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.Restaurant Review
May 3, 2023
The Calypso Rose
Cool jerk lands in Emeryville
At Verna McGowan’s The Calypso Rose, the biggest seller is a Guyanese oxtail pepper pot. “I can't keep enough of that in house,” McGowan said. “It is my number one all day long.”...
Apr 26, 2023
Desta Does It
Sirgout Aga Badana moves out of the farmers’ market and onto Oakland Avenue
Dan Fontes’ murals of giraffes are the only ambassadors beneath the 580 underpass on Harrison Street in Oakland. They greet passersby in silence with cool,...
Apr 19, 2023
Mama’s Boy
20” New York pizza pies are cooking inside of a new Oakland kitchen
At Mama’s Boy Pizza, business partners Ezra Berman and Miles Palliser are making simple pizza pies. “We’re not breaking the creative mold, and we’re not...
Apr 12, 2023
Dumplings United
Pot stickers, dumplings and bao
In February, Julia Zhu and her business partner, Sandy Zheng, opened the third iteration of their San Francisco restaurant chain, United Dumplings. After landing in Rockridge, United has become the third dumpling-focused spot...
Apr 5, 2023
Pizzeria de Laura
Deep dish! Sicilian! Grandma! Classic New York!
Rumor has it that the “Grandma” style of pizza was genetically engineered in the kitchens of Long Island grandmas before being released into society. They’re still a rarity on the West...
Mar 29, 2023
France in Oakland
Left Bank has chosen to imprint the Gilded Age of a brasserie onto Oakland and the East Bay
The tables in neighborhood French bistros are imperfect, wobbly, scratched. Plates are chipped, tablecloths stained. Paint is peeling off the...
Mar 22, 2023
For Starters
Brian Wood’s new retail space is just getting started
It might be considered blasphemy to publicly declare that I loved Brian Wood’s babka as much as, if not more than, the kouign amann that established his reputation as...