Dine About Oakland: Shan Dong

I ♥ Shan Dong. That’s really the long and the short of it. The last few months have been extraordinarily busy on all fronts, and last weekend, I just did not want to cook (or clean, or paint, or weed, or do any of the other things I was supposed to be doing around the house). So when seven o’clock rolled around and D. started wondering what we could eat for dinner, I tried for a bye. “Umm, takeout?” Now I should note that 99.9 percent of the time when I try this, I get resistance. For the most part, we either cook at home or we eat out, and the money we save by cooking simple meals at home finances the next cocktails we get out. It’s a good little system—but every now and then, there’s a day when I just don’t have the energy to cook, let alone to motivate enough to go out somewhere. This was one of those days.

And this time, magically, it worked! We’re fortunate to have lots of great options nearby for takeout. But Saturday, I didn’t just want takeout—I wanted delivery. I wanted to be incredibly lame and lazy and curl up on the couch, watch a movie, and have someone bring me dinner. This limited our options considerably; there are only a handful of decent restaurants that deliver to our house (plethora of flyers that get left on the porch notwithstanding). There’s pizza: Lanesplitter, Rustica, or Pizza Pazza. There’s Indian from Raj on Piedmont. There’s Japanese from Sushiya on Broadway.

And then there’s Shan Dong. Shan Dong is a little restaurant in the heart of Oakland Chinatown that’s well worth a visit in person—over the years I’ve steered lots of friends in that direction and no one’s ever come back disappointed. But they also have a great delivery gig running if you’re lucky enough to live within a mile and a half of Chinatown (and we squeak in just under the wire with a tenth of a mile to spare!)

Officially, Shan Dong serves Northern Chinese (or Shandong) cuisine. In my mind, this is code for noodles and dumplings, since in northern China, wheat is the staple crop, rather than rice. The flavors and mix of vegetables are a bit different than in other Chinese cuisines more common in the United States, and there’s a much bigger fish presence on the menu. But the absolute best parts of Northern Chinese cuisine are the fried, steamed, and boiled breads in all their forms.

First: you want the handmade noodles. Just factor the dollar surcharge into the cost of the noodle dishes. You WANT them. I almost always get sesame noodles, but really any noodle dish on the menu turns into wonderful goodness when you add the handmade noodles. Shan Dong is also known for their dumplings. These are a bit better when you eat at the restaurant—steamed food in general doesn’t travel super well—but we always get the vegetarian dumplings anyway, because yum! (I also have friends who rave about the house special pork dumplings, though I have yet to try them.) I also often get mu shu vegetables because I have a mu shu obsession, and their version is especially tasty. (Mu shu is rumored to have originated in the Shandong region, and I think the pancakes Shan Dong serves put others to shame.) And they never forget the special sauces for each dish, always carefully packaged.

Since all that plus some stir-fried green beans or Chinese broccoli usually fills us up and then some, that’s generally my delivery order of choice. But when I’ve eaten with larger groups at the restaurant, I’ve also had sizzling rice soup, pot stickers, onion pancake (mmm…but no good for delivery, as I discovered once), fish in various forms, and assorted chicken dishes.

They’re not perfect. When we put our order in this time, we got an estimated wait time of 40 minutes, but the food didn’t actually show up for well over an hour. How easy it is to place an order depends very much on who answers the phone (and on how well you speak Mandarin!) But for a grand total of $40 including tax and tip, we got enough deliciousness for two big dinners with enough left over for four work lunches; you really can’t beat that. They also get points for our last order, when the woman asked me what kind of Chinese broccoli I wanted. I was at a loss, since usually I just order Chinese broccoli and something tasty shows up. “Umm, steamed?” I asked, guessing. “No, no, no, stir-fried,” she corrected. “Much better.” Okay. Stir-fried it was! (When I recounted the story to D. afterwards, he cringed. Apparently everyone knows that Chinese broccoli is supposed to be stir-fried…)

Shan Dong is also open for Chinese breakfast on the weekends, and one of these days I’ll make it there for that, because if the steamed buns and fry bread are as good as the dumplings and noodles, it’s going to be a treat. Until then, though, they remain my go-to rainy-day don’t-wanna-cook partner-in-crime.

Grade: A
Cost: $-$$

You say tomato, I say….fusarium wilt?

Okay, I know I have no business posting about tomatoes in late November….but this one’s been waiting for a few free minutes for a while now, and in a fit of confusion, the only tomato plant we have left in the ground burst into flower this week, so that reminded me that I should wrap this up. (Yes, that would be this week when there was actually frost in the forecast and temps dropped to the low 40s—this is one mixed up tomato! I’m leaving it there to see how that pans out, though….)

But I wanted to get a post-season garden recap in nonetheless. This year, we planted:

• Taxi (from Ace Garden Center)
• Yellow brandywine (from Kassenhoff Growers)
• Cherry of unknown variety (from a Forage Oakland gathering)
• Paul Robeson (from Kassenhoff Growers)
• Glacier (from Kassenhoff Growers)
• Carmello (from Kassenhoff Growers)

Kassenhoff sells an amazing selection of heirloom plants at both the Temescal and Grand Lake Farmers Markets—it was all I could do to stop buying them after we’d filled up our beds! Theoretically these six were chosen to bear early, mid, and late season crops that would keep us up to our ears in tomatoes all summer long. In practice they all produced a little bit all season long, but nobody was prolific. (More on that below…)

Tomatoes! Clockwise from top: Glacier, Yellow Brandywine, Carmello, and a rather sad looking Taxi.

The Paul Robeson died of unknown causes early in the season, and I never did figure out if it was due to disease or to the fact that the Labradane tried to dig it up the weekend after we planted it. The others put on a good show, though—we didn’t have a huge number of tomatoes, but definitely more than last summer (and with pretty mild temps to boot).

By early August, though, it was clear that something was up with the plants. Huge swaths of leaves would turn yellow and wilt, and the stems I cut off were hollow with a soft white fuzz inside. From the outside, they looked waterlogged, although I’d been watering pretty conservatively. The potatoes that were sharing a planter with three of the tomatoes also fell victim. My online searches didn’t turn up a clear culprit, but either verticillium or fusarium wilt seemed like the prime contenders. Both are soil-borne, unfortunately, which means that we can’t plant tomatoes or other relatives in those two plots for the next several years. (We left this year’s plants in the ground on the advice of one book that pretty much summed it up as “ah, well—might as well enjoy the tomatoes you do get,” and we did indeed get some good ones, in spite of everything. So maybe there’s hope…)

So it’s back to the pots for the tomatoes next year—and I need to think of another good sun-lovin’ vegetable to plant in the big new planter with prime southern exposure instead. (Eggplants are too closely related to tomatoes, sadly, as are peppers—but squash may be an option.) For right now, we have fava bean cover crop planted there to try to build the soil up a bit.

In other garden news, most of our winter crops are planted now—although the carrots and parsnips hit an unfortunate glitch when a big hole appeared in that bed. I filled it in, and the next day it reappeared—and the Labradane showed up in the kitchen smelling like fresh soil. At first we thought he’d been digging in there trying to get to a critter. But then a few days later, D. came out to find him curled up in the garden, enjoying the warm little nest he’d made for himself. Time to get a garden fence, I guess!

