Southie Rockridge, Oakland Website $9-$20 Readers, this is the first of several posts I have planned on my favorite haunts around the Bay Area. It has been too long since I’ve done restaurant, cocktail, and specialty shop reviews, and I miss them. These posts will generally be cumulative ones spanning my experience over several months
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Farmhouse Kitchen Thai Cuisine 336 Webster Street Jack London Square Oakland, CA Fill ‘er up from $12 to $24 Website Last week, I attended the celebration party for the soft opening of Farmhouse Kitchen Thai Cuisine in Oakland, the newest restaurant from chef and owner Kasem “Pop” Saengsawang. Obligatory disclaimer: That means everything I’m writing
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Farley’s East (33 Grand Ave) has been a fixture of Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood for eight years now, and after the space next door opened up, owners Chris and Amy Hillyard jumped at the chance to expand the shop. Especially as the purchase would mean that Farley’s East would finally acquire a full kitchen! Yes, it’s
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Stay.Com is a mobile travel guide with a beautiful interface that I’m thrilled to be featured on! That fancy new badge you see on the right side of the screen, or bottom of the screen if you’re on your phone, announces me as a Stay.Com local expert. The company recruits culinary professionals and new media
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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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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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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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