DeLuxe

Page Mill Winery is a great dog friendly winery in Livermore. We went there on a hot summer afternoon and enjoyed our tasting on the patio just outside. The winemaker came out and took pictures of our dogs Duchess and Champ for the winery dog photo album. (it’s got photos of many of their canine guests from the past few years) We went home with some of their Cabernet and Zin — both were quite good. After a long hike at nearby Lake del Valle, this is a nice stop before hitting the road.

Page Mill Winery
1960 South Livermore Avenue, Livermore, CA 94550
925.456.7676

There are tons of Vietnamese restaurants in the Bay Area and many of them are very good. Many of them are very bare bones in ambience and decor. A few of them are even upscale (Slanted Door, Xyclo). Pho 84 in Oakland’s uptown neighborhood is nicely appointed but still casual. Best of all, their food is delicious. Try pretty much anything on the menu and you can’t go wrong. Be sure to try a dish that includes their ‘special rice’. I could make a meal out of this seasoned rice, yum!

Pho 84
354 17th Street, Oakland, CA 94612
510.832.1338

I probably heard about the tapioca drink craze three or four years before I finally realized what all the fuss was about. Now nearly every week I head over to Quickly in Old Oakland for a bubble tea. My favorite is the Earl Grey Milk Tea with tapioca. They literally have more than a hundred variations on the types of drinks you can get: tea, ice, slush; any number of fruits and flavors; all with the option to have chewy sweet tapioca balls added. Get the extra wide straw and drink it up!

Quickly (Old Oakland)
517 8th Street, Oakland, CA 94607
510.663.2233

I discovered The Wine Mine through a little sign outside Bakesale Betty. The sign advertised $1 wine tasting. We want and learned you could taste 5 wines every Saturday from 2-5 for that price. Nice! On top of that they have hundreds of wines to choose from at great prices. Their focus is on bottles under $15 and are very friendly and informative. On top of all that they have plenty of off street parking. So drop by anytime but especially on Saturday afternoons.

The Wine Mine
5427 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA 94609
510.547.9463

If you like standup comedy, the best place to go in the Bay Area is Cobb’s Comedy Club. As you can see from the thumbnail, we went there to see Patton Oswalt. He had a great routine. At Cobb’s we have also seen Sarah Silverman. If you go, get there early so you can get a good seat. Seating is first come, first served and there’s a two drink minimum. If you don’t have time to eat before the show, you can also order food and they wll bring it to your table.

Cobb’s Comedy Club
915 Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
415.928.4320

On our way to see Patton Oswalt at Cobb’s we figured we could duck into one of North Beach’s many Italian restaurants. No such luck — there was a long wait at all of ’em and we were short on time. Luckily we found Iluna Basque. They had a delightful menu of all kinds of tapas. The seafood dishes were especially good. Chef Mattin Noblia is going to be on one of our favorite shows Top Chef (season 6). So, if you’re in North Beach, this place is worth a visit. Just have tapas and a drink or make a meal out of it.

Iluna Basque
701 Union Street, San Francisco, CA 94133
415.402.0011

One of my favorite Southen cuisine restaurants in Oakland is Brown Sugar Kitchen in West Oakland. It’s in an area that almost entirely industrial but the out of the way location is well worth seeking out.

For breakfast, everything is good but be sure to try the cornmeal waffles. They are light and airy and delicious and often served with apple cider syrup. And, of course, you can also get your waffle with a piece of fried chicken. For lunch, the pulled pork sandwich can’t be beat. It’s served with some vinegar based cole slaw that I love so much. One of these days I will have to invest in owner Tanya Holland’s cookbook so I can make these dishes at home too.

Brown Sugar Kitchen
2534 Mandela Parkway, Oakland, CA 94607
510.839.SOUL

The Citrus Club doesn’t really have much to do with citrus and it really isn’t a club either (even though it does have a bar). The first couple times I passed by this place while shopping at Amoeba in SF, it didn’t really register on me that this was a restaurant.

In fact, this place is actually a very nice noodle house with a casual and somewhat funky vibe. The prices here are very reasonable, the portions are large, and we’ve never had to wait long for a table even though it’s often packed. I really like their garlic-soy sauce edamame. I don’t go over to this part of SF too often but I can’t think of another place in the upper Haight I want to eat at (except maybe Cha Cha Cha).

Citrus Club
1790 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
415.387.6366

I’ve always loved pinball but good machines are hard to find and I can never get enough. There used to be a great place in South Berkeley that had a bunch of machines but I don’t know what became of it. I was delighted to discover the Lucky Ju Ju. Hidden behind a laundromat in Alameda, this place is a gem. They’re a non-profit and only open for limited hours Friday through Sunday. If you love pinball this is the place for you. You pay $10 at the door and all the machines inside are set on open play. You can play dozens of different machines including classic ones from the 50s and 60s as well as more modern machines. They’ve even got a fridge with sodas and $1 popcorn. A great value and lots of fun.

Lucky Ju Ju
713 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501
510.205.9793

The vinyl toy craze may have slowed down a bit but one of my favorite stores Kid Robot is still going strong. This Haight Street haven has the best selection of limited edition vinyl toys around. They used to carry lots of Asian blind box toy editions but these days most of those are their own brand. Also, they have plenty of limited edition vinyl figures displayed in cases lining the store walls. They now have stores all over the country but I’ll always love the store that started it all.

Kid Robot
1512 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117
415.487.9000