Openings…
PARLIAMENT Christopher Newell, Davina Dickens and Jason Bradford have just thrown open the doors to Parliament bar at 811 Washington St. in Old Oakland’s historic neighborhood — an increasingly buzzy gourmet neck of the woods that is also home to Swan’s Marketplace and restaurants like Cosecha and Desco. The bar, which features exposed brick walls and a contemporary decor, has a bar stocked with a full array of premium spirits, domestic and imported beers and house-crafted cocktails. Parliament, which we first tipped you about in Nov. 2012, is also available to hire for private or corporate events.
21st AMENDMENT Beer fans rejoice: brewing giant 21st Amendment plans to open a huge, 95,000 sq ft facility in San Leandro’s old former Kellogg Cereal factory building, according to Inside Scoop SF. The brewery campus will include a production brewery, tasting room, restaurant and event space, all designed by San Francisco’s Aidlin Darling Design. 21st Amendment has an outpost near the ballpark in SoMa and currently does a lot of its packaging in Minnesota. The build-out will be rolled out in phases over this year and next.
EMERYVILLE PUBLIC MARKET Lots of changes afoot at Emeryville Public Market. The E’Ville Eye blog reports new owners have been reinvigorating the food court area with a series of special events over the recent holiday period. Michelin-starred chef Carlos Altamirano is slated to open an 800 sq. ft. spot named Chicharon. And it looks like the adjacent movie theater will be no more as United Artists will not be renewing their lease at the Emery Bay 10 Theater. Read more about future plans for the whole area at E’Ville Eye.
MONSTER PHO A new Vietnamese restaurant by the name of Monster Pho will open in a former printing services shop at 3905 Broadway in the lower Temescal area. Tee Tran, the 29-year-old owner, told the East Bay Express that the restaurant that will be “modern and authentic,” and will feature his family’s secret recipes. Expect pho, of course, as well as banh mi, fried chicken wings and rice plates. Opening is slated for Saturday, March 1.
RASA CAFFE As reported on Berkeleyside’s Shop Talk, Rasa Caffe, at 3140 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (at Adeline) in Berkeley, is now open. Owner Rasa Sun Mott, an Oakland native and the son of two high-profile Black Panther activists, raised $16,252 on Kickstarter to help him open the new coffee shop. As we reported in October 2013, Bicycle Coffee is being served (sweet spiced coffee with nutmeg is a speciality), as well as chai from his own recipe, and a selection of locally sourced pastries. Rasa Caffe is in the former Alchemy Café space, and part of the Firehouse Art Collective complex; Mott intends to collaborate with the group for events.
What else is going on…
KITCHENER OAKLAND Commercial community incubator Kitchener Oakland at 372 24th St. plans to open the Kitchener Snack Bar, two take-out windows that will allow some of the 36 different artisans currently occupying the space to sell their wares to customers directly from the space. Owner Sophia Chang told KQED’s Bay Area Bites she hopes the take-out windows, which will see a rotating group of vendors, will be open as soon as April.
GREGOIRE Gregoire in Oakland (at 4001 Piedmont Ave.) is now serving lunch all day. That means you can order your favorite sandwiches at dinnertime… like the Louisiana flavored crab and shrimp in lettuce bowl with grilled croutons; the fried buttermilk chicken filet with spicy cole slaw on French roll; or the Fra’Mani sopressata with pickled Anaheim peppers, marinated tomato & almonds on pantofolina
Recent stories on Nosh (in case you missed them):
Nosh on the town: Vientian in Oakland
Will Berkeley be first in nation to impose a soda tax?
Ms Barstool: Good will and bonhomie at Penrose
A sip of social justice in new Berkeley winery’s pour
Blue Bottle opens in historic Oakland building
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