05.24.09
Posted in News at 1:21 pm by OaklandGoods
Dear Readers,
It has been a real joy to bring you OaklandGoods for the past two and a half years. I started this blog as a challenge to an editor I worked with who wasn’t interested in Oakland stories, and it has been a pleasure to watch the community, small businesses, the oakbloggers, and this blog’s network grow.
Now it’s time for me to do some growing of my own. After almost 11 years in the East Bay, I’m headed to San Francisco. I have a hunch that I’ll be back in a couple of years. Until then, I’m taking my fond memories of living in baja Temescal, Montclair, Grand Lake, and Harrioak along with me across the Bay.
Friday night I finally made it to The Fox and it made me tear up a little to see the bustle in Uptown on an average Friday. Art Murmur has been bringing life to the area once a month for so long – but midmonth it has been quiet. As I walked from dinner at Luka’s down to the theater, passing people spilling out of 2022, the Uptown, and Flora, I felt proud to have done a little community boostingwith the blog and my other assorted local media activities.
And now I’ve come to an end. It’s not the end – I hope to keep posting here when I have time and when I get to do something really fun in Oakland, so do check in. I hope you’ll also follow my events feed at www.twitter.com/oaklandtonight. You can also keep up with my work at www.jessicahilberman.com and follow my SF feed at www.twitter.com/sftonight.
Thank you for being part ofthe OaklandGoods community.
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05.13.09
Posted in News at 2:27 pm by OaklandGoods
A Better Oakland is collecting donations. If you’re a fan of the town’s best hub of development and politics news, give here.
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05.12.09
Posted in DoGooder, Events at 8:22 am by OaklandGoods
Hi Folks, Mike Spencer, friend of OaklandGoods, passed along the following information about how people can support Oakland’s Warthog rugby team. Please help out if you can!
“As few know, the Oakland Warthogs high school rugby club will not have its sponsor, Oakland Charter, next season. The Warthogs are kids from East and West Oakland who don’t have as many athletic and after-school activities as most high school kids. (The Chron’s Scott Ostler gave a great look at the Warthogs at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/22/SPNV15EG24.DTL&hw=warthog+rugby&sn=001&sc=1000 )
The Warthogs place a premium on sportsmanship, teamwork and work ethic. We are trying to show the better-side of ahtletic endeavors.
The club and its all volunteer coaching staff are trying to raise funds for a projected $10,000 budget that covers: field rental, league and national rugby dues, equipment, uniforms, travel expenses, etc.
The Warthogs are selling T-shirts for $15.00 each, mostly in large and XL sizes, white, red or black. Call Coach Mike Spencer at (510) 593-3767 for any T-shirt orders.
The club is then holding a yard sale at 2491 Cole Street in the Maxwell Park neighborhood, off High Street, on June 6 and June 7. Any purchases or donations by check to: Bay Area Youth Rugby , Inc,.1935 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 EIN 26-3252059 are tax deductible. The Warthogs will also accept donations of small goods for the yard sale.”
Oakland Warthogs
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05.04.09
Posted in Events, GoodEats, GoodLife, Uptown at 7:52 pm by OaklandGoods
My mom visited over the weekend and we spent a fabulous rainy Friday night in Uptown.
We popped into Pican thinking we’d be able to grab a seat in the bar for a quick bite, but the place was packed. And swanky! It’s really special inside. Mom worked her magic and talked the hostess into letting us have a table that was reserved for later in the evening. Our meal was amazing.
I’m not a connoisseur of Southern cuisine, but the flavors of everything we tried were rich and balanced. We started with the Southern fois gras, a dish of pan fried chicken livers that left just a hint of Bubby’s chopped liver on the tongue. (Sorry, old country humor.)
