From: jordan@IMSI.COM (Jordan Hayes)
Newsgroups: ba.food
Subject: Re: Oakland Rockridge!
Date: 21 Jan 93 15:20:55 GMT
Organization: Investment Management Services Inc., NYC

Robert Chao asks about Rockridge food ...

	Hunan Garden, Eve's Hunan

In a former life, I lived on College Avenue.  My kitchen window was
directly above Hunan Garden; the exhaust form the kitchen would wander
into my apartment when the wind was right.  I usually ate at Eve's :-)

	Cactus Tacqeria

Cactus was a whole lot better when it was further north.  Moving to
it's present location took a lot of the soul out of it.  Also you don't
get fresh salsa anymore like you used to, and it was one of the better
salsas I've had.

	Rockridge Cafe

I used to go there a lot before I lived in Rockridge; after I got
there, it lost it's charm for me.  There's lots better food on the
street, and it's usually too crowded.  A friend of mine used to bake
there, and now that she's gone (went north-west) there's not much of an
attraction anymore.  Call me biassed :-)  Still a decent omlette,
thgough.

	Pearl of Siam

This has got to be the worst Thai place I've been to in the Bay Area.
It's expensive, bland, and of general poor quality.  Bleah.

	Edible Complex

Good place for coffee and dessert, but it doesn't have the feel of
Berkeley coffeehouses; it's tough to feel comfortable hanging out
there.  However, plenty of interesting people, including a decent
showing from folks at CCAC.

Later, I moved to New York City for a while, and then came back to
Rockridge.  I lived on 63rd Street near College.  Not technically
Rockridge, sort of "Upper Rockridge" :-) but there's some decent stuff
up there.  Starting at Alcatraz, there's Noah's Bagels of course.
Sure, it's no Zaro's, but they do have yummy enough bagels.  In the
next block south from where I was (just before Claremont), there's
Great Wall ... sort of a hole in the wall Chinese place, but I think
it's owned by the same folks as Long Life Veggy House in Berkeley.
Good, cheap, fast.  Unique tan-tan noodles that I crave sometimes late
at night here in New York.

Further down there's Barney's, basically a gourmet hamburger joint.
They added grilled chicken sandwiches a while back, but the burgers
remain their strong point.  Try the Parisian Burger!  Good steak
fries, too.

A few doors down from there is the Oakland branch of Zachary's, deep
dish pizza (though their regular pizza is "fine" too).  Standard "pizza
joint" fare (mediocre salads, checkerboard plastic tablecloths,
half-dozen-bottled-beers, etc.), but mighty fine 'dish!

Of course there's Olivetto next to BART.  Dinner upstairs is a splurge,
though I always feel overcharged by about 15% ... decent wine list and
innovative (though not cutting edge) entrees.  Downstairs is a tapas
bar, with a few good wines by the glass, a couple of interesting beers,
and decent espresso drinks.  The tapas are usually interesting, though
too oily for me at times.  Olive Oil is an enhancer, not a star player
in food.  Sigh.  Like lots of things that are good in the Bay Area,
there's not enough space.  It's more popular than it can handle.  I
think this has to do with the general stae of things -- there's simply
too many groovy people looking to do too few groovy things.

Further south from there, don't forget Pizza Rustica -- arguably the
best california pizza in the Bay Area.  Don't forget to specify corn
crust!  Good salads too!  Across the street is Noble Pies, an Aussie
pot-pie joint; interesting salads (like carrot) on the side of yummy
pies.  Good for a mid-afternoon snack!

Sure do miss Rockridge ...

/jordan