Food & Drink Artisans
A Pour of Diversity at the Local Wine Table
Phil Long at work in his Longevity winery (Photo by Ron Essex Photography) By Mary Orlin In early 2020, vintner Phil Long was on the verge of something big. The founder and winemaker for Livermore Valley’s Longevity Wines had inked a major deal to make and distribute his wines nationally just as he stepped into…
Read MoreFood I Want to Remember
from a year I’d like to forget Story and photos by Meredith Pakier Opening and sustaining a restaurant or food business is a monumental undertaking in the best of times. During 2020, as an unmitigated global pandemic devastated millions of businesses and livelihoods, an indifferent government largely left the restaurant industry to fend for itself.…
Read MoreOlive Oil Synergies
Networking and mentorship make a difference for small producers, from grove adopters to a former governor By Cheryl Angelina Koehler Clockwise from upper left: Olga Orlova in her Olica olive orchard; Kim Null and Jamie de Sieyes during their Wild Poppies harvest; Kathryn Tomijan at work milling a Fat Gold harvest; Susan Ellsworth sorting…
Read MoreComing Up Oysters
Reflections on teaching, forensic diving, oyster farming, and running a restaurant By Steven Day, co-owner of The Cook and Her Farmer in Oakland Photos by Clara Rice “Teachers have three loves: love of learning, love of learners, and bringing the first two loves together.” —Scott Hayden It started with a bad day at work.…
Read MoreA Holiday Pie Party
Recipes, photos, and videos by chef/photographer Judy Doherty Don’t let the pandemic ruin your holidays! Baking pie will make your house smell delicious as you channel your granny and all those good times with friends and family in years past. Master these three recipes with the help of expert chef and photographer Judy Doherty.…
Read MoreA Lake County Bottle
Prima Materia brings out the hidden county’s wine charms By Meredith Pakier Copious sunlight beats down on obsidian-laced soils between the Mayacamas Mountain Range and volcanic Mount Konocti in Lake County, where Pietro Buttitta tends his grapevines. He’s grafted most of his rootstock with scions of rare native Italian varieties—robust sagrantino, silky refosco, and savory negroamaro—which…
Read MoreBently Heritage Estate Distillery
Taste, Tradition, and Technology Bently Heritage Estate Distillery takes the farm to the flask By Barbara Twitchell | Photos by Asa Gilmore Once simply a sleepy little hamlet in the Carson Valley east of the Sierra, Minden, Nevada, was long known for two structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places: The old Minden…
Read MoreNew Products from Renewal Mill
Oakland’s Renewal Mill spins out new upcycled foods By Rachel Trachten Claire Schlemme collects okara from the Hodo Soy waste stream and turns it into baking flour. Photos courtesy of Renewal Mill and Alice Medrich. The process of upcycling works its magic in two ways: first, it makes use of something that would…
Read MoreOsCo: an Unconventional Distillery
Of Makers and Spirits How an artists’ block in Oakland inspired the creation of OsCo, an unconventional distillery By Kathryn Campo Bowen | Photos by Clara Rice Early March In a time before quarantine and masks and social distancing, Michael Pierce offered to show me around the block. “Let’s walk next door,” he…
Read MoreMonifa Dayo and Sur Place
From Food Service to Food Justice, Monifa Dayo Makes It Work Story and photos by Annelies Zijderveld Monifa Dayo is not new to pivoting. In 2016, the chef realized she had grown weary of the steep physical demands and endless manual labor of commercial restaurant work. Stepping away, she opened Sur Place, a…
Read MoreTurn Your Food Passion into Income
Share Your Food Enthusiasm and turn it into a steady income By Kaori Becker Laurie Leiber (reaching for a bagel on the right) has a passion for homemade bagels. Her workshops, like the one above held in 2017 to raise funds for the ACLU, often sell out. Photo courtesy of Laurie Leiber What…
Read MoreBryant Terry’s New Book
Tune Up the Vegetable Band And get ready to play with Bryant Terry’s Vegetable Kingdom Book review by Annelies Zijderveld Oakland-based food justice activist, Bryant Terry, reflects on bringing the vegetable kingdom to life in his new cookbook. Purchase this book Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes By Bryant Terry Ten Speed Press, February…
