capnhank

Wow! I didn't realize that they were a Brinker subsidiary! According to the Brinker International website, they are the "mutual fund of casual dining". Now, is that really a good thing? In fact, don't they have a bit of a monopoly on that corner? Unless I'm mistaken, there's a Chili's right across the street on Winchester. Yep, for "family style" Italian chain restaurant fare, hit Buca di Beppo. Better decor and the eggplant parm is especially good on a french roll the next day. In Santana Row, go to Pizza Antica. They do a dandy little Neopolitan pizza and the pasta ain't bad, either. Cheers!

Over the years, my family has been scattered to the far reaches of the Bay Area (we're currently sprinkled from Vacaville to San Jose), but we always meet for holiday get-togethers at the Emery Bay Market. There's something for everybody (my wife and I are vegan; my mother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law are ovo-lacto veggies; my Dad and his girlfriend are carnivores; my Mom could care less either way, etc), it's reasonably priced, centrally located and (most important) tasty. OK, I'll admit that we should probably "do Christmas" at someone's home, but nobody wants to deal with cooking for such a bunch of picky weirdos. For cheap, greasy eats near Lake Merritt: A Kwik Way triple cheeseburger is the finest little cardio-bomb you can get, if you can handle it. Get some of their greasy ol' fries to guarantee yourself an angioplasty. Yep, I may not do meat anymore, but I used to love me some greasy food. Here's a question from a former East Bay guy: Does anybody know if Nadine (San Pablo and ...Channing, Allston?) still exists? I remember having my first real gourmet meal there in the mid-80s. Tasting menu, wine-pairing, kitchen tour, the whole works; waiters appearing only when you need them, that sort of thing. Very indulgent and hedonistic, if I recall correctly. Ring any bells? It was in a beat-up looking old red building on the corner.

You guys drink nothing but Red Hook, eh?

Yummm. The Apricot Ale is especially good on tap. I don't know about Seattle, but the Berkeley location has nice little wood-fired pizzas, too. No smoking, of course. Hell, in Berkeley you probably can't even smoke at home anymore...

LaVal's, while certainly not good pizza. was decent in it's day (on a Round Table, Straw Hat, Red Vest scale). I worked at the El Cerrito location in the early 80s, before Cybelle's bought it out. Next I stole some elements of Cybelle's dough recipe (something about apple juice, if I recall correctly) and went to Fat Slice (proud to say I painted that ceiling!), which I understand has gone downhill considerably in the last decade as well. I believe they've moved to a pre-packaged "sourdough" crust mix. Eccchhh. Blondie's and Arinell are probably in the same boat, too. Funny how places that were good when I was 10 are now downright mediocre. Larry Blake's, of course, has always been the same. Big burgers and the occasional good blues act downstairs. I haven't been in years, as my last visit entailed an arm-wrestling match gone terribly awry which led to my forcible ejection, but it's a landmark.

San Jose update: My last post got me thinking, so I drove by Lenny's Cocktails this morning. Yup, it's a parking lot for contractors working on the new City Hall. That means they took out the Quality Cafe, too. Bastards!! I may have to move to New Orleans...

The fact that it will be on time and time again ad infinitum would probably lead me to focus on the birth. They may not run them as often as the friggin' "Best Of...", but I worry about missing new episodes on Food Network about as much as I worry about missing "The Real World".

The factory is off 101, round about Burlingame, I think. Can't miss it - old building with a tiny sign on the East side of the freeway. Actually very easy to miss. Badthings - I've never quite understood the draw of Tastykakes. They're just glorified Zingers, if you ask me, and nothing special. I used to have to mail the bloody things across the country when I went to the East Coast. Silly transplanted east coast coworkers always wanted a bag of Utz or Wise or something, too. However, there's nothing like a Top Dog. Durant for atmosphere, Northside for a slightly better dog (IMO). At least that's the way it was when I was in high school. LaVal's pizza was the same way. Better pizza on the Northside, but Durant for the weirdos.

Beans, thanks for the warm welcome! I used to work in the pizza parlor/pub at a university. During the end-of-semester festivities, we would serve pizza and beer in such volume that we would run out of dough and pitchers. During times like these, I would have loved to have had "Emblus Fingby" or "Tom Potts" on my nametag. There's nothing like a 20-deep line of drunk fratboys shouting your name.

I've been a fluctuating vegetarian/vegan for several years now and still can't bear the taste of soy milk. I use rice milk for everything, because it tastes like the bottom of the cereal bowl (yum!). True, you can't whip it or anything, but at least it doesn't taste like paste. For dessert, try a tofu cheesecake. There are plenty of recipes on veggie websites (this for example), but beware! You're usually better off going no-bake. The standard recipe calls for tofu, sugar and fake cream cheese mixed in a blender then baked for a while. I've found that the baking process dries out the mixture and makes it mealy and nasty. You're better off just refrigerating it for a couple hours. I know it's a far cry from condensed milk and cream cheese, but for those of us who don't suckle at the bovine teat it's pretty darn close.

While I always introduce myself right back at them, my waitresses usually wind up just calling me "sweetie" or "hon" for the rest of the meal. Is this because they are taken aback at my initial introduction and forget my name instantly or is it because I only eat at Denny's? On the same topic: Many of my ex-girlfriends and roommates who worked in the food service profession used fake names on their badges (one in particular actually used "Fluffy", which I thought rather original). This was as a precaution against creepy stalkers lurking in dark parking lots after shifts who might initially disarm them by calling out their real names. Is this fairly common in the industry (the fake names, not the lurkers)? I always used a fake name when I did telemarketing, but that was for different reasons...

Great neighborhood, that. In my punk rock days, we used to play at the 6th Street Rendezvous. Sounds so friendly! Actually, the place was run by the Vietnamese or Philipino Mafia or something; punk rock downstairs, little guys in sharkskin suits upstairs. Odd juxtaposition, but verrrrrry interesting. They stuck urinal cakes in the wall behind the stage like air fresheners, but it still smelled like piss. One night, while loading our gear, we were interrupted by a fellow having his head bashed repeatedly into a dumpster right next to us. Nice. The Sound of Music was another Tenderloin dump that may or may not still exist. Very dark and urine-scented. Somewhere on Turk St. between the liquor store and the peep show...wait, that's the whole Tenderloin! Now I'm in San Jose, where the dives aren't so divey. Since Dot's became The Mission Alehouse (gag!) and The Caravan is full of hipsters, it's hard to find a really creepy dive anymore. I guess there's always Lenny's Cocktails (dark, dark, dark, with bars on the windows), until the Redevelopment Agency replaces it with an Olive Garden. For the poster who mentioned Manny's in Berkeley: The restrooms may have lacked a certain element of cleanliness, but you could get your picture on the wall for finishing the Super Burrito! Now that's class!

Absolutely right, Gary. That's California for you, though; always trying to fancify perfection.

The TJs by my house has the Soy Delicious vegan knockoff, for those of us who can't enjoy the sheer decadence of the original anymore. No more meat or dairy, but I still covet... It's It was an after dinner reward when I was growing up. Mom knew how to dangle the carrot.