Where to get married (or host other large events!) in Oakland and Berkeley

So, as a lot of people already know, we recently decided to get married (because clearly that is a smart thing to do when you’re about to blow $15K on a kitchen remodel…) We thought picking a nice place nearby would be a relatively simple endeavor, especially since D. was set on avoiding the Wedding Industrial Complex at all costs. Turns out not so much—so this has consequently been consuming way too many free evenings and weekends over the last six weeks (one of several reasons I haven’t been posting much lately!)

We’ve finally settled on a place, but now I have  a ridiculous amount of research on wedding venues in the East Bay. So, with apologies to people who read this blog because they like houses, gardens, Oakland, or our dog, I’m going to take a quick side trip to Wedding Land so that the next person to go venue hunting in Oakland and Berkeley won’t have to dedicate quite so many hours to it. (I promise this will be just about the only wedding-related post!)

This list of venues focuses on Oakland and Berkeley, mostly because we figured if we were going to have to drive over the hill to Lamorinda, we might as well head further afield and go to Marin or Sonoma. I thought it was important to keep our festivities local in spaces that were meaningful to us—there are some gorgeous destination spots across the Bay Area, but I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of visiting someplace for the first time to have a wedding there.

Prices listed here are current as of October 2009. Except where noted, all venues were priced for eight hours on a summer Saturday evening for a group of 100 with kitchen use; many venues offer discounts for other days of the week or for winter events. Some park spaces also allow you to mix and match rooms and charge accordingly. Prices do not include liability insurance or sound and alcohol permits, which many of these venues require. Asterisks indicate that the venue has catering restrictions, usually a list of approved caterers.

OUTDOOR PARKS & GARDENS

Dimond Park (Dimond): Tucked between the Glenview and Dimond Districts, Dimond Park offers two large picnic areas, Redwood Grove and Sequoia. Both can be reserved for events.
Cost: $75 per day per picnic area

Estuary Park (Oakland Estuary): A waterfront park near Jack London Aquatic Center, this spot offers gorgeous views and more grassy lawns for picnics.
Cost: Varies by number of guests ($50 to $250)

Joaquin Miller Park (Oakland hills): Beautiful WPA-era park with several popular wedding sites and some picnic grounds available as well. Owned by the City of Oakland, but very close to the EBRPD parks; I have trouble keeping track of which parks OPR runs and which parks EBRPD runs! Alcohol and amplified sound require permits. Picnics must be done by 10 pm.
Cost: Varies by specific site ($100 to $200)

Lakeside Park (Lake Merritt): Ringing the north end of the lake, Lakeside Park offers both grassy lawns (once the construction is finished!) and a bandstand that’s popular for ceremonies. Both can be reserved.
Cost: Varies by number of guests ($50 to $250); additional fee to reserve bandstand

Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline (Oakland Estuary): Beautiful views at another EBRPD park. My main hang-up there was that I’ve run community meetings there, and right off the bat I ruled out any place work-related (as did D., which was somewhat sad because he actually works at one of the more popular wedding spots in Berkeley!) Picnics must be done by 6 pm.
Cost: Varies by site capacity ($100 to $200)

Morcom Rose Garden (Piedmont Avenue): This is a gorgeous spot for a wedding ceremony. Unfortunately for us, we’re doing a pretty low-key ceremony and there’s no place near the Rose Garden to host a reception outdoors, so it didn’t make a lot of sense as a location. But if you’re doing a larger ceremony, it would be among my top picks. (Notably, it is walking distance to Camino, and they do buy-outs for large receptions, which could be a pretty tasty affair!)
Cost: $115 per hour for residents/$135 per hour for non-residents

Mountain View Cemetery (Piedmont Avenue): A little weird, yes. But the Olmsted-designed space was originally intended to be “churchyard, graveyard, park, and garden”—and they rent their chapels for wedding ceremonies and allow receptions on the open lawns in their beautiful historic space. Plus, a lot of cool people are buried here—who wouldn’t want the likes of Julia Morgan, Samuel Merritt, Bernard Maybeck, Henry Kaiser, and more as witnesses?

Redwood & Roberts Regional Parks (Oakland hills): Two more pretty EBRPD Oakland hills spaces. A little warmer than the Berkeley hills, but still a bit unpredictable on the weather front. Most EBRPD group picnic grounds allow alcohol with permits. Picnics must be done by 6 pm.
Cost: Varies by site capacity ($100 to $200)

Snow Park (Lake Merritt): Just across from Lake Merritt, Snow Park has huge grassy lawns that can be reserved for events.
Cost: Varies by number of guests ($50 to $250)

Tilden Park (Berkeley hills): Tilden Park, owned by the East Bay Regional Parks District, has a number of picnic sites throughout the park. Four of them can accommodate large groups: Willows (100), Padre (150),  Laurel (150), and Mineral Springs (200). This is my top pick for picnic spaces because Tilden is such a phenomenal park, with the Botanical Garden, Merry-Go-Round, Little Farm, Steam Train (that allows dogs to ride!), Lake Anza, and more. Picnics must be done by 6 pm.
Cost: Varies by site capacity ($100 to $200)

COMMUNITY CENTERS & INDOOR PARK SPACES
There are a ridiculous number of these in Oakland and Berkeley, and many of them are gorgeous. Unfortunately, the gorgeous ones tend to be a) expensive (well, at least relatively speaking!) and b) booked well in advance. The sites owned by the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) also have catering restrictions, which was almost the dealbreaker for us. (Many of the caterers get stellar reviews from people who’ve used them, though, and so far our experiences with the ones we’ve talked to have been good.) Also, at most of the park sites, you can’t serve hard alcohol, if that’s a factor.

*Brazilian Room, Tilden Park (Berkeley hills): Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous—its reputation is well-deserved. The Brazilian Room was originally built as the Brazilian Pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair on Treasure Island. When the exposition ended, the country of Brazil presented it to the East Bay Regional Park District as a gift of friendship. However, because it’s so amazing, it also falls into the booked-way-in-advance category. So, a no go for us. (Notably, EBRPD opens its spaces to residents of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties before opening them to the general public, so if you’re looking for a venue for 2011 and you’re a resident, you can reserve the Brazilian Room beginning this week. Reservations open to the general public after the new year.)
Cost: $2,150 resident/$2,580 non-resident for seven hours; $3,800 resident/$4,560 non-resident for twelve hours

Jack London Aquatic Center (Oakland Estuary): Lovely waterfront views, though the banquet room itself is rather utilitarian (because, after all, this is an aquatic center!)
Cost: $1,800

Joaquin Miller Community Center (Oakland hills): This is a huge community center up in Joaquin Miller Park; it wasn’t really my style, but does provide plenty of space and a nice connected deck with a view. Additional rooms can be added to expand the capacity well beyond 100.
Cost: $1,530 resident/$1,874 non-resident

Lake Merritt Sailboat House (Lake Merritt): Not to be confused with the Lake Merritt Boat House, which now houses Lake Chalet, the Sailboat House is a 1960s-era facility used most of the time for boat rentals of various types. The upstairs features a large banquet-style room with a deck that overlooks the lake, though. It’s beautiful, but the space itself has a very 1960s-vibe, and on the day I visited it, was also very damp and sailboat-smelling. (In fairness, it was right after the massive rains, though.) I think you could spin that into a great nautical theme of some sort, though, and the view at night has got to be incredible.
Cost: $750 resident/$870 non-resident