Read MoreEast Bay Bakeries
6 East Bay Bakeries that Rise to the Top Story and photos by Meredith Pakier Chopping, sautéeing, and roasting are easy, but when it comes to baking pastries, breads, and cakes, I’m happy to leave it to the professionals. That leaves more time to roam the East Bay discovering the sweets. Here’s a…
Read MoreCrafting Pupusas
At Classic Cars West, Popoca’s current outdoor pop-up space, Anthony Salguero forms masa for the pupusa, fills it, and then shapes the stuffed pupusa before placing it on the comal, which is positioned on a wood-fired grill. Don’t Call it Humble Anthony Salguero of Oakland’s Popoca shares his exacting method for crafting El Salvador’s famed culinary…
Read MoreThe Art of Roberto Gastelumendi
A World Brought Together in Wood Story and photos by Jessica Cook Left: Roberto likes to support community efforts such as by creating this bench for the nonprofit Cal Sailing Club at the Berkeley Marina. If you know Roberto Gastelumendi, you know there is a salsa tune in his head. It escapes…
Read MoreFinger Food in Four Cultures
Farmhouse Kitchen’s Lao Table engages the eyes as well as the hands. Eat with the Hands for Practical, Intimate, Sensuous Meals By Anna Mindess | Photos by Cynthia Matzger Amod Chopra, owner of Vik’s Chaat in Berkeley, washes his hands and sits down with some guests. His divided metal tray, called a thali, holds…
Read MoreA Magic Launchpad at Emeryville Public Market
By Alix Wall | Photos by Rachel Stanich The story of how a Cambodian immigrant took her food business from pop up to food-court kiosk to a brick-and-mortar spot named one of America’s best restaurants within a few years has made food entrepreneurs with big dreams take notice. The journey is that of Nite…
Read MoreBeans, Bars, & Bonbons
An assortment from The Xocolate Bar in Berkeley. Read more about the business below. A Glorious Chocolate Adventure By Rachel Trachten | Photos by Jon Milavec Is there any better magazine assignment than the chocolate beat? Well, no, there just isn’t. Before launching our exploration of East Bay chocolate, we turned to Berkeley’s own…
Read MoreTacos in the Alley
By Kai Wada Roath | Photos by Austin Goldin Pleasing aromas drift through the open air down a little alley between storefronts on 40th Street in Oakland, where brightly painted pink, yellow, and turquoise walls lure in hungry customers, much like a newly opened stargazer lily would entice a hummingbird. It’s Tacos Oscar. Open…
Read MoreWine Tasting in the East Bay
New Urban Wine Trails An Illustrated Guide to Some of Berkeley and Oakland’s Hot New Wineries Story and illustrations by Nikki Goddard One of the great perks of living in the Bay Area is the ease of launching a weekend wine country getaway. But if you have only an afternoon and want to spend…
Read MoreMochi!
Mochi by the Bay Wisdom from local masters of the craft Story and photos by Kaori Becker Mochi! Suddenly it’s everywhere. Made with mochiko, a flour milled from Japanese sticky rice, mochi went mainstream with the trend for gluten-free foods. But longtime fans of this traditional Japanese sweet know that mochi is just fun to…
Read MoreA Harvest from the Garden of the Sea
Bringing the Watery Sense of Place to Our Plates Story and photos by Austin Price Ian O’Hollaren wades through the intertidal zone south of Half Moon Bay looking for the algae called “mermaid’s hair.” This deep-red, spaghetti-like seaweed, also known as “ogo,” can be eaten raw in soups or salads or boiled to make agar.…
Read MoreCrispy Chicken Legs with Zante Grape Panzanella
Recipe and photos by Christian Reynoso One might think a chef at San Francisco’s Zuni Café would grow fatigued by the long-running marriage of flavors in the restaurant’s iconic roast chicken with bread salad. For me, it’s quite the opposite. Although I taste the dish almost daily for quality control (and snacking), it’s easy to…
Read MoreA Map of the East Bay’s Favorite Asian Noodles
