Berkeley
Open
ANTHONY’S COOKIES Last week, San Francisco bakery Anthony’s Cookies officially opened in the former Fenton MacLaren shop. The space houses both Anthony’s production hub and a storefront, where cookie lovers will find a variety of freshly baked treats. On our visit during Anthony’s soft opening, we tried the classic chocolate chip, cookies and cream, toffee chip, white chocolate chip and peanut butter. Aside from cookies, Anthony’s will also serve Straus Creamery ice cream, which, naturally, it will use to make ice cream cookie sandwiches. They’ll also serve espresso drinks from San Francisco’s Four Barrel Coffee. Anthony’s Cookies, 2575 San Pablo Ave. (between Blake and Parker streets), BerkeleyGADANI The specialty at this new downtown Berkeley café’s specialty is Hong Kong-style egg puff waffles. Unlike traditional American or Belgian waffles, egg puff waffles have a nubby appearance, sort of like an edible sheet of large-format bubble wrap. They’re light and crispy on the outside with a slightly chewy interior, aka delicious. Gadani makes its waffles (in a variety of flavors, like chocolate or matcha) to order, which you can get plain or filled with Tara’s Organic ice cream and toppings like caramel and Oreo cookie crumbs. Beyond waffles, Gadani serves coffee and matcha, lavender and rose lattes. Gadani, 139 Berkeley Square (at Shattuck), Berkeley
GIO’S PIZZA AND BOCCE This new Italian-style restaurant tips its hat with reverence to the much-loved, family-owned Italian restaurant, Giovanni, which once stood in its place until a fire in 2015 shut down the business. Now run by Farm League Restaurant Group, Gio’s kept many of the architectural and decorative vestiges of the former restaurant, but has made many upgrades and changes, beyond shortening its name. One big addition worth noting is its indoor bocce court. Gio’s also has a full bar, specializing in vermouth and amaro. As for food, chef de cuisine Fred Oliveira, who’s spent time in the kitchen at Boulevard in San Francisco, has created a menu of comforting Italian-American — a much abbreviated version of Giovanni’s offerings. Expect classics like Sicilian-style pizza, calzones, fettuccini Alfredo, Caprese salad and fried calamari. Gio’s Pizza and Bocce, 2420 Shattuck Ave. (at Channing St.), Berkeley LHASA KARNAK HERB COMPANY Berkeley herb shop, Lhasa Karnak moved its Telegraph Avenue store to San Pablo Avenue this month. As Nosh reported earlier this month, it moved out of necessity, as the Telegraph storefront needed significant repairs caused by a fire in 2015 (A different fire from the one mentioned above.) Lhasa Karnak has been serving the East Bay since it opened in 1970 on Telegraph, as a reliable source for Aryuvedic, Chinese and Western medicinal herbs, essential oils, teas and culinary spices. The San Pablo Avenue shop opened its doors on Aug. 21. Lhasa Karnak, 2506 San Pablo Ave. (at Dwight), Berkeley MAIN STREET PIZZA Solano Avenue got a new pizza spot this summer. Yes, another one. Just a block away from Zachary’s, and close to Mountain Mike’s and Little Star is Main Street Pizza. According to its website, Main Street Pizza makes New York-style thin crust pies, using organic flour, locally sourced produce and housemade ingredients, including its tomato sauce, pork sausage and even its mozzarella cheese. Pizza is available by the slice or as a whole 18″ pie. In addition, it also offers lasagna, two salads, garlic breadsticks and chicken wings served with a creamy pesto sauce. Main Street Pizza, 1889 Solano Ave. (near The Alameda), BerkeleyPROJECT JUICE Bay Area-based Project Juice opened its first East Bay location on Fourth Street in Berkeley this month. Its focus is plant-based beverages and foods catered for people with the common food allergies and sensitivities. So, if you’re gluten-free, dairy-free, peanut-free and soy-free, this is the place for you. Here, you’ll find cold-pressed juices, almond and cashew “mylks,” smoothies, wellness elixirs, coffee, tea and kombucha, as well bowls, salads, soups, gluten-free toasts and pastries. Project Juice, 1911 Fourth St. (near Hearst), Berkeley
Closed
CROSTA PANINI BAR This month, we said goodbye to Crosta, which was open for just about five months. Located within Highwire Coffee on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, Crosta decided to close, but did not elaborate with details to Nosh when asked for the reason for its quick closure. However the good news is that the space already has a new tenant — former-Crosta chef, Sincere Justice, will be launching his own eatery next month. Justice, who also runs Tacos Sincero, a “Chino Latino” taco pop-up at Oakland’s Legionnaire Saloon, plans to serve a small menu of salads, sandwiches and soups at this new cafe. Stay tuned for more details on Nosh.
