140 thoughts on “Comments and Feedback”

  2. I’m trying to remember the name of a breakfast place on Shattuck around Channing or Durant. It was something like the egg and omelet shop. It was there in the 70’s to earl 80’s. Do you remember the name?

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  3. I remembered! It was called the Egg Shop and Apple Press. It was great food and great place for gathering. Please include the egg shop in your list. Sad that it closed

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    1. Just a couple of days ago I mentioned to a friend the Egg Shop and Apple Press. There was also one up on Euclid.

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      1. The Montclair Egg Shop in Oakland was originally an Egg Shop and Apple Press. Menu is still similar, as I recall.

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      2. I think the Egg shop on Shattuck was in the building that recently had Venus in it. I think of the Egg shop is having been the forerunner of all the kinds of places now that are coffee shops and cafés. It served drinks and food but wasn’t a diner. Or a burger place.

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  5. Oh the memories! This teenager in the late 60’s would take the A/C transit #59/76 from Oakland to College and Broadway and catch the #51/57 to the U and beyond.

    Stops in Elmwood at the pharmacy lunch counter for a lime coke and an egg sandwich with potato chips sometimes visiting the shops on College, other times visits to Telegraph Ave. to stroll the creative import shops. Incense and record stores. J. Magnin at across from Sather Gate. Mandatory visits to University Ave. for visits to the Surplus Center for jeans, lunch at La Tolteca, a peek into Frazier’s for lapidary supplies and once in awhile a matinee at the UC Theater.

    In later years, a bus ride all the way to the end of University to Spenger’s and the Nature Company and the 4th Street shops.

    Casa de Eva became a favorite for dinner in the young adult+ years until they closed just after the babies came.Fresh guacamole made at the table! Food memories are so strong. The Gorman at Casa de Eva is another fond memory. Ahhh, those were the days!

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  7. I’m trying to remember the name of a cafe/ restaurant on College Ave in Elmwood that preceded La Mediterranee. Was it Cafe Romano?

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    1. No. Café Romano was a couple of doors further north where I think there’s now a Chinese restaurant. Had a first date at Romano in 1975.

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      1. Thanks, I wasn’t sure of its location. I used to play the piano at Cafe Romano, probably in about 1977.

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  8. There was a restaurant on the corner of University Ave and Sixth Street in the 70’s & 80’s. Now it is a Veterinary Hospital. I grew up in this area in the 70’s& 80’s. A lot gas changed, I truly miss Spencer’s, Hs Lordships, Brennan’s, China Station. Solomon Grundy’s was another restaurant that comes to mind too.

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  10. I was performing in several amateur theaters back in the 70s and seem to recall stopping at a bar named Oleg’s (I think) in Berkeley after many of the shows for drinks and bar food. The decor was shabby eclectic with overstuffed sofas and chairs scattered throughout. Does anyone here remember the place?

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    2. Sorry for my error in an earlier comment: Oleg’s became Shattuck Avenue Spats (plural of spat, as in shoe gaiter). Later, people I knew still cited Spats as “Oleg’s” (just as in the 1960s, many longtime residents still said “Sid’s” for what had become the Ashby Ave. Co-Op supermarket).

      It was Roaring Rock Brewery and Alehouse, nearby, that was renamed “Triple Rock” after a very questionable complaint.

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      2. Rolling Rock was the competing, established, Pennsylvania brand that eventually induced Berkeley’s Roaring Rock to alter its name.

        The claim and its circumstances are thought by some to’ve been frivolous.

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      3. My first of two Oleg’s replies yesterday isn’t currently for some reason; here’s a reprise and extension.

        In the ’70s, Oleg’s offered diverse tropical rum drinks, à-la tiki bars. First place I ever saw a Borneo Fog Cutter. All that despite not being named Beachcomber Oleg’s or Trader Oleg’s.

        (The last phrase alluding to a Bay-Area-born restaurant entrepreneur well known in the 1970s, long residing on or near Mendocino Avenue: Victor Jules Bergeron Jr. — his businesses were far more widely known than his association, since childhood, with Berkeley.)

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  11. There was Le Petite Village, a wonderful French provincial family style restaurant at

    3105 Shattuck Ave. where La Peña has resided since 1975.

    Also, a nice Italian restaurant from 1947 to the early 1980s called Granata, located at 2730 9th St. where Acme Bakery now resides.

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  13. Thank you for composing this article as it records significant history and reminding us of the great times living in Berkeley. Mario’s La Fiesta always catered the East Bay La Raza Lawyers’s Holiday party. Who can forget Hs Lordships panoramic views, Brennan’s Hoffbrau/ Irish Coffee, Spenger’s breakfast /dinners, and the entertainment for dinner and shows, etc.,.

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    1. In going through old diaries from the mid-60s, I found I ate at a place on Telly–or nearby–called The Forum. Anyone? ..

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  14. Granada’s Restaurant (or maybe a pizzaria) serving Italian food and thin crust pizza.

    2790 Ninth Street, Berkeley.

    This place had limited hours due to its location but I remember it was open on the weekend nights as it was a popular hangout for the local Japanese American youth. This was before cellphones so if you wanted to find someone, you’d head on down to Granada’s and usually someone there knew where the person you were looking for was.

    This was in the late 1960’s and early 70’s. But the place was around long before that time and lasted many years after I graduated from college.

    One thing I remember was Gene owned the place and a little old lady always occupied the first table. We were not sure who she was but assumed she was Gene’s mother and referred to her as “Mama Granada.”

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  15. Grad student from ’77-84 here! In addition to several listed here, my two old favorites were

    Mario’s (Mexican). NW corner of Telegraph and Haste. I understand it opened in the ’50s, and lasted until maybe 2009 or ’10…?

    Also, and most especially, Darvish. Also on Telegraph. East side of street. In the block north of Haste, I think. Persian. Food was unique. I have been looking ever since for stew- or curry-like dishes that taste like theirs did. Closest I ever came was an Afghan restaurant in St. Paul, MN, now also long since gone. Don’t know if Darvish lasted 10 years – don’t know their founding date. They were knocked out of business by a fire in maybe ’83, which started in another business next door, as I recall.

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  16. I used to work at Herrick Hospital and we would go to Salerno’s for lunch or dinner. LOVED their salad dressing which was creamy and yummy. Recipe anyone????

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  17. Ann Grisham Pittel (UCB ’65) writes:

    1. I didn’t see LaVal’s Pizza on Euclid north of the university near the movie theater on your extinction list. Is it still thriving? I lived on the north side of the university on Virginia Ave.near Euclid  (rent was $150/ mo divided by 3 students= $50 each)  and would eat there on dates before going to the movies. The only movie I remember seeing there was “Black Orpheus.”

    2. My first date with Tim D. whom I met in a French lit class in the fall of 1963 and who- finally  – became my life partner in 1997 (a very long story in itself) was at Pizza Haven on Bancroft.

    3. For fancy dates or when parents came to visit, Larry Blake’s and Spenger’s were the restaurants of choice. My first ever cocktail as a 21 year old was at Larry Blake’s. 

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