Opening a restaurant had been a lifelong dream for Oakland, California, resident Sequoia Del Hoyo. When other kids were playing house, she was playing restaurant. She took any opportunity to set a table, handpicking flowers from the garden to display alongside her mother’s floral tea set.

she opts for crisp white or matte-black dinnerware “so that the colors of the food really have a chance to shine on their own without getting muddled against the backdrop,” she says." layout="" credit="Photo by Lindsey Shea" photoUserId=""/>

In her twenties, Sequoia loved hosting her friends, playing music all night and capping it all off with a large meal at the end. Food was, in fact, her love language. Unsurprisingly, when she met her ex-husband, who also fantasized about being a restauranteur, it had all felt “very meant to be,” she says. “And we were a great team.”

It took three years for the couple to find the perfect location for a joint venture: a little art deco diner in East Oakland’s Laurel District. In 2015, Sequoia Diner opened its doors, riding a small wave of hip, new openings in the neighborhood. It quickly gained traction as a trendy, community-oriented brunch spot with freshly baked goods, strong coffee, and earthy dishes like red flannel hash. Lines soon formed on the weekends, and the diner put Laurel on the map in a way that other institutions had not.

“When we opened the diner, we were not yet living in the neighborhood,” says Sequoia, “so we asked what people wanted and listened. We did what we could to give back to the neighborhood and serve its people—not just take up space for other folks to come and visit. That’s an important differentiation.”

The Bay Area native first moved to Oakland in 2004, when she was 20 years old. Sequoia calls her relationship with the city a love story: “Like most cities, Oakland has gone through lots of changes through the last two decades. But what I’ve found to be true is that the most important thing you can do to respect your city, to be in community with its people. Get involved. Talk to your neighbors. Look out for one another. Take care of your soil.”

"Because we are a family who loves to pile on the couch, it was a must-have. I love that practically the entire sofa is washable.”" layout="bleed" credit="Photo by Lindsey Shea" photoUserId=""/>

Then the pandemic hit. For Sequoia, as it was with many, it was a time of tumultuous change, including a divorce, a move, and her eventual departure from the restaurant.

The diner had begun offering a takeout-only menu, but Sequoia found that patrons were requesting healthy, ready-to-eat meals delivered to their homes. “People were reaching out to me on Instagram, asking for recipes of dishes that I made for myself and for my family,” she recalls. That’s when she branched off and started Tarocco, a Mediterranean-inspired meal delivery service.

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“I strongly identify with my Catalan heritage and tend to eat a very Mediterranean-inspired diet,” says Sequoia. “I also happen to be celiac, so Tarocco was both plant-forward Mediterranean and gluten-free from conception.” Now, she’s working on building a team and transitioning the business from “side hustle to a full-blown hustle.”

For nearly a year now, Sequoia has been settling into a charming, 1,000-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment in the city’s Grand Lake neighborhood, where she lives with her partner, Jason Tanaka. “Between my Catalan heritage and my partner’s Japanese heritage, we have settled into a really sweet balance of Mediterranean wabi-sabi,” she says. The home itself seems “European in the way that you enter on one side of the house and then walk through each room to get to the other side,” she adds. “It feels like a story unfolding.”

Sequoia admits that her favorite part of decorating is that it never truly ends. While she occasionally brings in elements that she only absolutely loves, she holds herself to a one-in, one-out rule: “This helps me make sure I really want something before I take the plunge. It also helps keep things fresh.”

Now that she’s no longer at the restaurant, Sequoia’s days look quite different. Her mornings start with chasing her four-year-old son around to get him ready for school. Then, she makes a pot of Earl Grey tea, followed by 15 minutes of yoga and 15 minutes of meditation before she works from home.

“I spend most of my days menu planning, marketing, shopping for ingredients and materials, responding to emails, and coming up with new inspiration,” she says. “I use dinner as a way to try out new ideas that pop into my head. And I love to end the day with lots of snuggles—and Antiques Roadshow.”

“I love to sit at the dining table with the windows open so I can see the bougainvillea outside, and listen to the birds chirping. The record player is in the dining room too, so it’s where we gather and talk about our day, and brainstorm ideas.”

“I love to sit here with the windows open, so I can see the bougainvillea outside and listen to the birds chirping,” she says. “The record player is in the dining room, too, so it’s where we gather and talk about our days, and brainstorm ideas.”" layout="" credit="Photo by Lindsey Shea" photoUserId=""/>

The relaxed home with its abundance of flowing fabrics, rustic wood accents, and emphasis on food and music is a true sanctuary for the hostess at heart, who describes the typical scene: “an album spinning, candles lit, and something simmering in my orange Le Creuset Dutch oven.”

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My House: Amid a Pandemic, a Restaurateur Rebuilds Her Career and Life in Oakland