The Kingfish gets ready to move

The historic Kingfish bar is getting ready to move. I stopped in there Saturday after helping with the Oakland Urban Paths walk, and had a chance to talk with managing owner of the bar, Emil Peinert. Peinert was behind bringing the Kingfish back after it was closed for 18 months, and the quirky bar on Claremont is clearly something he's passionate about. When offered space in the new building that will be constructed on the location, he passed. When told by a contractor that it would be cheaper and easier to just tear the building down and build a new building, he found a new contractor.

The current schedule is to close on January 2. The move will occur on January 10. And if all goes well, they hope to be up and running in the new location about 2 months after that. The new location will have the old building and its decor, but it will also have space for a beer garden, and a second bar at the back.

Oaktoberfest

Saturday was the annual Oaktoberfest celebration in the Dimond. I don't make it every year, but I made a point of going this year because one of the music performers was the legendary Pete Escovedo. The weather was hot, but tons of people came out to drink beer, eat food, listen to music, and generally have a good time.

A video of the Bavarian dancing:


A video of some young people playing with Pete Escovedo's band:


Lots more pictures from Oaktoberfest:

Lungomare + Bison Brewing food and beer pairing

Last night was a special dinner at Lungomare. Chef Craig Difonzo prepared special dishes to pair with four different Bison Brewing beers. I love Bison's beers, and K and I have eaten at Lungomare before, but this was an amazing combo. And with a fun, interesting bunch of people, it made for a great evening.

SessionFest 2014

Saturday was the 2nd annual SessionFest, with dozens of breweries providing lower-alcohol beers to local beer fans, all to benefit Bike East Bay. "Session" beers are ones that are lower in alcohol, so you can drink more of them in one session without getting totally drunk. There's no strict definition, but it generally means less than 4.5% ABV (Alcohol By Volume).

I started the day volunteering at the free valet bike-parking station. We filled up pretty quickly with about 150 bikes, and could have used even more space. Great to see so many people riding and walking to the event. Then it was time to wander, sample lots of different beers, and dog- and people-watch. It was perfect weather; the morning fog burned off, but kept it from getting too warm. A hella fun event, and if you like beer, hella recommended.

Lots more pictures from SessionFest:

food+drink: Lost+Found

Ifinally got a chance to make a second, longer visit to Lost+Found, the new beer garden on Telegraph. On my first visit, I barely had time for a beer. This time I got to hang out with my friend Mike for a while, have a couple beers, and sample the food.

The food menu is fairly simple, but includes some vegi and vegan options so I was happy. The vegan sloppy joe was quite good, as was the definitely-not-vegan grilled cheese sandwich. Lost+Found has a great beer selection, with about 20 local and not so local beers on tap. While the beer garden is built on an old parking lot, it feels like a garden with lots of plants around the seating, plus a ping pong table and other amusements. Even though yesterday was still pretty warm (though not nearly so hot as Wednesday), the space was cool and inviting, with a nice cross-breeze.

One wall of the garden space is home to a Ernest Doty mural, though fairly tame compared with many of his works. While there's definitely a hipsterish vibe (like many new places in Uptown), it still all adds up to a lovely spot to hang out, have a beer, and a bit of food. To me the only thing missing is the presence of dogs. Someone tried to bring one in while we were there, and while I couldn't hear what was exchanged, the upshot was that the dog and its person left.

#MeatlessMonday, Food+Beer Pairings, and Local Love

Thursday I met up with Dan and Ashley from Bison Brewing, Carlo and Geneva of Savor Oakland food tours, and the folks at Forge Pizza in Jack London Square to talk about Meatless Mondays, food and beer pairings, and supporting local businesses.

Bison founder and Chief Hoperations Officer Dan Del Grande told us a bit about the Meatless Monday movement. The name started during WWI, when the U.S. government encouraged people to eat fewer key staples like meat ("Meatless Mondays") and wheat ("Wheatless Wednesdays") to help feed the troops in Europe. The idea returned during WWII and went through the post-war years to help feed war-torn Europe. The modern movement in the U.S. began in 2003, with the message of "one day a week, cut out meat" as a way for individuals to do something good for themselves and for the planet. The movement got a big boost in 2009 when Paul McCartney and his daughters started a Meat Free Monday campaign.