*Lake Temescal Beach House, Temescal Regional Park (Upper Rockridge): For some reason, this lower-key EBRPD facility is off of people’s radar, even though it’s lovely in its own right. That’s nice, though, because it means it’s easy to book! The beach house overlooks Lake Temescal and has a terrace behind it, and there are pathways leading up to a small waterfall and down to the lake itself. Like the Brazilian Room, though, the Beach House has caterer restrictions and a few other idiosyncrasies. This ended up being our pick.
Cost: $1,500 resident/$1,800 non-resident

Lakeside Garden Center (Lake Merritt): The Garden Center, another Lakeside Park gem, has a mix of rooms that have a pretty typical community center feel. Like most of Oakland’s community centers, this is another 1960s-esque building—but it has a beautiful Japanese garden behind it, and the Garden Room has a wall of windows and doors that open up into the garden itself, allowing events to flow between indoor and outdoor areas seamlessly. The major caveat: Oakland garden clubs get preference for this venue and don’t schedule super far in advance, so you can’t book this space until six months before your event. For larger events or banquets there are multiple rooms that can be combined.
Cost: $1,170 resident/$1,350 non-resident for Garden Room with Japanese Garden

Leona Lodge (Montclair): In the end I didn’t look at this one in person, but I did find out that it’s newly-renovated, and they’ve stripped the wood back to natural so it’s apparently much lighter inside than Sequoia is. Leona also has an outdoor BBQ pit, which could be a nice plus. It also holds a slightly larger crowd than Sequoia.
Cost: $750 resident/$870 non-resident

Oakland Asian Cultural Center (Chinatown): Another spot we’ve used for work….ah well! Huge and good for large banquets, though.
Cost: $1,650 plus $550 for kitchen access

Piedmont Community Hall (Piedmont proper): Wonderful—and crazy expensive unless you’re a Piedmont resident. Has a sweet little tea house that can be rented for an additional fee. (Maybe I can take all our misaddressed mail—we share a zip code with Piedmont and frequently get junk mail listing Piedmont as the city—and pretend?!?) Actually it’s pretty expensive even if you do live there.
Cost: $2,400 resident/$3,500 non-resident

Piedmont Veterans Hall (Piedmont proper): As Piedmont venues go, this one is a bit more reasonably priced, but it just didn’t strike me in the same way the Community Hall did. (I imagine that’s the case for others, too, which explains the big discrepancy in price!)
Cost: $1,545 resident/$1,900 non-resident

Sequoia Lodge (Montclair): I love this little lodge, tucked up in Montclair. It’s a very rustic space under the redwoods, complete with a stone fireplace and conversation circle inside. It fell off the list only because it was so dark and we’re getting married in June, so it didn’t seem like a good fit. Outdoor space was also really important to D., and the extensive deck at Sequoia is all covered by a wood overhang, making it dark and not especially outdoorsy. I’d do a winter wedding (or a winter anything!) here in a heartbeat, though. All City-owned Oakland venues provide tables and chairs and rent linens, which was a big plus.
Cost: $750 resident/$870 non-resident

Studio One Art Center (Temescal): This is another newly-renovated facility (Oakland tax dollars at work!), but the only outdoor space is the courtyard out front, which is very, very public. Not quite what we wanted. Studio One also requires more extensive permits for special events (probably because it is located in a residential neighborhood), although they do at least seem to have a fairly streamlined process for getting these. This seems like a great spot for fundraisers, though—they even have a theater.
Cost: $1,260 resident/$1,700 non-resident

*UC Botanical Garden (Berkeley hills): Beautiful, but a little close to work for D.’s taste. A wide range of spaces for rent, though; on Saturday you must book the center in its entirety, but on other days of the week you can opt to book smaller rooms and gardens, so it would be perfect for a wedding of 30 or so.
Cost: $2,200 plus $250 for Redwood Grove and Amphitheatre; $250 buyout to use outside caterer

Assorted other Oakland community centers: Most of the recreation centers in the city can be reserved for a fee. Since I’ve never been to most of them, it seemed silly to write anything much about them….but some popular picks include Dimond Recreation Center, Redwood Heights Recreation Center, and the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, among others.
Cost: Varies by number of guests ($75 to $250)

HISTORIC HOUSES & MUSEUMS
Again, lots of local options here, many of them beautiful. A constraint with some of the more popular museum venues is the catering restriction, though.

Camron-Stanford House (Lake Merritt): I thought this would be a top contender, but it turns out that it’s much better suited to an all-indoor or all-outdoor event, because the spaces are not especially well connected to one another. This house museum has a formal dining room, a veranda, and a backyard that are all lovely—but we wanted the three to be connected so that people could flow. Another sticking point was that this used to be one of the least costly venues, but prices have gone way up. At $1,500, it was hard to justify—especially since this is also the only venue we looked at that doesn’t provide chairs and tables, so renting those would be an additional cost. You must also get your own alcohol permits.
Cost: $1,500

*Chabot Space & Science Center (Oakland hills): Another City-owned venue. This is a good time to pause and say I think it is really pretty astoundingly cool that my city owns so many phenomenal spaces, from Children’s Fairyland (which, by the way, you can also rent for weddings) to Feather River Camp up in the Sierras. Generally, I forget to appreciate this. Anyway, this one was a cool idea, but again, blew our budget out of the water. Although $1,600 gets you a planetarium show, which is pretty awesome! (This is another venue that can take a lot of people—up to 1,000.)
Cost: Varies by space. Caterer buyout is $1,000.

Children’s Fairyland (Lake Merritt): Yes, you too can get married (or have another fun event) in Old Mother Hubbard’s shoe, with Cinderella looking on. This Oakland classic, which is coming up on its 60th birthday next year and purportedly inspired Disneyland, makes an exception to its “no unaccompanied adults!” policy for after-hours weddings. (They also do birthday parties with catering from Loard’s and other kid-related festivities like campouts, which I would have loved as a kid!)
Cost: Varies depending on spaces reserved

*Dunsmuir-Hellman Historic Estate (Oakland hills): City-owned historic home and grounds that are operated by a nonprofit. Gorgeous. And priced accordingly—we would have blown half our budget on the site alone! Plus, they have catering restrictions, too. This is one of the few venues in the area that accommodates very large groups, though—they can take up to 600—so it’s a good option if that’s what you need. They also get points for a much more diverse catering list than most spots, with options for barbeque, Indian food, and Southern cuisine in addition to the usual suspects.
Cost: $4,275 resident/$4,500 resident for South Pond Lawn and Garden Pavilion (up to 200 guests); $2,375 resident /$2,500 non-resident for Historic Carriage House and Lawn (up to 80 guests); $800 buyout to use outside caterer “for religious or ethnic situations only”

Lawrence Hall of Science (Berkeley hills): Can’t beat the view of the Bay Area, but this was off the list before we even started because D. could not imagine getting married here (although he did contemplate trying to negotiate a trade with the Exploratorium!) It was way too expensive anyway, though, even with the discount.
Cost: $3,500 with a $500 discount for UC affiliates (campus departments, UCOP, and LBL) and a $250 discount for “Friends of LHS” (UCB staff, students, and alumni; LHS members at the sponsor level)

Oakland Museum of California (Downtown Oakland): I love this (also City-owned!) space—the grounds are expansive and the museum is coming off a multi-million-dollar renovation—but D. wasn’t such a fan. They have an open catering policy and allow hard alcohol, though, which makes them particularly unique among East Bay venues. The bigger glitch for us was that we were looking at June dates, and they’re in the midst of a massive renovation and aren’t scheduled to reopen until May. That was a bit too much of a gamble to take.
Cost: $1,800 for four hours

*Oakland Zoo (Oakland hills): The Snow Building is pretty, but it was a bit of a haul from our neck of the woods. I didn’t go look at it, but the photos are lovely and the views must be stellar.
Cost: $1,720 for the Snow Room or $250 for a group picnic site (picnic area fee does not include zoo admission)

*Preservation Park (Downtown Oakland): This restored Victorian neighborhood in the heart of Downtown Oakland was a top contender since the buildings and grounds are gorgeous, but in the end it was just too expensive for us. It’s an amazing space, though!
Cost: $2,650 for Bandstand, Fountain Circle, and Nile Hall; $500 buyout to use outside caterer

COUNTRY CLUBS & OTHER PRIVATE VENUES

*Bellevue Club (Lake Merritt): We didn’t look at this space because you have to use their in-house chef and we wanted a little more control over the food, but it’s an intriguing option given its stellar location right on the lake, particularly because guests can stay overnight at the club as well. It’s also been an institution on the lake for generations, which is pretty cool.