Illustrations by Margo Rivera-Weiss Story by Cheryl Angelina Koehler Good Asian noodles are deliciously easy to find in the East Bay—or so we discovered when our readers offered their favorites for this map. In sorting through oodles of mouthwatering suggestions, we realized what we most needed was some taxonomy and a map…
Read MoreFavorite Scoops of Summer
Illustrations by Margo Rivera-Weiss | Story by Cheryl Angelina Koehler What’s hot with ice cream this summer? Well first, let’s talk about what’s eternal, since a key ingredient in any icy summer delight is nostalgia. Here in the East Bay, we tip our cones to vintage businesses like Fentons (est. 1894), Dreyer’s (1928), Loard’s (1950),…
Read MoreVisionary in a Livermore Valley Vineyard
Gloria’s son Aaron (right), husband Bob (center), and daughter-in-law Salome Garau-Taylor toss the ball for Shadow on the tasting room green. Behind them is one of their certified-organic vineyards. Owls living in the owl box at left help keep rodent pests at bay. Photo by Scott Peterson Family connection and organic growing at Retzlaff Vineyards…
Read MoreLast Bite
Urban Sketchers at Picante Urban sketchers Cathy Raingarden, Vivian Aldridge, and Margo Rivera-Weiss have all spent time drawing and painting at the popular West Berkeley taqueria Picante. It’s easy to become inspired by the colorful papel picado (cut paper art) created by Enrique Martinez. We photographed him one rainy winter’s evening when his studio doors…
Read MoreStep into Albany’s Ivy Room
THERE’S NO POISON AT THE IVY Albany’s Ivy Room is a Safe Haven for Fun, Refreshment, and Indie Music By Mary Tilson | Illustrations by Margo Rivera-Weiss You’ve probably driven by it. The Ivy Room has been a fixture on San Pablo Avenue in Albany since 1940. Rust-colored bricks, windows covered with band posters, black…
Read MoreIndigenous Food at Café Ohlone
First Flavors of the East Bay Café Ohlone Offers Indigenous Foods for All to Share By Anna Mindess | Photos by Cynthia Matzger Vincent Medina’s ancestors have long gathered shellfish, salt, and pickleweed in the salt marsh along this east shore stretch of their homeland on the San Francisco Bay. Louis Trevino (left) holds sprigs…
Read MoreChicken Curry Day
By Prerna Singh My brother: He is Mummy’s favorite kid. She never admits to it and always gives me that what-on-earth-are-you-talking-about look every time I say this to her, but I know. He is the gentler of us two (at least on the outside), doesn’t leave any trail of his crimes, and he…
Read MoreGood Food Awards
Kudos to Local Food Crafters Chicken Liver Mousse by Picnic in Albany If you’re on the hunt for outstanding new foods and flavors and you value responsible business practices, you’ll want to sample the products honored with a 2019 Good Food Award. This annual national contest rewards producers in 16 categories, ranging from…
Read MoreFollow the Blue Bottle Coffee Cart
Ramblings of the Blue Bottle Coffee Cart How it rolled here, there, and back to where it started at the Temescal Farmers’ Market By Cheryl Angelina Koehler Summer 2006: Rockridge and Temescal residents are in a swoon as Urban Village Farmers’ Market Association brings them their own neighborhood farmers’ market. There in Oakland’s DMV…
Read MoreFavorite Fish Tacos of the East Bay
What is it about fish tacos? Our publisher can’t go anywhere that has fish tacos on the menu and not order them. “I love the way the fried batter and the sliced cabbage give two kinds of crunch, and that bit of spicy heat always makes my day,” she says, “however I’ve…
Read MoreBenchmark Pizzeria Opens in Oakland
A Pizza Nerd Makes His Mark Peter Swanson’s Benchmark Pizzeria spawns a second location By Alix Wall | Photos by Kala Minko Melissa Swanson, Jennifer Moffitt, and Peter Swanson take charge of Benchmark’s new restaurant on the corner of Washington and Ninth in Old Oakland. Peter Swanson is a self-described pizza nerd. Through seven years…
Read MoreTop Cap Mushrooms
It all started with a shiitake mushroom fascination. At the time, Morgan Proctor and Greg Olson both had administrative positions in urban offices and were living in a small space in Oakland with no outdoor area for plants. Given their shared interests in nature, nutrition, and gardening, and after being wait-listed at a community garden,…
Read MoreCésar Turns Twenty
