Beast Blog

Foodie Trip Report

On Chowhound, a poster provides a lengthy report of her eating over 8 days in the Bay Area, much of it in the East Bay.

the saga for a decent breakfast, part 251

One of the few things I don't like about the Bay Area is the lack of cheap, hearty breakfasts. Bacon & eggs manage to be under $5 everywhere else in the country! And frankly, for the typical $7-$8 Bay Area breakfast doesn't give you much more than a $5 breakfast elsewhere.

So my quest for good breakfasts has led me far & wide. Here is my current fave:

1. Montclair Egg Shop
(6126 Medau Pl, Oakland)
510.339.9554

This place is GREAT! while it can be a schlep to get up to Montclair (for us flatlanders), I find it's well worth it. Quirky decor (old timey nickel amusements), friendly servers, reasonable prices, and good food.

The potato pancakes have lots of scallions, the eggs blackstone (weekends only) is awesome, the coffee is nice and strong!

I also like:
Bette's Diner (4th Street, Berkeley)

Homemade Cafe (San Pablo & Dwight, Berkeley)

Broombush Cafe (San Pablo, Berkeley)

Meal Ticket (San Pablo & Gilman, Berkeley)

good eats!

recently, i moved to the northwest oakland/emeryville/south berkeley corridor, and with that move began a search for a "good breakfast".

just what makes a "good breakfast"? well, as someone who is transplanted here from back east, i don't wanna pay "california prices" for a decent breakfast. but why is it that every decent place is more than $20 for a couple to eat the cheapest meal of the day? sheesh!

i just discovered to spots that serve very different food, but are great for b-fast:

Broom Bush Cafe
(510) 665-8315 
2725 San Pablo Ave
Berkeley, CA

is a southern style diner/greasy spoon where you can get get great egg dishes. i personally got the satisfying corned beef hash/egg combo, and my dining companion got her standard egg/bacon combo. with (big mugs! unlimited refills!) coffee, tax & tip, we paid about $17!

further up the san pablo corridor is Meal Ticket. the brightly painted exterior always caught my eye when i shopped at Tokyo Fish Market. so we checked it out. we're glad we did.

Meal Ticket
(510) 526 6325
1235 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA

i got the breakfast special: a whole deboned trout, grilled & served with homemade salsa, two eggs (they don't poach, much to my chagrin), and homefries (and they are good homefries- crispy & seasoned!). my friend got the eggs & baguette with bacon (a heartier version of the breakfast sandwich, served open faced). with coffee, tax & tip again, only $17!!!

we are pleased! we'll be returning to both.

Best Little Koffee Shop

Everyone has been posting restaurants that are exceptionally creative, unique, and fru-fru. While, I'll admit, I absolutely adore the Cheese Board as much as the next anthropomorphic mouse, there are times when new and unusual doesn't fit the bill. My entry into this particular meme is the Koffee Pot, a tiny hole in the wall of a business row between 25th and 26th on Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. This miniscule munchie haven is owned by Sam and his wife, who every morning make greasy spoon breakfasts that cost under $4.00. For lunch, they craft perfect sandwiches with exactly what you'd expect inside. And the prices cannot be beat, even 10 years ago. BLT? $2.60. Triple Decker Club? $3.60. It's got to be the only place in the East Bay where you can feed two people with fresh-cooked food for $6.00. Just be patient: there are only about 7 seats inside. It's a snug little spot, and Sam deserves much love!

a little background

When I lived in Oakland as a young adult I thought the Bay Area was as big as it got. I never even left California until I was 27, and that was for my honeymoon (divorced now, and swell friends with my ex, photographer Carl Posey, who is Berkeley High class of ‘83). I was at Cal for a while, then freelanced at The East Bay Express, the Bay Guardian, and was music editor at SF Weekly. It all seems a very long time ago. I used to party at Geoffrey’s in Jack London Square. I favored LaVal's pizza over Blondie's. Ate often at Lois'. I dealt with the gruff staff at Flint’s for the tangy barbeque ribs and bright yellow potato salad. Had brunch (when I had some money) at Rick & Ann’s up by the Claremont Hotel. I used to live at the Vulcan Foundry Studios at San Leandro Boulevard and High Street), and bought dollar burritos from the catering trucks over near there. I hung out at Yogurt Park in Berkeley. I worked at Saks Fifth Avenue for years (and was a good saleschick, too!). I used to go to Slim's in San Francisco, and to the DNA Lounge and to the Kennel Club (it’s no longer there? Or is it?) for hip hop shows. I listened to KALX as well as KMEL (which I know has changed a lot). Screamed through Cal basketball games when Kevin Johnson was at guard. I swore by Peet's (and still do). They serve it at a place here in Brooklyn called Boerum Hill Food Company, and please believe I go there often. I started writing for NY magazines like Spin and Rolling Stone (I still write for them sometimes). And finally ended up at Billboard, then at Vibe, then at Time Inc. Wrote More Like Wrestling while on a journalism fellowship at Northwestern University. Got some good reviews here and here and here, as well as a bad one (you thought I’d post it?!? Not). Started teaching at places like NYC’s Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center and The New School University and St. Mary’s College of California. As of today I haven’t had a day job in almost three years, and I like it. I write as much as I can, mostly fiction, and after fourteen years in journalism (Deadline! Deadline! Deadline), sometimes I feel like I’m not writing enough. It’s funny how life works out. I’m going back to school in the fall (after dropping out of Cal a thousand years ago) for my MFA (ask me how, with my no-BA-having self; it’s a good story).

More later.

Tom ate at the Tomate Cafe

The Tomate Cafe is a funky breakfast/lunch spot in West Berkeley, not far from Vik's Chaat House. It's at 2265 5th Street, which puts it between Bancroft and Allston. Or Addison. I always get those two confused.

From the street

Order at the counter.

The breakfasts it serves are what you'd expect -- egg dishes, pancakes, french toast, etc. We went there yesterday morning. I had the special crepe (which involved mushrooms and spinach) and she had the breakfast burrito, and both were excellent.

We sat outside on the patio, which is very animal-friendly. At other tables were a beautiful parrot, and Stuart, a sausage-of-a-dog who pretty much seemed to rule the roost.

Free bacon was given to the hounds. The humans, of course, have to pay.

Tomate Cafe is run by the people who operate Venus on Shattuck. Tomate is open from 8am-3pm every day. We will be back.

Those Hollen Days of Yore