*Berkeley City Club (Downtown Berkeley): A beautiful Julia Morgan-designed space in Downtown Berkeley. Like the Bellevue Club, this one is all-inclusive so the catering is in-house. Guests can stay here, as well.

*Berkeley Faculty Club (Downtown Berkeley): The Faculty Club has one large room and a number of smaller spaces, including outdoor areas and terraces. You must use their in-house catering team for everything except the wedding cake.
Cost: $800 for the Heyns Room and Patio; $2,000 for the Great Hall and associated spaces

Gaia Arts Center (Downtown Berkeley): A relatively new space in Downtown Berkeley, the Gaia Center has a rooftop deck that is pretty amazing for parties. (I went to a fundraiser there a few years ago and was wowed by the views!) Notably, their fees are significantly less on Friday nights than on Saturdays, so this could be an inexpensive option for a weekday wedding or event.
Cost: $2,600 including access to the rooftop terrace, plus $320 for required Gaia staff representative

*Montclair Women’s Cultural Arts Club (Montclair): Beautiful space—but, again, priced accordingly. They had a helpful little section of their website telling us that basic amenities for a party of 100 would run us $10K. Oy—that’s our entire budget before the caterer is even in the mix! So goodbye, beautiful building…
Cost: $3,500, plus extra for tables, chairs, tents, etc.

*Rotunda Building (Downtown Oakland): I’ve been to some receptions here in the past, and it’s a gorgeous building. However, it’s way too big (and consequently too expensive) for many weddings, ours included. It holds 500, though, so perfect for something large.
Cost: $5,600 (based on $700/hour for eight hours)

*Sequoyah Country Club (Oakland hills): As with every spot in the hills, this one has a beautiful view. Downsides are that you must use their in-house catering, and there are a lot of additional charges for just about everything, from chairs to screens to cake cutting. On the upside, they are pretty much all-inclusive. We didn’t go look at this in person either.
Cost: $1,950 for a five-hour event

Other private venues offering wedding spaces:

• California Ballroom (Uptown/Lake Merritt)
• Highlands Country Club (Upper Rockridge)
• MLK Student Union at Cal (Downtown Berkeley)
• Wedgewood Banquet Center, Metropolitan Golf Links (Oakland Airport)

WINERIES
Wineries in the city? Yep, surprisingly there are a number of wineries with tasting rooms nearby, and a couple can be rented for events. They don’t grow the grapes in the city (yet!) so you’ll get more of an urban vibe than a vineyard vibe, but you don’t have to make the trek up to Wine Country, either.

JC Cellars (Jack London Square): This artisan winery provides tables and chairs plus access to a prep kitchen. You must purchase all of your wine from the winery; there’s a 10 percent discount for 12 bottles or more.
Cost: $500 for the evening plus wine

Periscope Cellars (Emeryville): Periscope offers urban space with tables, chairs, A/V equipment, and more. They’re next-door to a caterer, too (though you can use anyone you like). Plus, as with JC Cellars, you can’t beat the price.
Cost: $600 for eight hours plus wine

CHURCHES & OTHER RELIGIOUS SITES
There are several churches in Oakland and Berkeley that rent their event halls (and in some cases chapels or sanctuaries) to anyone, regardless of creed. We didn’t vet these options since we aren’t planning a formal ceremony, but some of them are lovely. Here Comes the Guide has a solid list of them. Note that in a several cases, they do not permit alcohol.

HOTELS
Not really our speed so I didn’t actually price any of these, but they offer ceremony and reception space that looks reasonable.

• Bancroft Hotel (Downtown Berkeley)
• Claremont Resort & Spa (Claremont in Oakland—despite its Berkeley address!)
• Hotel Durant (Downtown Berkeley)
• Hotel Shattuck Plaza (Downtown Berkeley)
• Rose Garden Inn (Southside Berkeley)
• Waterfront Hotel (Jack London Square in Oakland)

ART GALLERIES
A good option if you’re going for the cocktail reception feel. We didn’t price any since in the end I didn’t find any with outdoor space or gardens, but I imagine they’re generally pretty reasonable. One challenge is that you have to get the single-day alcohol permit on your own, though. (For park spaces and City-owned facilities, they handle the process and you just pay a fee.) The Art Murmur list is probably a good place to start if you’re looking for a gallery to rent.

RESTAURANTS
A number of local restaurants have spaces to host large groups, or will arrange buyouts at the right price. Here are a few that we considered. Our main criteria were 1) really good food and 2) nice outdoor patio, which limited us significantly. (Even so, I’m sure there are some spots missing from this list that we just didn’t think of!)

À Côté (Rockridge): À Côté is one of our favorite restaurants, so I figured I had to give them a call. The good news was that their prices were very reasonable. The bad news is that the biggest group they can accommodate is 55 since they don’t do full buyouts, and that was too small for us. However, they’re now on my list for the next time I need to organize a large dinner! (And I secretly like that they don’t do full buyouts, just as I like that they reserve many of their tables for walk-ins…that’s what a good neighborhood spot should do!)

Bocanova (Jack London Square): This spot is brand-new and overlooks the Oakland Estuary at Jack London Square. The outdoor space is lovely but not especially private. We’ve only eaten here once (though it was excellent!) so that was another concern.

Doña Tomás (Temescal): Doña Tomás has a great patio behind the restaurant with yummy food; we’ve been to some nice group dinners there in the past. They also have a back room beyond the patio that would work well for smaller dinners, too. They came off our list for some reason that I can’t remember now.

Lake Chalet (Lake Merritt): Another amazing location. They have two spaces that can accommodate large groups: the Gondola Room, which is inside but has three walls of windows that overlook the lake (and open!), and the outdoor patio, which has its own bar and grill. They’re also relatively reasonably priced, with a $3K minimum and no room fee. (Menus to choose from ranged from $24-$52 a head, which isn’t bad.) We weren’t wowed by their food the one time we ate there, though, and the alcohol is pricey and charged per drink, so it had the potential to add up quickly. However, this would be my top pick if we were having a traditional “ceremony-followed-by-reception” wedding. You could even get married on the lake at the bandstand in Lakeside Park and head to the Chalet afterwards.

La Note (Downtown Berkeley): Again, neither of us has had dinner there, though we love their brunch, so it seemed like a gamble to try something out for the first time. But they do take large groups, and they do have a patio.