TEMARI Another closure in Berkeley to report is the family-run Japanese restaurant, Temari. For some of its most loyal customers, many who live in West Berkeley, Temari was the place to go for its no-frills, reasonably-priced, but absolutely fresh fish. Temari was opened in 2003 by Michihiro and Masako Kizaki as a dinner-only sushi spot, and many also considered the spot a local treasure for its friendly service. Temari’s last dinner service was on Aug. 25.
Oakland
Open
AHI MAHI FISH GRILL In East Oakland, between the airport and the Coliseum, is Ahi Mahi, a new outpost of the fast food seafood chain, found where once there was a Red Brick Pizza. Offerings here include make-your-own seafood bowls, “Ahirritos” (in essence, a very large sushi roll) and miso soup. The build-your-own counter-service format is possibly the reason that one Yelp reviewer said, “It’s like Chipotle meets sushi.” At least we hope so… Ahi Mahi Fish Grill, 8460 Edgewater Dr., OaklandHOWDEN RESTAURANT & BAR Oakland’s Spice Monkey Restaurant had a bit of a make-over this summer. About three months ago, its owner, Kanitha Matoury, who also owns Howden Market, quietly transformed the 10-year-old pan Asian eatery, giving it a new name, a new chef and a new menu. Jesse Bransetter (formerly of Chop Bar) is now heading the kitchen, where he’s created a menu of “globally inspired comfort food,” according to its website. For lunch, expect soups, salads and sandwiches; for dinner, Branstetter offers dishes like Vietnamese chicken meatballs, lamb kefta and a coconut curry made with sweet potatoes. Howden Restaurant & Bar, 1628 Webster St. (between 15th and 17th), OaklandHUMPHRY SLOCOMBE The new Oakland outpost of the popular San Francisco ice cream shop opened on Aug. 27 at The Hive in Uptown. This Humphry Slocombe location is in a refurbished cargo container designed by Urban Bloc, painted a shocking electric blue. The new shop features a 12-flavor dip case, with six semi-permanent flavors and six rotating, seasonal flavors. Most of the rotating flavors will be made with ingredients from local farms and produce vendors, and during its first six months, there will be a monthly Oakland-inspired ice cream. Humphry Slocombe, 2335 Broadway (between 24th and 25th), OaklandILAVA HAWAIIAN BBQ This new Hawaiian spot in East Oakland serves classic Hawaiian plate lunches, with scoops of rice, macaroni salad and a main item, like chicken katsu, short ribs, kalua pork and lau lau. There’s also Spam musubi, fried chicken wings, smoothies and other teriyaki rice bowls. iLava Hawaiian BBQ, 1446 High St. (between Bancroft and 14th), OaklandMOUNTAIN MIKE’S Taking over a long-vacant building on Telegraph Avenue in Temescal is an outpost of Palo Alto-based pizza chain, Mountain Mike’s. This is the third location to open in Oakland, joining two others in East Oakland and Uptown. Mountain Mike’s, 4870 Telegraph Ave. (at 49th), Oakland
PARADISE PARK CAFÉ This new full-service restaurant in Oakland’s Paradise Park neighborhood fills the vacancy left when two neighborhood haunts, Actual Café and Victory Burger, closed in December last year. Paradise Park Café is the fourth eatery from life and business partners, Rachel Herbert and Dana Oppenheim, who also run Dolores Park Café, Precita Park Café and Duboce Park Café in San Francisco. Paradise Park serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, as well as brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, with a menu that’s varied, healthy-ish and approachable with unique touches. There’s a budget-friendly kids menu (all items are $5), and plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. Paradise Park Café, 6334 San Pablo Ave., OaklandPATTYS & BUNS BURGERS A new burger joint has opened in Montclair Village. First reported by Hoodline, Pattys & Buns Burgers opened in mid-August and is