We were going to order the duck entree to share, but the waiter recommended the duck special, so we had that instead. The tender duck leg meat was shredded into a dish of spinach and sweet potato dumplings with just a shake of bacon. I learned something, too; a potato dumpling is essentially a gnocchi. I don’t like gnocchi, so I won’t talk texture, but I enjoyed the flavors in this dish – the savory duck and sweet sweet potato were a perfect match.
With the duck we ordered a side of mac and cheese. The cheese is a smoked Gouda, which was milder than I expected, decadently creamy, and without any of the frou-frou California touches I’ve come to love but also, apparently, can do without.
Cocktails were Bourbon. I also had a mini julep, a little mint julep shot, just to try it and in celebration of the Kentucky Derby. How could I not?
I’m sad to say we skipped dessert, but it’s only because earlier in the day we bought some gourmet chocolate to smuggle into our next stop: The Paramount.
A while back, the Paramount stopped the movie classics series due to budget problems, but it’s back. Friday night we caught the original Notorious, with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman. I hadn’t been in a long time, and I was impressed all over again at the value – a $5 ticket for almost three full hours of entertainment, including a live organist, a raffle, and stunning surrounds. We’ve all come to take the Paramount a bit for granted, what with the drama of the Fox’s schedule and the beauty of the restoration, but our previously restored theatre is still resplendent in Deco glory.
Pican – 2295 Broadway at 23rd – You may want to reserve
The Paramount Theatre – 2025 Broadway. Find the calendar here.
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05.02.09
Posted in News at 8:50 pm by OaklandGoods
Read about it here.
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04.22.09
Posted in Events at 8:31 am by OaklandGoods
oak tree image from deepellen on flickr
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04.17.09
Posted in Downtown, Jack London Square, News, OaklandGoods, Uptown at 1:13 pm by OaklandGoods
DTO510 has agreat post up at The DTO today about major happenings in downtown – events, openings, the works! Check it out.
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04.15.09
Posted in Downtown, Events at 9:31 am by OaklandGoods
Go now! Oakland’s annual EarthEXPO runs until 2 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Get tips on recycling and composting, free byo bags, and swap old mercury thermometers for new digital ones.
And thanks to everyone who has signed up for the Twitter feed. There are almost 100 of you already! If you have comments, events to promote, or suggestions, please send them along.
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04.13.09
Posted in DoGooder at 12:46 pm by OaklandGoods
Spot.us is looking for people to document the out of control pothole situation. Read the email below for details:
Hello
This is David Cohn from Spot.Us. I contacted you a few weeks ago about our efforts to report on the pothole situation in Oakland which has gotten out of control.
http://spot.us/pitches/147
I am following up to let you know about a pothole search event we are now organizing.
Details: http://spot.us/pitches/147/posts/16
We want to get lots of bikers together to go on a pothole hunt. Then we collect the location of all the potholes and map them out so we can show just how bad the situation is in certain areas.
We would love for you to get involved. If you are interested – just send me a note: David@spot.us.
We will need help spreading the word about the event – so we can get enough bikers on May 2nd to volunteer their time to find potholes – and we also need to raise another $55 (5 people giving $10 each) so we can give the map context and meaning by hiring a reporter to let us know why the problem is so persistent.
Best
David Cohn
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04.08.09
Posted in GoodEats, Jack London Square, OaklandGoods at 4:17 pm by OaklandGoods
Last weekend I had the great pleasure of attending the East Bay Vintners Alliance spring Urban Wine Trail event. The tasty tasting trek took me through Oakland’s Jack London Square and embarcadero as well as into Emeryville and Berkeley for an afternoon of music, food, and great wine. I’d had some of the local wine before, but I came away very impressed at the quality and creativity in Oakland’s wines today.
Clear winners were Dashe Cellars Zinfandel and late harvest Zin, as well as Berkeley’s Two Mile Syrah. My favorite winery of the day was Stage Left Cellars, where wine glasses chide “coulda should woulda,” which is exactly how it feels to walk out bottleless, bereft of “The Scenic Route” syrah.
Two Mile
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