Friday, June 24, 2011

Weekend Eats & Drinks 6/24

It's light this weekend, perhaps everyone's psyched for Yelp's Sunset Showdown on Sunday. (RSVPs are closed, sorry.) If you have any events this weekend or next, send me your info or direct message me on Twitter.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Weekend Eats & Drinks 6/15/11

The prix fixe trend continues this week at Five restaurant and Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto in Berkeley. Five in Hotel Shattuck offers a weekly $25 BBQ, Brew & Blues dinner with a plate of BBQ, sides and a glass of beer with live jazz music. The party continues every Thursday through summer.

Also Thursday, Spenger's holds a "The Magic of the Copper River" themed, 5-course, $50 prix fixe dinner paired with wine. Tax and gratuity are separate. The menu consists of an oyster trio, crispy rock shrimp with melted leek risotto and Cara Cara oranges, cedar-roasted Alaskan sockeye salmon with mini baked potato and bacon corn relish, pan-seared Alaskan king salmon with English pea puree and couscous caviar, and wild cherry and banana flambé with lemon, vanilla ice cream and crêpes.

On Friday, Farley's East holds its monthly nonprofit happy hour from 5 to 9 P.M. Proceeds go to My Yute Soccer, an organization that encourages personal development through youth soccer.

Saturday, get a taste of New Orleans at Yats annual Crawfish by the Bay Fest. $30 gets you all-u-can-eat crawfish overnighted from Louisiana. Due to last year's demand, the event is split into three seatings. Tickets are going fast with only the 11 A.M. seating remaining.

If you can't make the crawfish boil, Farley's East celebrates two years Saturday with $2 beers, coffee specials, music and more.

Popups hit the East Bay on Saturday, as modern Ethiopian fare Afro-Bites sets up at Guerilla Cafe in Berkeley from 6 to 10 P.M. The menu will consist mostly of vegetarian and vegan options.

Five
2086 Allston Way, Berkeley
(510) 845-7300

Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto
1919 4th St., Berkeley
(510) 845-7771

Farley's East
33 Grand Ave., Oakland
(510) 835-7898

Yat's Crawfish Boil
5324 San Pablo Ave., Emeryville

Guerilla Cafe
1620 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley
(510) 845-2233

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Weekend Eats & Drinks 6/8/11

In case you missed last week's soft-launch of Off the Grid in Berkeley, today is the "official" launch. Add local business Saul's Deli to the lineup of food trucks assembling around Shattuck Avenue and Rose Street until 9 P.M.

The food vendor mania continues Friday at Oakland Technical High School with the inaugural Bites on Broadway from 5:30 to 8:30 P.M. Catch local food purveyors, music and crafts every Friday.

From 7 to 8:30 P.M. Friday, experience a Berkeley vinollaboration as Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant pours its latest Italian finds at Vintage Berkeley. For $5, taste 12 wines including, of course, a Chianti Classico.

Friday also marks the first of two free Concerts at the Cove in Alameda. Johnny Vegas and the High Rollers, a local group playing '60s, '70s and '80s hits, takes the stage at 5:30 P.M. Rock Wall Wines, R&B Cellars, Drakes Brewery, Croll's Pizza, Calafia Tacqueria and other area eateries will be on hand.

On Saturday, smell firsthand that barnyard or dirt characteristics of wine tastings by heading out to Golden Gate Fields. The East Bay Vintner's Alliance is hosting a Belmont Stakes wine fest from noon to 4 P.M. at the Berkeley racetrack. Watch live racing and the final leg of the Triple Crown while imbibing offerings from local urban wineries. Get 5 tastings and a logo glass for $20, or 12 tastings for $30. Track admission is separate, with cheap seats $6.

Rock Wall Wines celebrates its new deck and tasting room this Saturday with a wine rodeo from 4 to 8 P.M. Advance $35 tickets get you wine tastings with a logo glass to keep, BBQ from the two-time champ of the World Invitational Rib Championship, and live music. Prices jump to $45 the day of the event.

