small but mighty

Back when I started this blog, I looked around for other Oakland blogs, and besides the amazing A Better Oakland, one of the first ones I found was monteskewed. Monte is (amongst other things) pastor of a small church in the Dimond district, Fruitvale Presbyterian. There a lot of blogs out there, but very few that have interesting content and are well-written. The fact Monte's blog is about Oakland and Christianity was a big bonus.

Fruitvale Presbyterian

When I decided to leave Resurrection Lutheran in Dublin, a big part of the reason was that K and I wanted to be able to worship together. I'd been at RLC for 9 years or so, and doing media for most of that. It had grown to the point where many Sundays felt like work (I was doing the media on a volunteer basis) not worship, and was ready to move on. After I left RLC, I added Fruitvale Presbyterian (FVPC) to our list of churches to check out. When I found out Monte had accepted a call to a church in France, K and I bumped it up in the list.

FVPC is a small church, but mighty in their acts. Monte gave a great sermon on love. Love is central to Christianity (or should be); Jesus answers the question of 'what is the greatest commandment?' with "love God, love your neighbor". It's the filter I view a lot of things through, particularly when a person claims such-and-such an act is 'Christian'. If it doesn't pass the "love God, love your neighbor" test, it's pretty suspect in my eyes. FVPC does their best to live out "love your neighbor" by being active in the community around them. I don't know yet if it's the right church for K and I, but it's definitely worth checking out if you live in the area.

signs: Howden Building

Spice Monkey is a yummy little restaurant on Webster (read a brief review here.) Besides the food, of note is the building it's in, the tile-clad Howden building. The space Spice Monkey is in is labeled Robert Howden & Sons.

the Howden building

Robert Howden & Sons

It's a funky little space, with tile-covered stairs and a fireplace. It looks like it could have been a hotel, but sounds more like a hardware store. Anybody know what it was?

food: Spice Monkey

Spice Monkey Cafe

We're still without a kitchen, so last night my wife and I tried a new restaurant for us, Spice Monkey. In short, we loved it. The food was great, and there were lots of vegetarian options for me (even a couple of vegan options). It's described as "eclectic fresh California fusion cuisine", and eclectic definitely covers it. But the odd combinations work well together. The music they played was similarly eclectic, but worked well together, too.

plum tart

They had a decent wine list, but we selected from their very good beer list (Boont Amber for K, Mirror Pond Pale Ale for me). To top off the evening, we had an amazingly delicious plum tart. We'll definitely be going again.

signs: Fruitvale Hall

Fruitvale Hall

Just down from Bonanza is Fruitvale Hall, with a large 'Bingo' sign on it. The eagle on the flag pole is included for Dave over at Fragmentary Evidence.

signs: 1/4 lb. Giant Burgers

1/4 lb. Giant Burgers

Yesterday on my way to Economy Lumber to get some stuff for our kitchen remodel, I snapped a shot of the 1/4 lb. Giant Burgers sign that Patrick suggested.

On the way home by a different route, I discovered that it's part of a chain, at least a small one. There's another on MacArthur in the Laurel district, and one on International. Which lead me to another sign discovery, Tom Spaulding's The NorCal Explorer. Besides some shots of signs in Oakland, he's got a ton of classic signs from Fresno and all over. If you like vintage signs, it's worth checking out.