Raising cattle, pigs and other animals for meat takes a lot of resources and take a toll on the environment. One of those resources is water, something of interest to every Californian; raising a pound of beef takes somewhere between 1,800 and 2,500 gallons of water. Eating less meat is a way to reduce the impact on the planet. That's the main reason I've been vegetarian for over a decade. But reducing your meat intake by 1/7th is even easier.

Dan has been doing #MeatlessMonday for years, but that's not the only way Bison Brewing practices sustainability. Bison was one the first U.S. breweries to be certified fully organic (finding organic hops was a problem). Bison is also a certified B Corporation, meaning they have to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

Next, we talked about food and beer pairings. It's not just the right wine that can compliment food; so can the right beer. Imagine one of Forge Oakland's margherita pizzas, accompanied by a Bison Honey Basil or two. Or a Chicory Salad and a Saison de Wench. All of the spec sheets for Bison's beers include suggested food pairings, and not just vegi options. I'm wondering which beer would go best with their awesome Cauliflower pizza—maybe a Chocolate Stout?

Finally, (all the while sampling Bison's various tasty brews), we heard the stories behind some of the beers. When Bison first went organic, the hardest thing to get was organic hops; that's part of why some of Bison's early beers aren't very hoppy. When they finally could get organic hops, they got a lot. And hence Kermit the Hop Double IPA was born. Bison has been doing different Saison-style beers each year for a while. This year's was inspired and created by Bison's Director of Awesomeness, Ashley Rouston (aka @TheBeerWench), based on Bison's farmhouse ale. Saison beers were originally made with whatever was in season, and in springtime that meant lots of flowers and botanicals. This Saison includes rose petals, lemongrass and hibiscus!

I don't know what's next for the #MeatlessMonday movement in Oakland and the East Bay, but you can do your part any day of the week. The Savor Oakland food tours of Jack London Square includes a stop at Forge Pizza; hopefully soon you'll be able to add a Bison beer to go with your sample, and triple the local (and meatless!) love.

Bison brewing with Oakland-grown hops! - celebrate at Hops and Harvest

I'm a big fan of buying local, urban gardens, helping others, and of beer, so Saturday there's an event tailor-made for me.

Bison Brewing has been making tasty beer since 1989. Beginning in 2003, their beers were certified organic, one of the first breweries to make fully organic beers. Bison supports local non-profits, and are working on The Beer Wagon, a big red beer-serving truck, to help raise funds for even more non-profits.

On Saturday, Bison is teaming up with the Peoples Victory Garden for a fundraiser, Hops and Harvest. They're celebrating the release of a new beer, Oakland Hop Harvest Ale, which uses hops grown here in Oakland. (Cascade Hops, for those who wonder about such things.)

The event will include a brewing demonstration, edible garden classes, live music and various activities for adults and children. Food from Fist of Flour Pizza Company (who are working on a new brick-and-mortar location) and Rosamunde Sausage Grill will be available for purchase. Tickets for the event are $10 in advance ($5 for kids) or $15 at the door. Get tickets here.

If you can't make the event on Saturday but want to check out the beer, below is a list of locations that are serving it. Most are in Oakland and Berkeley, though there are a few elsewhere.

location	city
Ben & Nicks	Oakland
Cato's	Oakland
Commonwealth	Oakland
Hog's Apothecary	Oakland
New Parkway Theater	Oakland
Olde Depot	Oakland
Portal	Oakland
Rosemunde's	Oakland
Bobby G's	Berkeley
Beta Lounge	Berkeley
Freehouse	Berkeley
Jupiter	Berkeley
Saturn	Berkeley
TRex	Berkeley
Bistro	Hayward
California Craft Beer	Fremont
Whole Foods Potrero Hill	San Francisco

Check out the great article on Bay Area Bites.