Also Saturday, Linden Street Brewery hosts A Random Party for Random Acts, a fundraiser for the Oakland Fire Department. The $10 cash-only entry fee includes two food/beverage tickets for the likes of El Taco Bike, Pietisserie, Drakes beer and Dying Vines.

For those with a sweet tooth, try Rock Paper Scissors Collective's third annual cupcake bakeoff from 2 to 5 P.M. Saturday. The $5 fee lets you sample all 10 homemade goodies to vote for your favorite.


Last week's rainy weekend pushed two culinary fairs to this weekend. The annual Berkeley Chocolate and Chalk Art fest along north Shattuck Avenue in the Gourmet Ghetto runs from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Saturday. Sample chocolate-themed food from local vendors like Lo CoCo's savory chocolate ricotta pizza, Juice Bar Collective's chocolate goat cheese truffle and Fertile Grounds's Mexican mocha. Tasting tickets are $1 each, with the most expensive item costing 7 tix (Cioccolata di Vino's noval black port and chocolate port truffle. For a list of full tastings, visit the event website.

In Oakland, Temescal hosts its annual street fair between 47th and 51st streets on Sunday from noon to 6 P.M. Enjoy two stages of music and food and drinks from local eateries like Lanesplitter pizza, Barlata, SR24, Whole Foods & more.

On Sunday, Fresh Approach, a nonprofit working to increase access to healthy foods for Bay Area residents, hosts its inaugural fund-raising brunch. A $10 ticket gets you a farmers' market-made brunch in Jack London Square, and the chance to win raffle prizes like cookbooks, cooking classes and a winery tour. Kids under 12 are free with an RSVP.

Afterward, head to Nex restaurant in Oakland for its sixth Oink Con at 1 P.M. In a celebration of all things piggy, 5 chefs will square off for rights to the best sausage. Firestone Brewery will be on-hand hosting tournaments of beer pong.


Off the Grid
Intersection of Shattuck and Rose, Berkeley

Plaza at Oakland Technical High School
45th and Broadway, Oakland

Vintage Berkeley, Vine Street
2113 Vine Street
Berkeley, California
(510) 665-8600

Concerts at the Cove
Crab Cove, McKay and Central avenues

Belmont Stakes Wine Festival
1100 Eastshore Highway, Berkeley
(510) 559-7333

Rock Wall Wines
2301 Monarch St., Alameda
(510) 522-5700

Linden Street Brewery
95 Linden St., Oakland
(510) 812-1264

Cupcake Bakeoff
2278 Telegraph Ave., Oakland
510-238-9171

Chocolate and Chalk fair
North Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley

Temescal fair
Telegraph between 47th and 51st avenues

Fresh Approach brunch
Jack London Square
Webster and Embarcadero streets, Oakland

Nex
2442 Webster St., Oakland
(510) 238-8224

Reviewed: Paisan Prix Fixe

You may have seen the many prix fixe specials and other deals (think Groupon) that restaurants use to get patrons, but are they worth it? Recently, the family of K2 Restaurants has offered almost weekly prix fixe specials: Jimmy Bean's offers a daily $15 2-course meal while Paisan hosts a family style 3-course meal every Wednesday and Lalime's a 3-course seafood prix fixe every Thursday. Today, T-Rex jumps into the bargain fun with an all-you-can-eat whole hog dinner with sides and one free drink for $19.

With so many promotions, it was easy to round up some friends for dinner. A few weeks ago, we tackled Paisan Pizzeria on San Pablo Avenue. Reviews were mixed, but overall, Paisan was a good neighborhood joint with dependable food, and the outside seating on a warm May night didn't hurt.

While Paisan calls itself a pizzeria, the prix fixe doesn't include a sampling of their billing. Rather, the prix fixe is a mix of Italian-American comfort cuisine that feels more neighborhood joint than authentic Italian fare.

The prix fixe comes with your first glass of wine on the house: a choice of a red or white wine from Farnese Family Wines. There's no vintage or varietal information, as the waitress bluntly asks, "white or red," so the wine is nothing memorable.

