The Alley is a restaurant and piano bar located in the Lake Merritt neighborhood of Oakland, California, in the United States.

San Francisco Chronicle writer Peter Hartlaub describes Dibble's voice as a mix of "Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits on the raspy spectrum."

In the 1980s, Dibble accepted a recurring request, providing "frontier-style" incidental piano accompaniment to the poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", recited by "Tex", a regular patron who said he was a Texas Ranger.

He leads "guitar bar" at The Alley on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and early dinner sets on Fridays and Saturdays.

[10] He covers many styles, from Mick Jagger to Sinatra, and songs he will play for singers range from the standards and the Beatles to contemporary pop by Radiohead and Sublime.

He has released two solo albums and has been praised for his "rural-flavored piano licks" and "definite sense of drama."

Pianist Bryan Seet discovered The Alley in 2016 and began to lead piano bar on Rod Dibble's nights off.

[13] Seet's repertoire extends to contemporary pop music, but he maintains many of the rituals Rod Dibble instituted, particularly passing the microphone around the piano to take your turn, and ringing a 'virgin bell' to celebrate an Alley debut.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when The Alley was forced to shutter for 14 months and faced financial crisis and closure, Seet rallied a group of regulars who raised more than $100,000, ensuring that the bar reopened.

"[13] The Alley has been mentioned in travel and restaurant guides to Oakland and the San Francisco Bay Area.