Oaktoberfest 2013

The other week I had too many things going on, but I did manage to go and hang out at Oaktoberfest in the Dimond for a bit. Lots of adults and kids (and no small number of dogs) having fun.

Lots more pictures from Oaktoberfest:

Bison Organic Beer raises $9,102 for charity, looks to raise more

Brewmaster Dan Del Grande of Bison Organic Beer; Chef Kim Alter of Haven; Karen Rogers, Founder of Sprouts and the three lucky scholarship winners!

On August 25th, Berkeley-based Bison Organic Beer and Eat Boston co-hosted the first-ever San Francisco Bacon & Beer Festival. 25 craft breweries and 25 Bay Area restaurants came together for the event, which benefited local slow food charity, Sprouts Cooking Club.

The event raised $9,102 for Sprouts Cooking Club. Sprouts is using the money to put three students through their Chef-in-Training program—a culinary-training program that provides disadvantaged youth the opportunity to turn their lives around and secure a job in the restaurant industry by learning essential cooking skills under the tutelage of some of the best chefs in the Bay Area.

"In my opinion, most existing beer festivals don't serve the best interest of the charities they are supposed to be supporting," said Dan Del Grande, Bison's owner and brewmaster. "The amount of money raised is usually small and, often times, festival attendees don't even know which charities are benefiting. My goal with the Bacon & Beer Festival was to be as transparent as possible—I wanted people to know who they were supporting and where their hard-earned money went."

Bison is currently raising money for another philanthropic initiative called The Beer Wagon—a 501(c)3 pending beverage truck that will donate 100% of its profits to like-minded local charities, like Sprouts. To learn more about The Beer Wagon and how you can donate to the cause, visit Indiegogo.com. There are great perks available at various donation levels.

Bike to Work Day 2013

Yesterday was the annual Bike to Work Day, and thousands of people all over the Bay Area took part. I volunteered with the East Bay Bicycle Coalition near Coast Guard Island along the estuary.

I don't know the overall stats, but we had over 250 bicyclists go past the energizer station. Not all of them stopped, as some had already been to other energizer stations, but it was awesome to see so many people out biking. There were young and old (though technically the very young were biking to day care, not work); first-timers and regular bike commuters; and people of all shapes, sizes and colors. Hopefully some of them will start biking to work on a regular basis!

I also volunteered at the hella fun after-work bike party in Old Oakland. It included live and DJ'ed music, food trucks including Tina Tamale and Liba Falafel, and beer from New Belgium, and a variety of bike-related activities. The bike parking was so popular that we had to set up extra racks and temporarily slow down the incoming rate! Local businesses were also getting a lot of love; people were checking out the new Spokes bike shop, Marion and Rose's Workshop, and heading for restaurants as the party started winding down.

Check out the coverage of the after work party on Oakland North.

More pictures from Bike to Work Day:

Tour de Bière 2013

Saturday was the third annual Tour de Bière, a fundraiser put on by The Grand Cru to benefit the East Bay Bicycle Coalition. We had perfect weather for the ride, and as in past years, the tickets for it sold out quickly. I'm not the only one who enjoys beer and bikes, particularly in support of a good cause.

We started in San Leandro at Drake's Brewery. They were kind enough to open early and offer tours. While we were checking in, we started with coffee from Bicycle Coffee Co. and breakfast snacks. The location was new to the Tour de Biere, but Drake's has been around since 1989. It was founded by Roger Lind and originally known as Lind Brewing Company. With 50 people on the ride, we had to split into smaller groups to go on the tour, so it took a while for everyone to go on it. On the tour we heard about the brewing process at Drake's, but also about one of their specialties, barrel-aged beers. Normally after brewing, fermenting and filtering, a beer is pretty much ready to drink. Barrel-aged beers put the beer into oak barrels for further aging. The origin of the barrel, whether from wine-making or some other alcohol production affects the taste, as does charring the inside of the barrel. The beer is aged for varying periods, and the result is something unique. The one we sampled was darker, a bit smokey, and slightly sour. I loved it, but it's not to everyone's taste.

