Brotzeit Lokal is memorable for more than being a mouthful to pronounce. We all love beer gardens, right? So what makes a beer garden even better? A beautiful view! You can see it from inside the tinted glass walls of Brotzeit’s dining room, but the open-air patio is where that beer garden pull is strongest.
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You may have noticed my recent post on Telegraph Beer Garden? I went there to gather info for my new Localwise article: 4 Beer Gardens in the East Bay with Extra Bang for Your Buck! You can head over and read that article now, but I also have full reviews here on the other beer
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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked past Telegraph Beer Garden and never been entirely sure there’s anything there. That’s because I’m usually trekking into downtown Oakland a little before their weekday hours begin, so all I see is a big, black gate, a peeling sign, and a few windows I can’t peer
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I’ve stopped in to take a break at this coffee shop a number of times now, on my way to some errand or another downtown. The interior is sparse, a simple collection of tables and white walls, though the entrance and coffee counter greet customers with soft, mint-chip green. It opens early (6 am) and
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Ba-Bite is an order at the counter, casual restaurant specializing in Middle Eastern comfort food. The name is a play on the Hebrew word babait, which evokes home cooking. Mica Talmor, the executive chef and co-owner of Ba-Bite and Savoy Events catering company along with her husband Robert Gott, is an Isreali-Jewish woman and most
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Wood Tavern is a near universally acclaimed restaurant in north Oakland, at least among my circles. It’s upscale in terms of prices and dish sophistication, although the atmosphere is casual, assuming casual is what you’d call elbow-to-elbow lack of space and sucking in your stomach so you don’t knock over the neighboring diner’s wine glass
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Starter Bakery, have I loved. So much so that I focused on them for my post last month at the Localwise blog. In it, I talk with owner Brian Wood about the wholesale bakery business, and just what he thinks makes his pastries and his employees stand out. For it, I got to try several
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Late January, I went to the inaugural, and soon to be monthly, rooftop night market hosted at one of Port Workspaces new venues at the Kaiser Center in downtown Oakland. Located at 344 Thomas L. Berkley Way, the coworking organization was in the midst of creating a fun, whimsical, hub of offices on the first
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  Phat Matt’s BBQ is an Oakland favorite for the quality and variety of smoked barbecue served. It’s a family-run restaurant, the type where the owners are happy to guide you through the menu of six standard meat preparations. A rotating special appears every week — it’s smoked pastrami according to their website right now,
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I know very little about Tibetan Buddhism, except that I love their beautiful prayer flags. Is it any wonder High Peaks Kitchen catches my eye every time I walk down College Ave? As the menu explains, High Peaks Kitchen is owned and run by Tibetan exiles who learned how to cook a diverse range of
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