When we first announced the Nosh Guide earlier this spring, we did so with an intention of keeping the guide fresh with regular updates and changes as new restaurants opened and older spots closed. We’ve been doing so, quietly, for the last couple of months, and now we’re happy to share an updated guide with you.
We’ve added nine new restaurants and watering holes, some of which, like Temescal Brewing, recently opened, and others, like AS B-Dama, have been around for years. We’re now eating salads on the regular, thanks to Berkeley’s Sweetgreen, and drinking lots more natural wine at The Punchdown.
Belotti Ristorante has given us ethereal pasta and Firebrand Artisan Bread has fed us more than our fair share of ham and cheese croissants. Standard Fare is now one of our favorite lunch spots, along with The Butcher’s Son and its surprising vegan deli creations. And we’ve been spending more and more time in Fruitvale at the ever-growing Ale Industries, drinking its exquisite barrel-fermented beers.
A couple old favorites have added new locations — Blue Bottle Coffee now has an always-busy café in downtown Berkeley, and Woods Bar and Brewery added a relaxing new “beer beach” on Treasure Island. And we’re regular visitors to Pal’s Takeaway in the new Forage Kitchen to get our Lao sausage sandwich fix.
Sadly, we’ve had to say goodbye to some of our best Nosh Guide picks, which have closed over the past several months: Farley’s on 65th in Emeryville, Stag’s Lunchette in Uptown, A Taste of Africa in East Oakland, and Salsipuedes in North Oakland are all no more.
A reminder: the Nosh Guide had input from the whole team at Berkeleyside/Nosh, as well as our regular contributors and, importantly, 600 of you who responded to our reader survey to help us compile the Guide. Your answers reminded us of forgotten classics and new gems, the top five of which are listed for each dining category. You can also find your voices embedded throughout this series; we’ve chosen to publish some of our favorite reader comments collected in the survey.
Learn more about the Nosh Guide.
The Nosh Guide is Berkeleyside’s authoritative, dynamic listing of our favorite spots for eating and drinking in the East Bay. We’ve included picks from Nosh editors, writers and, importantly, readers. At its core, we hope that the Nosh Guide will be a helpful way to navigate our wonderful East Bay dining scene, no rankings necessary.
Have you discovered a new hidden gem while out and about in the East Bay? Let us know in the comments — we’re always looking for new suggestions.
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