CVS is moving across Mountain Boulevard into the bigger store a pharmacy left behind. Montclair Village has lost a lot of storefronts in 2026, and the ones refilling quickly are the ones where the next tenant does roughly what the last one did. The ones that would need a different kind of business are harder to fill.
Behind Safeway, One Family Kitchen Follows Another
Pagarung Thai Cuisine at 6200 Antioch St. had closed for good by early August, Berkeleyside reported. It served curries, summer rolls, soups and fried rice. By September 1, the East Bay Times reported a new restaurant application on file for the site. A month later, the new tenant was close to opening.
That tenant is Piggie's. Alex Piyapanee, a bartender and sommelier who spent 11 years at Daughter Thai, runs it with her mother, Nat Kongthai, who has a hotel background and wrote many of the recipes, the East Bay Times reported on October 6. Piyapanee expects her mother's morning porridge to become a signature dish. It's a savory oatmeal with assorted mushrooms. An Asian braised pork dish is also on the menu, and the name is a nod to the fact that both women were born in the year of the pig.
The plan was brunch and dinner, Tuesday through Sunday, starting in mid-October. At that point a Fire Department inspection was the only thing left, and Piyapanee told the paper it was the one step that could push the opening back. Check the restaurant's own channels before you plan a Sunday brunch there.
The fast handoff makes sense. A space that already has a working restaurant kitchen can be taken over by someone ready to cook from day one. It also helps that a well-known local team took it.
The Same Swap on Antioch Court and Mountain Boulevard
The Piggie's handoff isn't the only one. The same like-for-like trade is happening up and down the Village.
| Space | Previous tenant | What's next | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6200 Antioch St. | Pagarung Thai Cuisine | Piggie's, Asian American brunch and dinner | Aiming for mid-October, pending fire inspection |
| Antioch Court | Grinders | Go Banh Mi, Vietnamese sandwiches | Walk-up service reported as coming soon, no date |
| 1991 Mountain Blvd. | Rite Aid, closed July 2025 | CVS Pharmacy | Move expected by December |
| 2059 Mountain Blvd. | Highwire Coffee | Highwire Coffee | Reopened by July 2026 |
Grinders, at 2069 Antioch Ct., closed when its owner retired after 35 years, The Oaklandside reported in May. By September 1, the East Bay Times reported that the space was slated for Go Banh Mi. It's the same format in the same footprint: a counter where people order sandwiches to go.
The CVS move is the biggest swap by square footage. Rite Aid gave up its 27,000-square-foot store at 1991 Mountain Blvd. in July 2025 as part of a bankruptcy liquidation. CVS has leased it. In mid-September the lights were on, merchandise was going onto the shelves, and the move was expected to wrap up by December, according to the East Bay Times. In mid-October, CVS's store locator still listed the current store at 2000 Mountain Blvd. as open. Earlier, staff had cleared out the middle of the cramped store to make the pharmacy in the back easier to reach, the paper reported in July. That cramped layout is the problem a 27,000-square-foot space across the street solves.
The quickest refill was the coffee shop that reopened as itself. Highwire Coffee at 2059 Mountain Blvd. shut down in March, The Oaklandside reported, and by July it was serving coffee and pastries every day again, under manager Vinn McIntosh.
The Harder Spaces Are the Ones Without an Obvious Successor
A Great Good Place for Books, at 6120 La Salle Ave., closed on Sunday, June 14. Debi Echlin and Helen Talley founded it in 1997, and Kathleen Caldwell took over in 2005, The Oaklandside reported. Over the years it hosted author events, Harry Potter parties, and a book club that had been meeting for a decade. Among the factors in Village foot traffic, Caldwell told the outlet she saw a drop after Oakland began enforcing Sunday parking meters.
An independent bookstore can't be swapped like a kitchen. The shelving, the events calendar, and the customer base built over nearly 30 years don't carry over to another business.
Having a kitchen doesn't settle everything, either. Perle Bar at 2058 Mountain Blvd. had switched to a California-Vietnamese concept in 2025 and closed after about a year under the Perle name, Berkeleyside reported. By mid-September, its old outdoor dining parklet had become a canvas for public art instead of a restaurant patio.
Then there's the vacancy the CVS move will create. Once the pharmacy is across the street, its smaller space at 2000 Mountain Blvd. will be empty, as the East Bay Times pointed out. It's a mid-size retail box on the Village's main street, and it doesn't have an obvious like-for-like successor.
The Village Association Is Painting the Gaps
The Montclair Village Association isn't leaving the empty frontage blank. The former Perle parklet has been repainted with a wildflower mural as part of Montclair Blooms, a community-led public art project. Montclair artists Minnie Bredouw, Nivi Ramesh Brett, Ophelia Ding and Stephanie Lewis painted it. Daniel Swafford, the association's executive director, told the East Bay Times the goal is for more public art to "sprout up" in the Village to draw business and bring the community together. The idea comes from cities like Copenhagen. The murals feature Indian Paintbrush, California Tidytips, Lupine and other native plants, and volunteer and donation details are expected on montclairvillage.com.
New services are also moving into existing storefronts without a vacancy in between. Healthy Life Vitamins at 6130 Medau Place added a wellness suite with an infrared sauna, red-light therapy, aromatherapy and a massage chair, the paper reported in August. When an existing business grows within its own space, there's no vacancy to fill in the first place.
Halloween Weekend Runs Through These Same Blocks
The Village's biggest fall event will pass right by these storefronts. On Sunday, October 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Montclair Village Association hosts its free, all-ages Halloween Fun at Village Plaza. There will be a DJ, face painting, crafts, a haunted house and games, plus trick-or-treating at the farmers market and Village shops. The association will post the list of participating businesses closer to the date.
The same weekend has events up the hill in Piedmont:
- Saturday, October 24, 4 to 9 p.m. Piedmont Boosters' annual Oktoberfest at Piedmont Community Center.
- Sunday, October 25, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Halloween Fun at Montclair Village Plaza.
- Sunday, October 25, 4 to 5 p.m. "Mad Scenes," part of the Salon Series at Piedmont Center for the Arts, 801 Magnolia Ave., with sopranos Aura Veruni and Lila Khazoum and pianist Daniel Lockert.
That Sunday makes a good walking loop through the Village. Start at the plaza, pass the Antioch Street storefront where Piggie's should be serving brunch if the inspection came through, walk by the wildflower murals, and take a look at the former Rite Aid on Mountain Boulevard, where CVS is getting ready to move in. If you're new to the area, our Montclair Village guide and Piedmont and Montclair neighborhood page cover the rest of the week.
Storefront changes like these are part of what's included in a home's value in the hills around the Village, from the walk to coffee to which corner gets its next tenant. If you'd like to know what your home is worth in today's Montclair and Piedmont market, The Knapp Team offers a no-obligation free home valuation, prepared with the same street-level attention.