After Drake's, we headed past the Oakland airport and into Alameda. After a brief rest stop on Bay Farm Island, we rode along the estuary and onto the island of Alameda (which wasn't always an island.) There we were greeted by one the mom of one of the riders who had made us fresh cookies! The ride along the estuary was particularly beautiful, as there were numerous shorebirds and other waterfowl.

From Alameda we headed through Jingletown up along the estuary towards Jack London Square to Linden Street Brewery in West Oakland. There we were greeted by Andrew, head brewer and co-founder (Adam was busy in back watching a test batch being brewed.) Linden Street is partnering with James Sybahout of Commis and Hawker Fare to open a restaurant adjacent to the brewery in Linden Street (I reported on this back in December.) As a result, things were a bit chaotic in the tasting room, and much of the furniture had been moved outside. Andrew told us about the story of Linden Street (the first production brewery in Oakland since the 1950s) and kept us well-supplied with tastes of LSB's four beers. They brew "session beers", which are lower in alcohol than many beers today. The lower alcohol (generally 4% to 5%) allows you to drink more beer over a session without getting too drunk too fast. At Linden Street we were joined by El Taco Bike, which gave people the opportunity for a tasty snack.

Then it was up through West Oakland and Emeryville to Aquatic Park in Berkeley, and on to the Trumer Brewery. We again broke into smaller groups for a tour of the brewery. Trumer is unusual in a number of ways. First, they make only one beer, Trumer Pils. The first Trumer brewery started in Salzburg, Austria, in 1601, and is still family owned. They pride themselves on making a pure, bright pilsner, so when they OK'd making Trumer in the U.S., the quality of the water was a big consideration. EBMUD water from the Sierra Nevada was perfect for their needs, but they still had to do a lot of back-and-forth to satisfy the exacting standards of the main brewers in Austria. At the brewery they have a quality assurance lab that tests the beer to make sure it's up to their standards. Trumer then opened their tasting room to us, where people enthusiastically drank some Trumer Pils.

Our final stop was Pyramid Brewery, which is also in Berkeley not far from Trumer. There we took over the patio and sampled a few of Pyramid's beers. Some people ordered food, while some went on a tour of the brewery. They don't allow photos inside the brewhouse, but there was interesting stuff to learn. We heard about Pyramid's history, from their founding in the Pacific Northwest to their expansion to Berkeley and several subsequent mergers. After the tour, the rest of us got food and some more beer, and sat and reflected on the day.

It was another great Tour de Biere. There was about 20 miles of cycling on the tour, and I had another 17 or so to and from BART and home at the start and end of the tour, so it was a lot of riding. But the tour part was very flat, with the biggest hills being over the bridges to and from Alameda. Thanks to The Grand Cru for organizing it, to Drake's, Linden Street, Trumer and Pyramid for hosting it, Bicycle Coffee Co. for the coffee Clif Bar for the snacks, and to everyone else who made the day possible.

Lots more pictures from the tour:


There's a great write up by Jenny Oh at Bay Area Bites with more pictures.

Read about the Tour de Biere 2012.

Oakland Food News

All the news that's fit to nom. As is frequently the case, there's lots of food-related news from Oakland.

I experienced some new and new-to-me tastes at the recent Oakland Indie Awards. A new-to-me taste was Nieves Cinco de Mayo, which has a shop in the Fruitvale Village complex. Along with more standard flavors like strawberry (made with berries fresh from the farmers market) and coffee (made with Blue Bottle Coffee), they also feature flavors like corn and key lime, depending on what's in season. Read more at Oakland North. I'm planning to check them out more fully next time I'm in the area on a warm day.

One of the most popular food vendors giving samples at the Indie Awards was Victory Burger, which will be around the corner from Actual Cafe. They successfully raised $25,000 for the build out of the space on Kickstarter so hopefully it's all going forward as planned. The vegi option was good, and the homemade pickles are fantastic.

