< Blame it on the Food » Oakland
 

Oakland

...now browsing by category

Oakland Dining Options

 

More Than Just a Good Rolling Stones’ Song; Brown Sugar, Oakland & Day Trip

Friday, November 27th, 2009

Brown Sugar Oakland, CA & An Oakland Day-Trip Itinerary

• A Creative Soul Food breakfast joint so good that your old-school grandmother and your hipster cousin from LA can come together and love every minute of it.  A bonus is also the fact that you won’t feel greasy or smell like the fryer when you leave.  The décor is very modern and has an updated tasteful diner feeling with a brown sugar color palette all around you.

Brown Sugar offers such specialties as Cornmeal Waffles and Fried Chicken, Pulled Pork Sandwich with Lime Slaw, Black-Eyed Pea Salad, Roast Pork Hash, and the Mac & Cheese.  You WILL wait in line to get a table at Brown Sugar because it is that popular even though it sits nearly by itself (at this point … hint, hint) in West Oakland.  You can watch the chef, Tanya Holland, prepare your food with precision alongside her other cooks in the kitchen.  I look forward to seeing the cook/chef who sports a green mohawk rockin’ out on the cooking channel with his own punk-rock palate show.

An Oakland Day Trip Itinerary:

(Must go on a first Sunday of the month)

1st Stop Eat breakfast at Brown Sugar @ 8-10am

2nd Stop First Sunday of every month go to the Alameda Flea Market @ 10am-12pm

3rd Stop Go on a tour at Hangar One Distillery Tasting & Tour in Alameda @ 12noon – 6pm

  • Get Directions: http://www.hangarone.com/visit.html
  • Taste Creatively-Crafted Flavored Vodkas, Absinthe, & Whiskey
  • Take a tour with the Vodka Vixen
  • You can bring a picnic lunch or snacks to eat out front on the picnic table and admire the view of SF from across the bay

Posted in Eating Out, Oakland, SF Bay Area Day Trips | No Comments »
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Zach Attack in the East Bay: Zachary’s Pizza, Oakland & Berkeley

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009


http://www.zacharys.com/

Zachary’s pizza is a local favorite in the East Bay.  The restaurant’s popularity is exhibited by the unavoidable forty-five minute to one hour wait for a table.  An Oakland friend described the wait at Zachary’s as just part of the experience.  She said, “You know you will have to wait, so just hang out and have a Red Tail.”

So we were happy to finally eat Zachary’s pizza after all of the hype.  It is definitely a Chicago-style deep dish variation and its popularity proves that Americans just can’t say no to the carb, dairy, meaty combo called pizza.

I lived in Chicago and love all varieties of Chicago pizza.  Zachary’s serves the deep dish version that made me nostalgic for my Chicago pizza favorites.

If you like Zachary’s or if you are just a pizza connoisseur, visit Chicago and check out three of our favorite varieties: Click to continue »

Posted in Eating Out, Oakland | 2 Comments »
Tags: ,

Guadalajara Taco Truck: Fruitvale Ave, East Oakland

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Guadalajara is a renowned taco truck in East Oakland.  It is a spot where folks from all walks of life gather to indulge themselves on the great al Pastor tacos and burritos.  The truck sits in the parking lot of the Guadalajara restaurant across from the Fruitvale BART station, allowing quick access for diners on foot or in their cars.

When you order your meal it is served with complimentary slices of lime, fresh green onions, radishes, pickled carrots and jalapenos, red salsa, and salsa verde.  You take your food over to your car and eat standing, utilizing your trunk or truck bed as your table.  Between bites of taco or burrito, take a bite of the garnishes for an extra crunch and added flavor. Click to continue »

Posted in Eating Out, Oakland | No Comments »
Tags: , ,

Eat Real Food Festival: Jack London Square Oakland

Monday, August 31st, 2009

We traveled to the East Bay to check out the Eat Real Food Festival this weekend in Oakland.  The bill included many local street food vendors and a beer shed featuring some of Northern California’s best breweries.  It was an extremely hot Saturday afternoon and Jack London Square was packed with people.  We were all starving and the smell coming from the food trucks was making the situation that much more immediate.  We passed up the first couple of vendors to check out the full line up before we decided to dig in.  It was only so long before we gave in, as everything looked so good.  Our hunger drove our decision to just tough it out with the long lines.  There were too many delicious things to give general assessments on so I’ll just let everyone give their own personal comments on the hot, sweaty, crowded deliciousness that was the Eat Real Fest.

Here is a quick list of the vendors we had a chance to check out:

Click to continue »

Posted in Eating Out, Oakland | No Comments »
Tags: ,

St. George Distillery in Alameda: Home of Hangar One Vodka

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

The Distillery came to our attention because of its reputation for Absinthe.  These guys dragged me to the tour as I was saying, “How boring!” picturing it to be like a schmaltzy Anheuser-Busch tour.  When we pulled up to the decommissioned military hangar in Alameda (Oakland, CA), I still wasn’t convinced that this non-descript industrial-looking exterior housed anything of interest.  However, the view from the parking lot across the bay towards SF was magnificent.

When we got inside the building we were greeted by the outgoing Andie, the “Vodka Vixen,” who also happened to be our tour guide.  After some quick banter with Andie, I realized that I was totally wrong about this place.  It was funky and industrial with a great bar for tasting in the next room.  If you have been to the quirky Bonny Doon winery in Santa Cruz then I would say this place is the Bonny Doon of liquor.  Andie offered us the $10 tasting (12 liquors), or the $15 tasting (12 liquors + absinthe & a glass with a skull and bones sticker).  We had two $15 tastings for the three of us and had a 1/2 hour to finish it all before the tour started.

Anne, our personal bartender, gave us recommendations on drinks to make with the liquors, but honestly, they are so flavorful that you don’t really even need to mix them with anything.  Andie is a great actress and makes the tour really fun, as well as educational (if you don’t know much about the distilling process).  It flew by pretty quickly considering it was about an hour long; only a couple of folks ducked out in the middle to start their tastings.

We noticed that after the tour some people had brought picnics and ate outside the hangar at two picnic tables that look out at the view.(GoogleMap)

Click to continue »

Posted in Around California, Drinks, Oakland | 1 Response »
Tags:

Newer Entries »