Hail César Twenty Years in the Heart of the Gourmet Ghetto By James Mellgren | Photos by Cherie Azzopardi César, the popular Berkeley tapas bar, turned 20 years old this year. In human years, that isn’t old enough for César to order one of its own cocktails, but it’s a significant milestone nevertheless in the…
Read MoreAnaviv’s Table Opens in Richmond
Arnon Oren at the entrance to his catering kitchen, now moonlighting as Anaviv’s Table. Richmond Flowers at Anaviv’s Table This new dining spot offers elegant food in a surprising setting By Alix Wall | Photos by Stacy Ventura Most guests at this dinner party didn’t previously know each other, yet the conversation flows with the…
Read MoreA Sharp Couple
Bernal Cutlery and Clove & Hoof By Kristina Sepetys | Photos by Scott Peterson Bernal Cutlery, the beloved San Francisco culinary knife shop, has opened an outpost in Oakland right next door to Clove & Hoof Butchery and Restaurant. The location isn’t accidental. Josh Donald, owner of Bernal Cutlery and author of Sharp: The Definitive…
Read MoreHooked on Cult Crackers
Crunchy, Seedy, and a Little Bit Cult-y Swedish cracker culture comes to Berkeley Story and photos by Anna Mindess As a kid growing up in Malmö, Sweden, Birgitta Durell took knäckebröd (crispbread) for granted. These mostly rye-based crackers are eaten there daily, paired with everything from pickled herring to lingonberry jam. Many Swedes still make…
Read MoreAlmanac Beer Co.
Fruit Forward Almanac brings California beer terroir to Alameda By Derrick Peterman Soon after they met at a home brewing club in San Francisco, Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan discovered they shared a novel approach to brewing: Both were experimenting with ingredients from the farmers’ market. “We tried lots of different fruits, and in some…
Read MoreSolidariTEA Partners with Local Nonprofits
A Potent Brew At SolidariTEA, social justice is part of the business plan By Rachel Trachten For iced-tea entrepreneurs Caroline Sandifer and Trey Jalbert, business success goes hand-in-hand with generosity. As they manage the day-to-day tasks for their company, SolidariTEA, the duo have been steadily donating a portion of their time and earnings to two…
Read MoreHanif Sadr
From the Oilfields to the Kitchen Mechanical Engineer’s Detour Leads to New Life in Food Hanif Sadr, Golestan’s after-school cooking teacher, grew up in Tehran and spent summers on his grandparents’ farm in Northern Iran, where he developed a lifelong love of exploring nature. After earning a college degree in materials science in Iran, he…
Read MoreBite by Bite
With a memorable tasting menu, Sabio turns Pleasanton into a dining destination By Alix Wall Four small bites come out on a wooden plate that looks like it was cut straight from a tree: deviled egg with a bit of Dungeness crab, paddlefish caviar, and a sprinkling of chives mounded atop the yolk house-made…
Read MoreTucker’s Lives On
A Sweet Deal Local Alameda Family Purchases Beloved Dessert Shop Photos and story by Sam Tillis Here’s the scoop on the new owners of Tucker’s Super Creamed Ice Cream in Alameda: They’re two families, both longtime Alameda residents and experienced business owners, and, of course, they love ice cream. The fairy tale–like story of how…
Read MoreChef Mark Liberman
Food Wizard Aims to Enchant Oakland Diners Chef Mark Liberman conjures up a new bistro-style eatery By Alix Wall | Illustration by Margo Rivera-Weiss Count Mark Liberman as the next high-profile San Francisco chef to trade the city where he built his reputation for Oakland. Having left a six-year gig running the kitchen at San…
Read MoreHops Return to Pleasanton
How Pleasanton Got Its Hops Back By Derrick Peterman The story of Pleasanton’s hop revival begins ten years ago when a certain rural Midwesterner arrived in California to take up a marketing position at a software company. . . . Rich Clayton was soon to learn that hops have a distinctive history in this corner…
Read MoreBay Grape, Punchdown, and Ordinaire
On the Glou-Glou Trail A hop into three local “natural wine” bars By Nikki Goddard Don’t call it a trend: Natural wine has existed as a concept for as long as winemakers have had the technology to produce “unnatural” (or manipulated) wine. Coined as early as the 17th century, the term was popularized in the…