Pizzaiolo (Temescal): This was actually my top pick because they have a sweet little garden (with chickens!) in the back that was perfect for the ceremony. They’ve hosted weddings before, and had a pretty clear vision for how to make it all work, which was great. We’d also been to a friend’s birthday party here, so we knew they could do a large event well. The main downside was the price, which is a set fee (it is, after all, a buyout) and was way more than we had budgeted (but, granted, still less than the average cost of a Bay Area wedding these days!) As you can see, this was a running theme in our search….

Other restaurants with large event spaces:

• Café Zeste (West Berkeley)
• Caffé Verbena (Downtown Oakland)
• Le Bateau Ivre Restaurant (Southside Berkeley)
• Montclair Bistro (Montclair)
• Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse (West Berkeley)
• Scott’s Seafood (Jack London Square)
• Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto (West Berkeley)
• The Terrace Room at the Lake Merritt Hotel (Lake Merritt)

FURTHER AFIELD
Our search was pretty focused on Oakland and Berkeley, but if you go a little further afield, there are some nice spots to discover. I’m not going to get into them because Here Comes the Guide gets paid to do that, but it’s definitely worth checking out city parks (San Francisco and Marin have a lot of great spots, and EBRPD has several venues in other nearby cities) and various museums. Also, boats! Several cruise lines run out of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Sausalito, and beyond, and you can host events there, too. Generally, there was a markup if you crossed the Bay Bridge (and an even bigger one if you kept going over the Golden Gate!) which is one of many reasons we decided to stay East Bay. (The flip side of that is that the rates keep dropping if you head through the Caldecott or up into Contra Costa County, though!)

Our house 85 years ago!

Another quick post, because as a lot of you know, we have been extremely busy the last few weeks with a number of things! (Updates coming soon…)

But I did receive this incredible photograph today from a great-granddaughter of the Kiedaisch family, who lived in our house from 1921 to 1927. She found my house history post earlier this year and, astoundingly, dug up a photograph taken of our house sometime in the mid-1920s by her great-grandfather Walter Kiedaisch, who was a Bay Area photographer.

Our house circa mid-1920s (courtesy of the Kiedaisch family)

Even the small snapshot yields a lot of intriguing information:

The garage. We now know our garage is at least 80 years old! We’d talked to the City about this at one point since they had no record of the permits to build it; now I know why (and can conclusively prove that yes, it was definitely there when we moved in…) We’re pretty sure it isn’t original since it’s built up against the house and you can see where the doorways were modified at some point, but this means it was probably built by either the Kiedaisches themselves or by Joseph Smith, who owned the house from 1919 to 1921 after buying it from the original owners (who built it in 1915). The garage does have something of a 1920s vibe going on, too, so that would make sense. (Sadly, that look is almost gone today after the previous owner ditched the original garage doors and replaced them with a generic automatic door to get the house ready for sale. Convenient, but man, I wish she’d kept them…you can even still see them in the Google Street View photos of our block, which is just cruel!)

The adjacent rear lots. You can see the buildings on the lots behind us pretty clearly in this photo, which is interesting because both lots were redeveloped in the 1960s into apartment complexes. (The houses to either side of us, in contrast, look pretty much the same today.) I had envisioned cute little bungalows on these lots, and have often griped about how close to the lot line the 1960s developments were built. (Trying to figure out ownership of a shared fence last year, I even found a Planning Commission memo from the 1960s chiding one of the property owners for violating the property line setback rules; he was fined a relatively small amount and the building was unchanged.) As it turns out, though, even the original buildings must have been pretty close to the lot lines to be visible in this photo. (The one on the right looks like it’s practically in our next-door neighbor’s backyard—the condos there today have a bit of a buffer, at least!)

The front steps. We had wooden steps originally! (Our next-door neighbor still does and it’s pretty traditional for a California bungalow, so this isn’t totally surprising—but today the steps are concrete.) I am a little bummed, though, because when we had the foundation inspected recently in preparation for the kitchen remodel, the inspector oohed and ahhed over our concrete steps, noting that ours were in better shape than those of almost any other house its age that he’d seen. D’oh! Now I know why…

Otherwise, though, the house looks strikingly similar today, right down to the curves on the sidewalk. (Even the sidewalk itself looks like it might be the same…guess that really is due for replacement!) The front yard has since been terraced and landscaped, but we knew the previous owner had done a lot of that work, and from what our neighbor says, before then the yard looked, well, basically the same as it did in the 1920s. It’s very likely that this was the original paint job on the house, too, since it would have been barely ten years old (if that) when this photograph was taken. Hard to tell what the colors actually were, but it gives a sense of the aesthetic, at least. (The stucco on the side of the house behind the garage wall is cream, though, so that may have been the original color; in later years it appears to have been painted light green at some point.)

Anyway, just a very cool find! A huge thanks to Michelle for sharing this great piece of our home’s history!

Winter! (Or: All the things we said we’d do before the rains….)

The first snows fell in the Northern Sierras last week—and this week, winter arrived in the Bay Area with a bang, shattering the rain records as the remnants of a Pacific typhoon swept in.

This is happy news for our garden and our fruit trees, which have been gasping for water the past few weeks. (I’ve been holding off on any big watering efforts because our clay soil stays moist for a few weeks, and, well, the rains were coming!)

This is less happy news for other members of the family:

You're serious? Umm, that's okay, I'm good here, thanks.

And even less happy news for:

• Our rain barrels. Yeah, they’re still in the garage. We just need to build them a platform, but unfortunately neither of us knows how to build a platform. Bleh.
• Our rafters. Umm. A few of them have been Bondo’ed where the knob-and-tube electrical wiring used to be attached….but the rest still need to be patched and painted. Maybe this weekend, if things dry out enough before then (and we finally find a ladder that’s tall enough!) We lose major points on this one since it’s actually a leftover project from last summer….augh! (We replaced the wiring right after we moved in to placate our insurance company.)
• Our bedroom windows. We still have not replaced these because I haven’t had time to go debate the whole permit issue with the City. (I did finally talk to people there, but got two completely contradictory, mutually exclusive answers from the two departments that are ostensibly supposed to approve our window replacement permit. Ugh. I hate bureaucracy!)
• Our baseboard gravity registers. I took these apart three months ago to try to strip the paint off of them. Then I discovered that they’re actually broken (from being forced open and shut, I think). Then I discovered that when the heat was installed, someone creatively stacked a bunch of wood together to “frame” the register, and when I took the register off, the wood moulding fell apart. Then I ordered new registers only to discover that the size is off by half an inch. Argh. Somehow this needs to get fixed before we have to turn the heat on…

So I guess a busy work weekend lies ahead!

Coming soon to an avenue near you! (Okay, or at least to one near me…)

…otherwise known as the fall restaurant update! It’s been a rough year for a lot of small local businesses and restaurants, so I was excited to see a bunch of new spots show up on the horizon this summer and fall to fill the empty spaces. It’s been a while since I last did a restaurant rundown, so here’s the latest and greatest.

On Piedmont Avenue:

• The widely-anticipated Commis opened at the end of June to much fanfare. We finally checked them out earlier this month, and were duly impressed.
• A new La Farine branch is coming soon now open where Piedmont Lighting used to be. (I know, I’ve mentioned this several times already—but I’m so, SO excited to finally have good baguettes within walking distance!) The cases are in and the signs are up, so they should be open any day now.
• Caffe Trieste is actually open! They’ve been in limbo for so long over the cabaret permit (longer than we’ve been in the house!) that I hadn’t even bothered including them in my “coming soon” list. But they’re here!!
• Lush Gelato opened earlier this summer where Tango Gelato used to be.
• Tutti Frutti, a tart frozen yogurt chain, is now open in that stretch of Piedmont, too.