Another new-to-me taste at the JLS Night Market was Cholita Linda. There was a good-sized line, but someone said, "It's worth it. They have the best tacos." K and I shared some fish tacos and some tofu tacos (made with Hodo Soy tofu), and they were amazing—definitely worth waiting for.

Phat Beets Produce has been at the north Oakland farmers market at the Arlington Medical Center for a while. They recently moved a few blocks away to Stanford and Lowell. But they're also planning a healthy cafe and a commercial kitchen for aspiring food entrepreneurs. The East Bay Express has the full story.

Big food news for East Oakland. Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the U.S., will be opening a Foods Co. supermarket and drugstore at the Foothill Square shopping center on 107th Ave. and MacArthur. CM Larry Reid is excited about it, and presumably area residents are, too. The Oakland Tribune has the story.

Linden Street Brewery received a well-deserved award for their Burning Oak Black Lager, Best Local Beer as voted in SF Weekly. Congrats to Adam and his crew!

The East Bay Express a nice write up of Kamdesh Afghan Kabab House on 14th Street, and the challenges of getting used to a new cuisine. Sounds tasty but a bit meat-centric for my vegetarian ways.

I saw a blurb on SFGate that pointed me to Oliveto's ongoing series about food, It's Complicated: A Series of Conversations about Eating, Cooking, and The Politics of Food. Past events in the series include Our Local Seas: A Comeback Story and Building a Local Grain Economy: A Kitchen Table Talks Production. Coming up in September is Grass-Fed Beef, when the panel includes local food writer Michael Pollan.

Some closing I heard about last month have come to pass. Tully's closed their Oakland branch across from city hall, but they still have branches in Berkeley, Pleasanton and San Francisco. Much more surprising was the sudden closing of B Restaurant.

I still haven't made it over to West Oakland to check it out, but Eat Drink Oakland has some gorgeous pictures of the food from Fuse BOX.

As noted, Kitchen 388 on Grand Avenue has reopened, with more focus on dinner. According to the East Bay Express, you can also order their food to be delivered across the street to coffee house / bar Room 389. I haven't been to Room 389 yet, but Sweeeeet Oakland loves it.

Speaking of which, Sweeeeet Oakland also loves the recently opened Donut Savant on Broadway. Their tip: ask what's fresh and may be still warm! Read more at the East Bay Express.

I missed the article back in April, but Tablehopper says that Charlie Hallowell of Pizzaiolo and Boot & Shoe Service is planning a new place across Grand Avenue from Boot and Shoe Service that will also be a full-service butcher shop.

Speaking of meat, Oakland urban farmer and writer Novella Carpenter has an interesting essay, "Why I Eat Meat".

Old Oakland will be getting a new place, a branch of Rosamunde Grill which features grilled sausage and craft beers. According to the San Jose Mercury, it's scheduled to open later this summer, but if you can't wait that long you can sample their fare at a popup at Classic Cars West along 26th Street, Saturdays from noon to 8pm.

SFGate's Bar Bites has a nice review of Caña, the Cuban restaurant on Lake Park bear the Grand Lake Theater. I haven't been yet, but a recent discussion on Twitter about plantains makes me want to go.

Oakland and its amazing food scene continue to attract attention from all over. The Boston Globe has an article titled, "Leave your heart wherever, but eat in Oakland". It talks about the food scene, and mentions Plum, Blackberry Bistro, Brown Sugar Kitchen, Picán, Barlata and others before launching into a full-on list of restaurants by neighborhoods.

Speaking of Brown Sugar Kitchen, there's some local love for Tanya Holland's B-Side BBQ in Diablo Magazine. Number 42 on their list of 50 Things You Gotta Do This Summer is dine at B-Side BBQ on San Pablo. The website lists some non-meat options, so I might even try it.