Read MoreNora Dunning at Drip Line
Singapore Meets Southern Classics at Chef Nora Dunning’s West Oakland Drip Line By Alix Wall Chef Nora Dunning’s culinary viewpoint shifted one day over a bowl of shrimp and grits. It happened last winter as Dunning was cooking grits for her husband John, a Californian whose family has roots in the American South. Dunning’s palate…
Read MoreSaha Comes to Berkeley
Saha Finds a New Home in Berkeley Step into Mohamed Aboghanem’s Arabic-Inspired Restaurant By Sarah Henry | Photos by Kala Minko For a dozen years, Mohamed Aboghanem ran Saha, a self-styled “Arabic fusion” restaurant, out of the back of Hotel Carlton, a boutique lower Nob Hill hotel in the Joie de Vivre chain. The restaurant…
Read MoreAdmiral Maltings
A Terroir for Beer? Admiral Maltings strives to make Bay Area beer truly local By Derrick Peterman It’s a fact that Bay Area brewers preaching “buy local” hate to admit: Their beer may be brewed locally, but the ingredients come from hundreds if not thousands of miles away. Much of the barley used for…
Read MoreDeaf Chefs Compete
What’s the Sign for Mozzarella Balloon? Culinary education thrives at the California School for the Deaf By Anna Mindess | photos by Nick Wolf High school students dressed in chef’s whites scurry around the kitchen preparing an ambitious Modernist Caprese Salad composed of mozzarella balloons, tomato sorbet, and colorful sliced tomatoes garnished with fried basil…
Read MoreChef Tu David Phu
Flavors of Home Vietnamese dishes and family stories come to the pop-up dining table Story and Photos By Alix Wall A few months ago at age 32, Chef Tu David Phu was named a “Rising Star Chef” in the San Francisco Chronicle. One could say that Phu’s rise began as this son of Vietnamese…
Read MoreGrowing Up with Giovanni Lo Coco
Giovanni Lo Coco immigrated to the United States from Porticello, Sicily, in 1962. His daughter, Suzanne Lo Coco, describes him as a man with “tremendous style and social grace … attractive, with black hair and piercing blue eyes, warm, humorous, and above all an extraordinary cook.” On arriving in San Francisco, Giovanni went to…
Read MoreCambodian Food in Emeryville
Noodle Soup Epiphanies Chef Nite Yun brings Cambodian food to Emeryville By Sarah Henry | Photos by Robin Jolin It took Nite Yun a false start or two before she found her calling. Yun, a Cambodian immigrant raised in Stockton, went to San Francisco State to study nursing. San Francisco, which she’d been obsessed with…
Read MoreA Plant-Based Burger to Cool the Planet
Leave it to a bunch of smart young Silicon Valley food-tech pros to come up with a deliciously hot, innovative product aimed directly at addressing climate change. At Redwood City–based Impossible Foods, where the researchers are developing plant-based meat and dairy products, one “mission impossible” is to find a road forward on mitigating the high…
Read MoreDelicious Revolution at Reem’s Bakery
Baking Without Borders From Farmers’ Markets to Fruitvale, Arab Flatbread Champion Finds Fans By Sarah Henry | Illustration by Margo Rivera-Weiss The first in a series profiling local immigrant food makers with strong ties to cultures around the globe From organizing street protests to serving street foods: Reem Assil made a mid-career switcheroo that’s both…
Read MoreIce Pops Without the Guilt
Meet Fairyella, the tooth fairy who inspired a line of frozen pops made from organic fruits and veggies. “The pops are real food,” says creator and Benicia mom Kimberli Haris, who sources the produce from Capay Organic and makes the pops using less than five grams of sugar and no added stabilizers, dyes, or preservatives.…
Read MoreSharing the Pie
Baking a Co-Op Niles Pie Company rolls out a business plan that lets employees share in the profits By Rachel Trachten “Sharing the pie” has taken on a whole new meaning over at Union City–based Niles Pie Company. As customers line up for summertime pies bursting with strawberries or peaches, the shop’s original owner, Carolyn…
Read MoreAll Under Heaven
Meet Madame Huang Reporter Anna Mindess finds out how a taste of pressed duck launched Alameda resident Carolyn Phillips on a cookbook career By Anna Mindess | Photos by Scott Peterson I’m in the kitchen of Alameda resident Carolyn Phillips watching her practiced hands wield a wooden Chinese rolling pin to roll out disks of…
