Michael Bauer: East Bay Restaurants Kind of Suck

Chron restaurant critic Michael Bauer wags a big finger at East Bay eateries in his annual picks list, the Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants. “As I completed the list, I realized East Bay restaurants were lagging,” he writes. “I reviewed only one new East Bay restaurant last year, ended up removing four from this year’s list and found just one worthy replacement.” What places on last year’s list got the Bauer axe? Berkeley’s Downtown, Pearl Oyster Bar in Rockridge, and Lafayette’s Pizza Antica. One Oakland restaurant, Grasshopper, closed. The only East Bay eatery to break onto Bauer’s current list: Oakland’s Dopo.