On Grand and Lakeshore Avenues (Adams Point/Grand Lake):

• The new Pizzaiolo spot where DiBartolo used to be on Grand is still “coming soon.” No idea when, though.
• Taste of Joy Southern Bistro has moved over to Upper Grand from Lakeshore, and is now in La Taza de Cafe’s former location.
• …which, of course, means that La Taza de Cafe has closed, as has their brand-new tapas bar. Go figure.

In Uptown/Lake Merritt (Grand, Broadway, Telegraph, and San Pablo Avenues):

• The Lake Chalet opened with much fanfare last month. Mmm—local brews on a deck overlooking Lake Merritt, walking distance from our house! We went for the first time last week, and were impressed—while the food isn’t out of this world, it’s solid, and the location is top-notch. (You have to wait long enough for a table as it is, so I almost think it’s a blessing in disguise that the food isn’t A+ quality…)
• Farley’s East opened earlier this summer on Grand near Broadway, hopping on the Uptown bandwagon. We checked it out a few weeks back; my latte was great, while D.’s gibraltar was a bit on the milky side. Haven’t tried the drip yet, though. They hope to extend their evening hours in the future, so if that happens we’ll be able to hit them a bit more often.
• Down the street, there’s now an Oakland Specialty’s location at Grand and Harrison for lunchtime sandwiches and cookies.
• Mimosa Champagne Lounge is now serving dinner, desserts, and cocktails (and, of course, champagne!)
• Still under construction: the second Bakesale Betty location, which now has an ETA of February 2010. I’m almost afraid to ask these days, since every time I do it gets pushed back another few months…
• In the space of a month, Café Noir on Auto Row got its liquor license, opened for dinner, and then abruptly closed “for renovations.” Umm. I really want to love these guys—they have tasty pizza and beer and great coffee, and they’re just down the street!—but they desperately need to get their act together. Let’s hope they’re really just closed for renovations (but really…what could they possibly be renovating?!?) and not for good, since the place was just oozing with potential….
• Hibiscus, a nouveau Caribbean spot, is going in where Sweet Jimmie’s used to be on San Pablo between 17th and 18th, and sounds like it’s going to be excellent! (Their website doesn’t have much up yet, but their Facebook page has a running list of information on potential dishes and renovations.)
• And another Pizzaiolo spin-off is going into Uptown, too.

On Telegraph Avenue (Pill Hill/Mosswood/Temescal):

• Subrosa Coffee is now open on 40th at Webster next to Manifesto Bicycles. Haven’t been yet, but I’m hearing good things—yay! Hours are 6:30 to 7 on weekdays, 7 to 7 on weekends.
• Remedy Coffee is coming soon on Telegraph at 43rd, but is already selling out of a cart in front of their new storefront. They’ll be brewing Ritual beans.
• Oasis Food Market, technically a small Middle Eastern grocery store, is getting some buzz for great prepared food as well. They’re across the street from Alta Bates  Summit on Telegraph at 30th. Hours are 6 am to 11 pm on weekdays and 8 am to 11 pm on weekends. We tried them for the first time this week—yum! And they have a small but complete and good-looking section of fresh fruits and vegetables, too, which means they’re a great late-night grocery option since the other local groceries all close by 8 pm. More on the food later….

So that’s the story for now….as usual this list just includes places I can walk to, so it doesn’t take into account the many (many!) new spots coming soon in other parts of the city, including Jack London Square, which is hopping these days. (I’ve spent more time there in the past two months than in the rest of the years I’ve lived here combined….and when Blue Bottle finally opens, it will be hard to tear myself away!)

Dine About Oakland: Commis

Okay, I continue to be incredibly behind in posting (which is mostly due to being incredibly swamped at work, and incredibly overwhelmed by the list of “house things we absolutely MUST do before it starts raining again,” so what can y’do….)—but here’s a quick taste of Commis, one of the newest additions to Piedmont Avenue and the Oakland restaurant scene.

We’ve been wanting to try Commis (pronounced “commie,” from the French for apprentice chef) since we first started reading about it months ago, and finally had a special occasion dinner a few weeks ago that warranted heading out to the somewhat-pricey spot. Commis, opened this summer by Oakland-raised chef James Syhabout, has a prix fixe concept: dinner is $59 for three courses, and that’s all there is. You can choose a wine pairing for another $29, or can fly solo with just a glass of wine or beer for a more modest amount. But it’s not the kind of spot where you can drop in for an appetizer or dessert, and you need to plan ahead, because the tiny place books up pretty quickly. (It’s in the spot that used to be JoJo on Piedmont near BayWolf; JoJo was tiny and a bit cramped, and Commis continues to be space-challenged….you have to look first before opening the door, that sort of thing.)

The night we tried it, we had a choice of four appetizers, three entrées, and two desserts. It’s worth noting that, out-of-the-box, this is not a great spot for vegetarians; none of the entrée choices were veggie the night we visited, and only one appetizer was. (Notably, when I made the reservation, the hostess did ask if we had any special dietary needs that should be accommodated, so I imagine you might be able to request a special vegetarian dish.) Everything sounded incredible, and we had the good fortune of sitting at the bar where the food was being assembled in front of us. It was pretty astounding: a team of four ran the show, deftly grabbing containers from the carefully labeled stacks and measuring out just the right ingredients for each dish, which they then prepared individually as people ordered. The stove had half a dozen tiny saucepans in motion at once. One box of herbs—an ingeniously re-purposed hardware bits box with separate compartments for each herb or garnish—appeared on the scene as things were plated, and the cooks carefully and precisely cut seasonings for each dish. The whole process really blew my mind—I only wish we’d watched it for a bit longer before ordering, since we got a sense for each dish as they prepared it.

Here’s what we settled on, though:

• Complimentary shiso soda as a starter—still a bit fuzzy on exactly what this was, but it was interesting and tasty. We had fun watching them prepare these tiny tastes from soda and cream bottles, too.
• Cured Monterey Bay sardines—D. loved these (which is good because he was the one who ordered them!) I thought they were good but would not have wanted a full plate of them.
• Soft farm egg with potato, alliums, and pork jowl—An incredible appetizer that is, true to its name, VERY soft—not a good choice if you’re uncomfortable with soft eggs, but extremely good if you are. I am, D. isn’t, so it worked out perfectly.
• Lamb with lentils (I think?) The details on both this dish and the cod elude me—this is why I should write these up in a more timely fashion!—but both were excellent. We also watched a duck dish get prepared, and regretted that we couldn’t have tried that too—next time we’ll have to draft a third person to join us!
• Ling cod with corn curd and summer squash. The sides that accompanied the fish were very, very good, and the fish itself was tender with a crisp edge.

In a rare departure from our usual sharing mode, we ordered identical desserts: a black mission fig tart with beeswax-scented ice cream (bizarre, I know—but so yummy!) (The other option, a melon soup, was less up our alley.) The crust was melt-in-your-mouth good, and the ice cream, in spite of sounding like an odd concept, was wonderful. The only challenge was that we were a bit too full to really savor dessert—normally we split an appetizer and a dessert if we’re each getting an entree—but that’s a danger of a prix fixe menu, I guess.