We started with a strawberry and arugula salad with prosciutto. The strawberries were seasonally sweet and paired well with the salty prosciutto. The breadsticks, however, that accompanied the salad were stale and left untouched.

Next was a pork tenderloin with fettucini. The dish had a lot of potential, but was disappointing. The tenderloin was so dry that not even the oil from the pasta could save it. The butter pasta sauce was also bland, and would have benefited from more garlic, herbs or any seasoning.

We wrapped up the meal with dessert: a hazlenut, chocolate mousse that was too sweet for some, but amazing in its simplicity for me, the one in the party with a sweet tooth. The dish wasn't refined, but like the salad, stood out because you could taste every ingredient and picture how it was made.

Service was very informal, as there wasn't a host to greet us at the door or an area aside from the packed bar for us to wait the half-hour our reservation was delayed. As with most popular neighborhood joints, space is an issue as the tables are crammed together and hard to navigate, and there is no waiting area aside from the sidewalk outside.

The day we went drew a crowd, whether because of regularly Wednesday diners, prix-fixe goers, or people enjoying the day's warm weather. But, I'd brave it again as I found the overall experience worth the wait and cost.

Try it yourself this week. Reservations recommended.

Today
Jimmy Bean's: $15 for salad/soup, seafood pasta and dessert
Paisan: $22 for first glass of wine, asparagus sformato salad, wood-oven roasted organic garlic chicken and baba au rhum
T-Rex: $19 for all-you-can-eat whole hog dinner with sides and your first drink (cola, PBR, house wine or well drink)

Thursday
Jimmy Bean's: $15 for salad/soup, pork loin and dessert
Lalime's: $45 for potted wild king salmon rillettes, wood grilled asparagus and sweet corn with poached egg, carmelized Massachusetts scallops, selection of North Coast Artisan Cheeses and strawberries with chewy peanut butter cookies and buttermilk sorbet

Friday
Jimmy Bean's: $15 for salad/soup, fried chicken and dessert

Saturday
Jimmy Bean's: $15 for salad/soup, paella and dessert

Sunday
Jimmy Bean's: $18 for salad/soup, grilled rib-eye and dessert


Paisan
2514 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley
(510) 649-1031

Jimmy Bean's
1290 6th St. Berkeley
(510) 528-3435

T-Rex
1300 10th St., Berkeley
510-527-0099

Lalime's
1329 Gilman St., Berkeley
510-527-9838

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Weekend Eats & Drinks 6/1/11

Welcome June with a slew of food-centric festivals and fairs.

San Francisco's Off the Grid food truck extravaganza expands to the East Bay today, Wednesday. Catch up to 10 mobile food trucks near the intersection of Shattuck and Rose in north Berkeley from 5 to 9 P.M., including Cupkates, Hapa SF and Liba Falafel. The event continues every Wednesday with a rotating lineup of street food vendors.

Updated 6/3/2011: The Chocolate and Chalk Art fest has been postponed to next weekend because of the rain. The annual Berkeley Chocolate and Chalk Art fest along north Shattuck Avenue in the Gourmet Ghetto runs from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. Saturday. Sample chocolate-themed food from local vendors like Lo CoCo's savory chocolate ricotta pizza, Juice Bar Collective's chocolate goat cheese truffle and Fertile Grounds's Mexican mocha. Tasting tickets are $1 each, with the most expensive item costing 7 tix (Cioccolata di Vino's noval black port and chocolate port truffle. For a list of full tastings, visit the event website.

Updated 6/3/2011: The Temescal fair has been postponed to next weekend because of the rain. In Oakland, Temescal hosts its annual street fair between 47th and 51st streets on Sunday from noon to 6 P.M. Enjoy two stages of music and food and drinks from local eateries like Lanesplitter pizza, Barlata, SR24, Whole Foods & more.

In the outer reaches of the East Bay, Walnut Creek holds its annual art and wine festival Saturday and Sunday at Heather Farm Park. Enjoy live music while shopping handmade crafts and imbibing award-winning wines and microbrews with traditional food. Admission is free.