Read MoreLiquid Assets
Brewer with a Cause Bison Brewing’s Daniel Del Grande builds supply and demand for organics By Derrick Peterman Daniel Del Grande became a brewer the usual way. An engineer by training but bored with his job, he turned his home brewing hobby into a new career, jumping at the chance to buy Berkeley’s Bison Brewing…
Read MoreGoing Green
By Plants Alone Produce is both heart and soul at CORE Kitchen By Alix Wall | Photos by Carmen Silva A sign outside CORE Kitchen at Oakland City Center proclaims: “Welcome to the world’s first produce-only restaurant.” Of course vegan and plant-based cuisine are familiar terms already, but CORE Kitchen CEO Corey Rennell wants his…
Read MoreHealth Beat
Juiced for Food Justice Organic smoothies and community spirit flow at Super Juiced by Rachel Trachten | photos by Carmen Silva Emanne Desouky and her partner Rana Halpern share deep roots in community organizing and a strong commitment to a healthy lifestyle. When they couldn’t find an organic juice bar in Oakland, they started one,…
Read MorePaul Canales: Building Community
Building Community in the Kitchen What I Learned from Chef Paul Canales By Gabrielle Myers | Photography by Stacy Ventura During the time I worked with Chef Paul Canales in the Oliveto kitchen, I noticed that he never came in with a predetermined idea for the day’s menu. It was all about the ingredients. Rather…
Read MoreWarming Winter Foods
Bundle Up & Chow Down Warming winter dishes from three world cultures By Anna Mindess Winters around the Bay do not call for mittens, woolen hats, and snow shovels, but most of us still appreciate an excuse to share comforting soups, stews, and steaming drinks with friends and family around the holidays. For some, it’s…
Read MoreDIY: Do It For the Bees
The BUZZ around PORT COSTA A DIY guide to holiday cooking and crafts that benefit the bees Photography by Erin Scott A stalwart band of honeybees (Apis mellifera) works the terrain around Port Costa. Peaceful and productive co-inhabitants of this Contra Costa County hamlet on the Carquinez Strait, the bees play a key…
Read MoreDark Heart Chili Sauce
Joel Devalcourt had been trying to perfect his chili sauce recipe when serendipity led him to a bottle of nut oil. More specifically, it was some La Tourangelle walnut oil that Joel and his wife Yvette found in the pantry of a Berkeley home where they were house sitting. A Santa Cruz native…
Read MoreCalicraft Brewery
Calicraft Creativity Bubbles up in Walnut Creek By Derrick Peterman Most brewers find their calling in their early 20s after a few years of home brewing. Calicraft’s Blaine Landberg realized he wanted to become a brewer at age 9. “My Uncle Gary and Aunt Lori always brought beer for Christmas, and I thought it was…
Read MoreOn the Menu: Backyard Bounty
Residents barter garden surplus with top chefs and food producers Continuing our year-long series about relationships between local farms and restaurants BY SARAH HENRY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN JOLIN For Christine Hwang and Tim Drew, it started with an abundance of honey. Then they moved on to herbs and root vegetables, which they bike…
Read MoreCity Girl Farm store
Abeni Ramsey moves her mission from Farm to Fork BY SARAH HENRY • PHOTOS BY NICKI ROSARIO Abeni Ramsey (some may know her as Abeni Massey) has attracted national attention for her local urban farming efforts. They began eight years ago when, with the help of City Slicker Farms, Ramsey, who was on food stamps at…
Read MoreTODAY’S SPECIAL
HITTING THE BULL’S-EYE AT BULL VALLEY ROADHOUSE BY SARAH HENRY PHOTOS BY STACY VENTURA Lots of Bay Area folks have never heard of Port Costa and have no clue how to get to this sleepy little northern Contra Costa County community or even where to find it on a map. Hint: Look on the…
Read MoreRediscovering Hot Chocolate
¡Bate, Bate, Chocolate! Rediscovering Hot Chocolate STORY AND PHOTOS BY KRISTINA SEPETYS Pronounced: báh-teh, báh-teh, chó-co-lá-te, the headline comes from a Mexican children’s song ¡Bate, bate, chocolate! Stir, stir, chocolate, tu nariz de cacahuate. your nose is…
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