In all, this was an outstanding meal—expensive, yes, but not overpriced, which is an important distinction. Everything was perfectly prepared—meats were tender, nothing over or under cooked. The only thing we’d do differently in the future is to forgo the wine tastings and simply have a glass of wine (or a cocktail?) instead. The wines were fine, but nothing that blew us away, and I found myself rushing to finish various pours—or worse, running out mid-course—which wouldn’t have been a problem had I been ordering by the glass. (I’d also pace myself on the dinner rolls, which were very good, but a danger because a new one would appear as soon as you finished one….) Since we’re light eaters, we also might space our courses out a bit more—either by lingering on the last or by asking them to slow the delivery, since they pretty much timed them to a tee as we finished each dish. And at $200+ for the two of us, it’s definitely a special occasion spot—but with the tiny dining room, that’s perfect.

Edit: So, not two hours after I posted this, I sat down with the Sunday Chron, which featured Michael Bauer’s review of Commis. I thought this was particularly interesting, both because two of his issues—too little food and too little description of said food upon serving—were so counter to our experience (our waitress bordered on too much to say about various dishes!) and because his review harped on one issue that we did have that I’d completely forgotten about: the flatware and dishes. They’re terrible! Now, maybe this is just because we’re in the midst of shopping for new flatware and dishes so I’m acutely aware of the shortcomings of different styles, but it really, really bugged me. The water glasses are tear-drop shaped and heavy, which means that when they’re filled with water and there’s condensation on the outside, you struggle to keep the glass from slipping through your hand. The flatware is fine in and of itself, but the style of the plates combined with the shape of the flatware prevents you from setting your fork or knife down while you’re eating—it immediately slides into the center of your plate. I had to fish mine out and wipe it off several times over the course of the meal. (D. clued into this early on and just held his fork and knife through the entire meal, but that seems a little silly!) So, yeah. There is one area that could be improved—and quite easily, too.

Grade: A
Cost: $$$-$$$$

Dine About Oakland: Street food and the Eat Real Festival

Okay, this is long overdue (as are reviews of Commis and Burma Superstar, which are coming soon!) Consequently, I’ll keep this post brief in the interest of actually finishing it. But here’s the promised rundown of some of the deliciousness at last month’s Eat Real Festival in Jack London Square, and where to find it now.

I was super excited about this summer’s food festival and consequently hit it not once, but twice—first for the outdoor movies and ice cream gala on Friday night, and again for the farmer’s market, street food, and other events on Sunday morning. (It helps that it was an easy bike ride from our house!) While Saturday and Sunday were technically the main event—that’s when all of the food vendors opened up for business—I think I actually enjoyed the low-key Friday night activities even more. (If a few food vendors had been open so that dinner and a movie was an option, it would have been perfect—maybe this is an idea for JLS’s summer movie nights?) Both days were beautiful and unusually warm for the Bay Area (which is to say, perfect for outdoor events). And you can’t beat sitting on the Jack London lawn watching movies about city chickens with the boats and estuary as a backdrop.

On Sunday, we headed over with some friends and collectively tried out a number of the food vendors. (We also bought Beer Shed passes and tasted a bunch of microbrews, but I don’t think I could rattle off the list at this point—a fun way to test some new brews out, although much of what was on tap I’d had before.) Some food favorites included:

Ritual Coffee Roasters: Ritual’s coffee is always a treat, though D. decided to be adventurous and try a drip coffee from a bean we’d really disliked when we bought it whole and brewed it at home. The good news (I guess?) is that the problem is not that we’re crappy coffee makers. Ah, well. My latte was excellent, though! (In sort-of related news, you can now get Ritual coffee from a cart in the East Bay, too—Remedy, a soon-to-open coffee shop in Temescal along Telegraph, is now selling coffee and espresso drinks in front of their future store at 4316 Telegraph. D. gives them a thumbs-up, though I haven’t stopped to try anything yet.) We were a little sad that Blue Bottle didn’t have a stand, since we were coming off of a tour of their (impressive-looking!) new space in Jack London Square, another of the festival events. The owner noted that the space, which is primarily dedicated to roasting and training, will have a relatively low-key cafe area, as they don’t expect huge crowds like the ones they get in the city. I think he’s seriously underestimating how much Oaklanders like good coffee!

Liba Falafel Truck: This falafel deliciousness was a bit tiny for the price—it was accurately deemed a “bite”—but it definitely left me wanting more. Apparently Eat Real was one of Liba’s first events, so they’re pretty new to the food truck scene. You can find them in Potrero Hill in the city on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays or in Emeryville on Park Avenue near Pixar on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Jon’s Street Eats: This was my top pick (and maybe D.’s too?) We tried the pulled mozzarella, and I left regretting that I didn’t have room for a B.L.A.T. (Bacon Lettuce Avocado Tomato) or homemade ice cream. Luckily, these guys set up shop near my ‘hood on Saturday nights! You can find them at the end of Piedmont Avenue near Adesso on Saturday evenings or in Emeryville Tuesday through Friday near either Stanford and Hollis or Kitty’s.

Shuga Hill Catering: Okay, we actually didn’t try this truck for the very important reason that they are now serving regularly a block away from our house! Sometime this summer, Shuga Hill began setting up their soul food truck in front of Grocery Outlet at 29th and Broadway, joining resident taco truck Taqueria Barajitos. They seem to leave sometime between 6 and 7 pm, so I haven’t managed to get home and organized in time to try it out yet, but friends who had their food at Eat Real report that it’s tasty and worth the visit.

Sweetface Bakery: These guys had very tasty cupcakes. My pick, lemon with coconut buttercream, was super light and fluffy and just about the perfect way to end an afternoon. (Well, okay, another perfect way might have been the crème brûlée man, but he ran out of crème brûlée around 11:30—handing the last one to the person in front of D. in line!) Eat Real was also the Sweetface Bakery’s mobile debut—they seem to be all over the place, but have been hitting downtown Oakland among other destinations, so keep your eyes peeled.

No grades for any of these guys, since the festival’s not the best place to judge either prices (everyone was asked to cap prices at $5, which led to some creative finagling at some trucks, and some outstanding deals at others) or overall food, since many trucks had chosen just one or two dishes to serve. But I was excited to see the East Bay well represented, since up until Eat Real I thought the nouveau food truck phenomenon was primarily based in San Francisco. Yay!

All in all, lots of fun, and we barely scratched the surface—there were also a number of presentations, live music, more movies, and activities for kids that we didn’t stick around for. Not sure how “officially” successful the event was as far as breaking even and drawing the requisite crowds, but I do hope it happens again. I could definitely envision a dialed down version drawing people to JLS regularly—I was impressed by how much the farmer’s market has grown in recent years, since for a while there it was pretty dinky. As an added bonus, it’s cheaper than both the Temescal and Grand Lake markets, and has been moved to the pedestrian boardwalk along the water. We also got a glimpse into the not-yet-complete Harvest Hall (now being called Jack London Market), which was hosting the special Eat Real market vendors. It’s a pretty incredible space, and I do hope that vision is realized someday—we’d definitely head down there regularly with good food, coffee, and a produce market.

Lead!

No, that’s not a directive to Mayor Dellums (though if he’d like to take it as one, I have no issue with that!) It’s that other kind of lead.