Also on their to-do list are:
#35 - sipping a farmers market cocktail at Easy Lounge on Lakeshore
#32 - slurp at boozy milkshake at Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe
#29 - share a sundae at Loard's
#26 - ditch stadium grub for the Bay Area BBQ Championship at the Coliseum in July
#18 - guzzle a local brew at Linden Street Brewery
#13 - lick a margarita with a Sloshee, an Oakland-made margarita popsicle
#11 - eat by the water at Bocanova or Lake Chalet
#10 - bike the urban wine trail starting in Oakland
and a bunch of things not focused on food and drink, like #25 - camping at the Oakland Zoo, #22 - renting a boat at Lake Merritt, and more.

Last but not least, there's a new food truck pod in Oakland, The Eatup, Fridays, 6-11pm at 21st and Telegraph. I haven't been yet (nor to the Clay Street Food Pod), but hooray for more food options in Oakland!

bikes + beer + benefit = fun!

This past Sunday was a great event combining several of my favorite things: beer, bikes and Oakland. It was the Tour de Bière 2012, led by The Grand Cru, as a fundraiser for the East Bay Bike Coalition. With a full day of biking and beer tasting, plus discounts at several destinations, it was a bargain at $25 per person. So it was unsurprising when tickets sold out for it in 4 days.

We met at Trumer in Berkeley to sign in and start off with some coffee and snacks. The group split into two for a tour around Trumer's brewery. Outside are a number of large silos for grain, and giant temperature-controller fermenters. Trumer Pils is known for being a 'bright', clear beer, so they've got an amazing filtration system, but because EBMUD water is so good, they don't need to filter or treat the water. I worked at a brew on premises / brewpub for a while, and was interested in beer before that, so I'm familiar with the brewing process. That said, I still found the tour at Trumer interesting and informative.

Linden Street Brewery

From there we headed down to Linden Street Brewery in Jack London Square. I'm a huge fan of Linden Street, not just because founder Adam Lamoreaux is incredibly supportive of different non-profits around Oakland, but also because Linden Street Beers are incredibly tasty (love the Burning Oak Black Lager and the Urban Peoples' Common Lager). LSB has been growing at a healthy pace, and Adam is hoping to outgrow the space in Jack London Square. But even if that happens, he plans to keep the Linden Street location going forward, as a 'brewery incubator'. Currently LSB hosts Dying Vines Brewing, but going forward they'd love to host more.

Triple Rock

The group again split in two. Most people headed for Elevation 66 in El Cerrito and the rest of us headed for Triple Rock in Berkeley. Triple Rock is the granddaddy, one of the oldest operating brewpubs in the U.S., and opened when I was in college in 1986. They were having their 'Sour Sunday' which drew a lot of fans, so the brewpub was packed. I had some of their IIMax DIPA, a big, hoppy beer.

We then headed over to Elevation 66 in El Cerrito. It's the new kid on the block, having just opened in 2011. I'm not in El Cerrito very often, but I'll definitely keep it in mind for future visits.

To finish off the evening, we rode down to Pyramid in Berkeley, not far from where we started. Our ranks had thinned a bit by then, but those remaining happily toured the large brew house and sampled a variety of Pyramid's beers.

The tour was about 20 miles, plus I had another 6 miles each way to and from BART, so about 32 miles of riding for me. Despite that, I only used the electric assist on my ride home; the rest of the ride was flat and slow enough I didn't need it.

It was a long day with a lot of riding, but hella fun. Thanks to The Grand Cru for organizing the Tour de Bière and to Trumer, Linden Street, Triple Rock, Elevation 66, and Pyramid for hosting us and supporting the East Bay Bike Coalition!

lots more pictures from the ride:


More pictures from The Grand Cru.

Oaktoberfest 2011

Saturday afternoon was the 4th annual Oaktoberfest in the Dimond. We had perfect weather for this family-friendly event, with the early fog burning off to partly cloudy skies. Three stages featured a variety of music and dancing, and there was a climbing wall, face painting, and crafts for kids.