offering a menu of gourmet burgers (made with Niman Ranch ground beef), fries, salads, milkshakes and ice cream floats. Burgers include the Classic (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles, special sauce on a toasted potato bun) and a menu of five specialty burgers, including the Diablo (barbecue sauce, applewood smoked bacon, blue cheese, tomatoes, and jalapeños on a toasted sesame seed bun) and the Market (portabello-black bean patty, lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, avocado, charred pepper-rosemary aioli on a toasted whole wheat bun). Pattys & Buns Burgers, 2852 Mountain Blvd., Oakland PHOENIX CHINESE RESTAURANT A new Chinese restaurant called Phoenix has risen where once there was Chopsticks Chinese restaurant. So far, reviewers on Yelp have agreed that Phoenix is a solid, budget-friendly choice when you have a hankering for standards like fried rice, General Tso’s chicken and beef with broccoli. Phoenix Chinese Restaurant, 328 14th St. (between Webster and Harrison), Oakland
SIDESHOW KITCHEN From the folks who run Homegrown Oakland is Sideshow Kitchen, which opened in North Oakland in early August. Inside the cozy shack on Stanford Avenue once occupied by gluten-free comfort food diner, the Grease Box, Sideshow offers affordable street-food style eats, like burgers, shawarmas, sandwiches and chicken wings, as well as breakfast items, like avocado toast and a kimchi breakfast burrito. There are both indoor and outdoor dining areas, but the restaurant is betting on its large fenced-in outdoor patio once it beer and wine license kicks in, which it expects will be any day now. Sideshow Kitchen is at 942 Stanford Ave. (at Lowell), Oakland
Coming Soon
THE TEMPLE CLUB Chef Geoffrey Deetz is back in the East Bay. The former chef-owner of Spettro and Gulf Coast Oyster Bar in Oakland and Dragonfly Tea House in Berkeley, returned to Oakland in 2015 after moving to Vietnam in 2000, where he raised his family and learned a lot about the cuisine during his 15 years of living there. Now back in Oakland, Deetz is about to open his first Vietnamese restaurant this September, but as is au courant with restaurateurs, he’s giving diners a chance to get a preview of what he’ll be offering at The Temple Club via pop-up events. Last week on Facebook, he announced two events, happening on Friday, Sept. 1 and Tuesday, Sept. 5, which will feature 10-course family-style meals focusing on dishes from Da Nang and Hoi for the first event and “workers food” from Hanoi for the second. According to the East Bay Express, there will be a third pop-up dinner on Friday, Sept. 8, featuring seafood and grilled meats prepared in the style of fare from Da Nang and Phan Thiet. The Temple Club will be at 2307 International Blvd., Oakland.
Closed
COLONIAL DONUTS After almost 30 years in business, the Colonial Donuts at 1636 Franklin St. closed this month. As reported on Hoodline, the donut shop run by Andy Ung closed on Saturday, Aug. 12, after Ung could not attain a new lease from the property’s new owner, New York-based realtors Newmark Knight Frank, who purchased the building in 2016. Fortunately for Oakland donut lovers, the three other Colonial Donuts’ locations in the city — at 3318 Lakeshore Ave., 1000 Broadway and 6126 La Salle Ave. — remain open.
THE HALF ORANGE Jay Porter’s casual farm-to-table burger and craft beer spot in Fruitvale closed its doors on Aug. 2. The three-year-old eatery was Porter’s second restaurant in Oakland to close. As Nosh reported, Porter said he was “less physically capable” to keep the business going and was ready to call it quits. Porter does not plan on opening any other restaurants, but has a business consulting with restaurants, and is in the midst of creating software for restaurant owner-operators to deal with the tedium of administrative paperwork.