After a great tip from a reader (thanks, Len!) I recently called up the Alameda County Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (ACLPPP) to see what they could tell me about lead testing and lead safety, especially in soil. First, I have to say—these guys are rock stars! They called back promptly and had all sorts of information to share. A couple of days later, I received a complete lead test kit in the mail, with detailed instructions on how to test my soil, paint, and dust.

I picked out nine areas—five sections of the backyard, two painted areas, and two dusty windowsills—and sent off the samples to be tested. (For FREE!) Just a few days later, along came the results in an emailed PDF.

The results…
First, the bad news: the paint on the woodwork and the dust in the window sills have a whole lotta lead. We pretty much assumed as much—in a hundred-year-old house, it would be unusual for glossy trim paint not to have lead in it—but now that we know for sure, I’m having to rethink my strip-the-woodwork project. Lead, like asbestos and other icky airborne things, is not especially dangerous if it’s adhering properly to the painted surface (and you’re not licking it), but if it starts to flake off or chip and create paint flakes or dust that can be inhaled or eaten by small children or pets, it’s a bad scene. And you’re not supposed to remove high lead paint with a silent paint stripper (which was my plan), and I really don’t want to mess with the toxic chemical agents that can remove it safely.

But happily, there was good news too. Specifically, the paint and plaster in our kitchen do not have lead in them to speak of—and that’s very good news, since someday soon we’re hoping to tackle the kitchen renovation, and it will be infinitely easier to attack the woodwork and wall demolition if we aren’t simultaneously worrying about lead abatement and controlling lead dust.

And, perhaps even more importantly, our soil—all of it!—passed with flying colors, with everything testing on the very low end of the “lead safe” category (150-500 ppm). (In fact, the lead levels were barely higher in the soil from the ground than in the potting soil from the nursery that I threw in as a control. That may say more about the nursery soil than about our soil, but there ya go….) This is especially good news because it means we can begin to plant veggies in other areas of the yard, and we also don’t have to worry about trying to make the yard lead-safe (which would be a frustratingly painful process, since you basically have to dig everything out and replace the soil). So that was very welcome news.

…and what to do about it!
Based on this news, I’ll be repainting the woodwork in the dining room with a safe high-gloss paint to seal all that badness inside—and, of course, leaving a note for future owners that stripping the woodwork is probably not the bestest project to take on! (This is probably not the end of the world, since I’ve recently discovered that past owners of our house were—how shall I put it—”creative” (and resourceful!) in cutting out the woodwork when heat was installed, and consequently there’s not much to restore near the heating vents. And when my woodworker uncle came to visit a few months back and checked out our front door—nicely stripped—he noted that it had clearly been intended to be natural wood on the outside, which is apparently a quarter-sawn oak veneer, but not on the inside, which is plain old Doug fir. Ah well.) Luckily, we also own a HEPA vacuum, which is the best way to clear a home of dust and paint chips.

I’m still undecided on the living room, where the paint is stripping pretty cleanly, the wood is in better shape (and was nicer to begin with—beautiful elm and quarter-sawn oak) and there might be some merit to finishing the project. It’s just that it’s a very, very BIG project—and we already have a lot of other big projects to contend with right now. On the other hand, I don’t want to repaint if we might really strip it all at some point, because that just creates more unnecessary work. We’ll see.

This has some implications for our window project, too. The dust from our window troughs also tested high (not as high as the paint itself—but still high enough above the “safe” level to be of concern). Again, not terribly surprising, but something to think about nonetheless. One big source of lead dust in old houses is windows and doors opening and closing—and one good way to get rid of this problem is to replace the windows. So as we work through our window rehabbing and replacement work, we may decide to replace all of the bedroom windows instead of just the two with dry rot to ensure that none of the bedrooms have lead problems. If I can find a good place that will strip the windows, I may go that route as well. We may also re-prioritize to do these in order of use rather than in order of condition. A few of the windows have also had strips of unpainted wood set into the side jambs, which I think was intended to facilitate movement (or replace rotting wood perhaps), but has the added benefit of eliminating one of the two pieces of lead-coated wood that meet each time the windows open.

How much lead is too much?
The most confusing part of the lead testing, at least for me, was figuring out how much lead was too much lead. The kit we got came with baselines for safety, but I found some of them a bit high. ACLPPP uses 1,000 ppm as the “safe” threshold for soil, for instance, and 250 ppm for child-safe soil; in contrast, the state of Minnesota uses 100 ppm as their threshold for bare soil (although they don’t require soil above that level to be removed unless there are visible paint chips). The EPA claims you can plant in soil under 1,500 ppm, except for root vegetables, which you should grow in soil under 1,000 ppm.  Other sources say you can garden under 500 ppm; others say no, only garden if the soil tests under 100 ppm. (Notably, even our nursery soil came in at 140 ppm!)

So what’s really safe? With the information we have, I feel comfortable using our general soil (which tested in the low 200s) for everything except for leafy vegetables and herbs. (Fruiting plants and other plants where the edible components don’t grow directly in the ground don’t absorb as much of the lead and other soil contaminants as leafy vegetables and herbs; with root vegetables, the contamination is largely from surface contact, so you can mitigate this by simply peeling and cleaning these vegetables.) We’ll continue to grow those higher-risk plants in our raised beds with nursery soil (even though this will screw up the crop rotations—argh!)

It’s a little more straightforward on the paint front: this summer the “lead-free” standard for new paint dropped to 90 ppm (down from 600 ppm up until this year), and the feds define anything above 5,000 ppm as being “high lead.” Since our kitchen and trim paints came in at 150 ppm and 7,500 ppm respectively, there wasn’t much fuzziness there! (What to do about the high lead paint is another question altogether—and there are just as many schools of thought on that as there are on the gardening!)

Want to get your own lead test kit?
If you live in Alameda County, you can check out the ACLPPP site for more information on ordering test kits or having someone come out to your home to do a free inspection. (These resources are geared towards homeowners, but there are programs for renters and landlords as well.) The cities of Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and Emeryville also have a variety of programs to pay for lead remediation and other work; information on those is also on the ACLPPP site.

Building bridges

As I think just about everyone on the planet (or at least everyone in the Bay Area!) knows, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is closed for the third time this weekend so that Caltrans can perform some amazing engineering feats and get the temporary bridge that will serve the Bay Area for the next four years ready for Tuesday morning’s commute. When the bridge closes for the fourth and final time in 2013, we’ll finally have a new, earthquake-proof bridge. (The Bay Bridge is the last bridge in California to get a seismic retrofit, and far and away the most complicated bridge to retrofit.)

If you haven’t already read about the Bay Bridge retrofit, it’s really a pretty astounding civil engineering process (as, for that matter, was the construction of the original bridge back in the 1930s). Check out the Caltrans Bay Bridge website for more information on the retrofit process, including a timelapse video of the work going on this weekend. You can also see some incredible photos of the construction of the original bridge here.

While we wait for the bridge to reopen, though, I thought it would be a good time to post some shots that D. took the last time the bridge closed in 2007, when he was lucky enough to go on a helicopter photo shoot to document the work.

The west span of the bridge, looking towards San Francisco

Port of Oakland trucks

Port of Oakland with Star Wars (or not) cranes in the background

Oakland: Looking west to the estuary from above Laney College

The new east span in 2007---today it's close to complete!

Over the mudflats

The edge of the MacArthur Maze (with traffic like you've never seen it!)

San Francisco

These photographs are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.