But naturally the center of things was the Bill Brand Biergarten (named for the late Bill Brand, long-time reporter and beer critic). At the center was Oakland favorite, Linden Street Brewery, with Adam himself serving up People's Common Lager. Next door was a nice discovery for me, Dying Vines. They do their brewing at Linden Street, and were serving up Hop Candi and the tasty Old Brick Bitter. Also serving were Oakland Brewing Company and Pacific Coast Brewing (Oakland), as well as Drake's (San Leandro), Trumer Pils (Berkeley), Anchor Brewing (San Francisco), and others.

There were plenty of yummy food vendors, too, including Fist of Flour Pizza, Guerilla Grub, and more. For more info on the beers and some nice pics, check out the coverage at the Brewed for Thought blog. All in all, a really fun, tasty event!







Lots more photos:

Friday fun

Habitat homes on 81st

Friday I had hella fun, and I didn't even partake of the Art Murmur, Dancing Under the Stars, Bites off Broadway, or the new Dishcrawl.

I started with my usual Friday bike ride to the Habitat for Humanity building site in the Woodland neighborhood of East Oakland. It was foggy and cool, so I froze my butt off on the ride down the hill. But the first sign of a great day appeared as I signaled to turn off Fruitvale on to School Street. Without needing to, just to be nice, an oncoming car stopped and the driver signaled me to take the turn.

Although I started my ride on my semi-usual route, I dropped down to International sooner than I normally do (sometimes I go all the way to 73rd before I drop down). While I was waiting at the light behind a couple of cars, I had a lovely exchange with a guy unloading flowers at his shop.

When I got to Habitat, I was fully expecting to spend the day painting. The exteriors of the homes are almost done, so that's the stage we're at. I don't dislike painting, but I don't especially enjoy it compared with some of the other tasks I get to do at Habitat. But to my surprise, I got to work on some safety railings in preparation for Grid Alternatives coming out to install the solar panels next week. And that started with a field trip to Economy Lumber, where I haven't been much since rebuilding the stairs from the carport at home. I spent a lot of time there back when I was building the addition to our house, so it was a fun diversion for me. I worked most of the day with one of the volunteers from SyWest. And I did end up doing some painting by the end of the day, but even that was fun -- it was up on the roof, painting the vent stacks to protect them from the elements.

Buzz

I finished a bit early, and so I hopped on my bike and headed for Old Oakland via BART. I had in my mind to stop by La Borinqueña to pick up some tamales. But I realized on my BART ride that I wasn't that early, and was in fact going to arrive too late for LBQ. So I headed to The Trappist instead. Things were already hopping there with an early Friday crowd, but I managed to score a seat on the patio. There I met Buzz, a very sweet bulldog who belongs to the folks at The Trappist. While I was relaxing, I saw Adam Lamoreaux of Linden Street Brewery come through to deliver a keg of Burning Oak Black Lager. Adam mentioned a new place that's working towards opening on Telegraph, across 18th from Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe.

After my beer, I headed towards home. Since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to take one of my alternate routes home, via Old Tunnel Road. After a very short steeper section, Old Tunnel has a very gentle, winding grade, and very few cars, making it a joy to cycle on. (Along the way I saw my second and third news vans of the ride; the first was a KPIX van near Zachary's on College, the second and third were NBC Bay Area vans near highway 24). Between the gentle grade and the e-bike, I think I sometimes make regular road cyclists feel bad -- I tend to pass a lot of people going up hill. (I got my comeuppance today from a lycra-clad guy on a bike that probably weighs less than my battery.)

Secret Stairs event

After some dinner, K and I headed for Pegasus Books on Solano (a rare trip out of Oakland for me), for a book event for Secret Stairs East Bay that I reviewed a while back. There was a great turnout, and it was nice to meet the author, Charles Fleming, as we'd only conversed before in email.

To round out the evening, we headed back to Oakland for some dessert. The line at Fenton's was very long, so we opted for a more expensive but very tasty dessert and digestif at Dopo just up the street. A long day, but hella fun.