New Antioch restaurant tries to find winning recipe

Deborah Nickelson, of Antioch, is the new owner of Scends Deux restaurant in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Nickelson is taking over the Bases Loaded restaurant at the corner of G street and West 4th street. The original Scends restaurant is located in Emeryville and has been in business for more than 18 years. Nickelson will have a grand opening on Aug. 30th. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

ANTIOCH -- A new restaurant is on deck to open at the former Bases Loaded location in downtown Antioch, with a new operator who believes her family's time-tested menu and experience in the industry will be the recipe for success that has so far eluded this spot.

Debora Nickelson's Cajun-soul food eatery, Scends Deux, is slated for a soft opening on Saturday and a grand opening on Aug. 30.

No stranger to the Bay Area food scene, Nickelson is naming her new venture after her family's successful Emeryville restaurant, Scends, which her grandmother opened in 1957.

"I'm bringing the kitchen with me," she said recently, describing the chicken wings, fried catfish and red beans and rice that have kept diners satisfied for decades.

The Bases Loaded restaurant is under new ownership and will now be called Scends Deux in Antioch, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 4, 2014. Deborah Nickelson, of Antioch, is taking over the Bases Loaded restaurant at the corner of G street and West 4th street. The original Scends restaurant is located in Emeryville and has been in business for more than 18 years. Nickelson will have a grand opening on Aug. 30th. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

The menu is a change from the pub fare and smoked meats that previous operators had served at Bases Loaded, and it's a type of food Nickelson said she has had a tough time finding since moving to Antioch earlier this year.

And apparently she's not the only one: Nickelson said Scends has many loyal patrons who make the trek to Emeryville from Antioch, Pittsburg and Brentwood to dine there, and she is confident that Scends Deux already has a local customer base.

"The reception we've been getting -- this place is going to be busy, busy, busy," she said recently, seated at one of the plush booths that remains in the nearly turnkey building.

Nickelson had already been scouting for a restaurant space in East County when the most recent Bases Loaded operators, John and Penny Hicks, closed their doors in May. It was then that Antioch officials connected her with the property's owner and first occupant, Terry Karp, who was eager to lease to a new tenant.

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New Antioch restaurant tries to find winning recipe