Weekend plans
The idea of a weekend really changes when you have a kid. It used to be about sleeping in, maybe nursing a bit of a headache and letting the day take you where it will. Now I wake up bright eyed every day at 7 a.m. Sometimes 6:45 if I want to have a shower before the kiddo wakes up. Coffee sometimes happens by 8 a.m., other times its not until 11. But no matter when your coffee happens or whether you’re holding a yelping baby or dog in your arms, here are a few ways to kick off the weekend:
Timeless Coffee: If you told me 10 years ago that one of my favorite foods would be from a vegan coffee shop, I’d have said “what’s a vegan?”. Timeless has two always busy locations (one on Piedmont, one on College) where they roast their own beans and make chocolate from scratch and offer to-die for vegan pastries. I’m most frequently a victim of the passionfruit donut. The coffee is excellent and appropriately bitter, but I should caveat that if you need cow milk in yours - the lack thereof will likely be a deal-breaker for you. I love the Piedmont location because its always emitting this harmonious vibe, people of all ages and backgrounds, dogs, babies everyone just hanging out, holding doors for each other and just being friendly and enjoying their coffee and breakfast. When you’re at this place you know for certain you’re not in San Francisco anymore, and that’s just the way you like it.
Rick and Ann’s - is a classic Berkeley establishment - open since 1989 (the year, not the T Swift album). They crush on egg dishes and have great daily specials. The one thing I extremely aggressively recommend is the Potato-Cheese Pancake. These are basically super cheesy latkes and are crispy, gooey and like pancakes, they are offered in short stack form, which is two and *plenty* for one person to have as an appetizer. I think they’re intended to be a full meal, tbh, but I like to have appetizers with breakfast because I eat every meal as if its my last. There’s usually a wait, so go early or go late.
Coming Soon: I'm a bagel snob. So much so, that I learned to make my own bagels at home. Its a two-day ordeal, 1000% worth the trouble, and the secret ingredient is barley malt. Well the real secret is poaching the bagels before baking them, but in NY that's not a secret and just a basic part of the cooking process, but apparently no one on the west coast seems to think to do this, and thats why the bagels here are often so bad. Anyhow - people here are starting to wake up to their bagel blindness. A new shop called Boichik Bagels is opening on College Ave, allegedly in August. Until then, you can try Beauty’s in Temescal or Downtown for Montreal style bagels. And just keep crossing your fingers that Boichik will open eventually and you can see what all the fuss is about.
Local artist I’m really into: Oakland resident Sillimanjaro aka Rebecca Silliman hand-cuts vintage images to create sensual, retro-futuristic often feminist collages. The pieces, like their creator, are bold, colorful and seem to be having a lot of fun. Check out her instagram to order one or if you're lucky the artist can do custom thematic work to suit your sentiment. I hate the expression #sidehustle but i also have a lot of respect for people who continue to pursue art while working full time - check it out and shoot off a DM to get one of your own. I have this one called Tidal Cocktail.
For sale: Like what you’re reading and think you maybe want to live in the East Bay? Here’s an adorable bungalow in Oakland for $649K with an open house today. And if you want to go further east, tomorrow there’s an open house for this updated 2 bed, 2 bath house in Orinda with a koi pond for $1.1M