HENRY’S GALLERY CAFÉ In July, 10-year-old Henry’s Gallery in downtown Oakland closed. There’s a sad story chronicled by The East Bay Express about the closure, which happened when the café’s Korean-immigrant owners Jung Sook Park and Yong Soo Jung were not able to obtain a new lease from the building’s landlords. In short, due to language barriers, the owners did not actually realize that they had to vacate the property, and believed they were on a month-to-month lease. On top of that, the couple were robbed in June, losing their entire lifesavings, wedding jewelry and, weirdly, personal photo albums. In addition, the couple could be deported by the Department of Homeland Security if they cannot renew their visa by opening a new business within the year. When longtime customers, Amy Newman and Brent Noorda, heard about their woes, they started a GoFundMe fundraising campaign that raised more than $21k, surpassing their $15k goal. Jung and his wife are heartened by the community support and hope to reopen a new café in Oakland, but as of two days ago, Newman added an update to the GoFundMe page that said they are still searching for a new space. The spot at 17th Street and Franklin already has a new tenant — it will be the second location for Beauty’s Bagel Shop.
ROSAMUNDE SAUSAGE GRILL The Bay Area sausage mini chain closed its Temescal location in early August. Fortunately, for Rosamunde fans, there’s still an Oakland outpost at Swan’s Marketplace, as well as its original location in the Lower Haight and on Mission Street in San Francisco.
Beyond
Open
ARMISTICE BREWING COMPANY Richmond got a new brewery and beer hall this month. Armistice Brewing is a microbrewery run by sister-and-brother-team, Alex and Gregory Zobel, who started as homebrewers, but whose mutual passion for making beer led them to create a business together. Their family-friendly taproom opened on Aug. 4, offering Armistice’s small-batch beers, which, according to its website, change often and include a wide-variety, “from aggressive new-world IPAs, crisp and malty German-style lagers, subtle English bitters, complex sours, nuanced barrel-aged beers, and inventive beers that transcend style boundaries and traditions.” There’s an outdoor, dog-friendly beer garden and Armistice invites a rotating food truck parked outside to offer eats. Armistice Brewing Company, 845 Marina Bay Parkway, Richmond THE PERIODIC TABLE This week, the owners of Shiba Ramen, Jake Freed and Hiroko Nakamura, softly opened their new venture, a sake bar and taproom called The Periodic Table, located next door to their ramen kiosk in the Emeryville Public Market. In case you’re wondering, the name of the bar is a nod to their background in chemistry (the two are former chemists, who first met at Harvard while working on a molecule). The Periodic Table will offer California and Japanese craft beers, Japanese sake and eventually, Japanese spirits, like whisky and shochu (the bar just got its spirits license, and expect to be serving distilled spirits by next week). As the Periodic Table does not have its own kitchen, it will mostly offer a small menu of bar snacks like pickles, charcuterie and cheese plates that pair well with the drinks they’re serving. Hungry diners looking for more substantial fare can order ramen and chicken wings at Shiba Ramen to enjoy at The Periodic Table, as long as they also plan on ordering drinks from the bar with their meal. We visited The Periodic Table on Wednesday night, where we tasted a couple of sakes — like the creamy and rich Seiden Omachi 50, which went perfectly with the equally creamy and rich White Bird ramen from Shiba, and the more acidic Taiheikai sake, which Shiba/Periodic Table chef, Danny Keiser, recommended as a pairing for the charcuterie and cheese plate. Both were excellent, but we especially enjoyed the knowledge and passion Keiser, Freed and Nakamura shared with us about each sake that we tasted each. The Periodic Table is still in very soft-opening mode as they work out final details, but Freed and Nakamura expect the grand opening to happen in mid-September. Stay tuned on Nosh, as we have an upcoming story about The Periodic Table in the works. The Periodic Table, Emeryville Public Market, 5959 Shellmound St., Emeryville. Don’t miss any NOSH stories — subscribe to NOSH Weekly, a free weekly email packed with delicious East Bay food news. Sign up.
