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Farmer’s Market. |
Next to Chinatown is Old Oakland,
with old-world markets and a farmer’s market Fridays from 8am-2pm.
Among the Victorians on tree-lined streets, Ratto and Company
International Market and Cafe, a fourth generation Oakland
institution, is an excellent place to pick up a picnic or other
gourmet food items. Further south, on 9th near the corner of
Broadway, is the Pro Arts Gallery. Now through June 17th you can
check out the East Bay Open Studios 2001 exhibition, set up
specially for the open studios tour. The idea here is that you visit
the gallery, view an exemplary work of each of the artists, noting
your preferences, and get studio locations to set up your custom
tour of the
studios when they open June
9th-10th and 16th-17th. You can check out the Pro Arts Open Studios
on-line Gallery at www.proartsgallery.org. Throughout the rest of
the year, the gallery is open Wednesday
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Ratto's |
through Sunday from 11-5.
Further east, near the convention center, is the Pacific Coast
Brewing Company at 906 Washington. If you like beer, you’ll want
to taste the brewery’s hardy wares. Pacific Coast Brewing restored
its own 1876-era brick building, complete with an outdoor beer
garden shaded by trellised hops. Ask about the beer tasters club or
the Fourth of July Barbecue. Also, on Clay between 10th and 11th is
Le Cheval, a very popular, Vietnamese restaurant with great, fresh
food, notably the imperial rolls.
3. Biking the Embarcadero to
Fruitvale and Ford Street
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The Embarcadero provides the
on-street bike route along the estuary between Jack London Square
and Park Street. It winds you past maritime businesses, artist’s
studios, and local waterfront restaurants that are off the beaten
path. While Jack London Square and Embarcadero Cove are fun to visit
for their waterfront spirit and historic merit, it is the points
between that are the essence of the estuary. Jack London Square and
Embarcadero Cove each saw some of the East Bay’s earliest maritime
activity, with Jack London Square built on top of the pilings of
Oakland’s first wharf of 1852; and Embarcadero Cove built near
pioneer-gold-rush settlement-turned-lumbertown of Brooklyn, with its
old Embarcadero de San Antonio of similar vintage. And here, Quinn’s
Lighthouse is the actual lighthouse that, in 1903, sat at the
entrance to the estuary. But destinations aside, the Embarcadero
cruise is as much a parade of all that is authentic about the
estuary, with its rusty, but not forgotten boatyards and factories
turned housing for the cradle of the nation’s largest per capita
artist population. Around the Embarcadero are unique places like
Fruitvale, or the Fifth Avenue Marina where artist and tattoo
studios make the estuary waterfront cultural scene so vivid.
The Pro Arts East Bay Open
Studios is one very convenient way to learn about the art that comes
out of this area. You can pick your own itinerary at the Pro Arts
Gallery downtown, and you can check out the Pro Arts 2001 East Bay
Open Studios on-line Gallery at www.proartsgallery.org. Or, cruise
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Business signs
mark the 5th Avenue Marina. |
the Embarcadero stopping at your
choice of open studios and waterfront watering holes along the way.
Aside from the open studios tour, most of the people that visit the
artists’ studios are familiar with the work, seriously interested
in learning about it, or know they want to buy. If you have an
interest, you can contact the artist and usually set up an
appointment.
CONTINUE
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Rosenblum
Cellars- 2900 Main
Street-(510) 865-7007
Tucker’s Ice Cream-1349
Park Street-(510)522-4960
St. George Spirits-
Main Street-(510)769-1601
Luciano’s-
2319 Santa Clara-(510)523-3300
Aroma’s-
2337 Blanding-(510)337-0333
Chevy’s-
Mariners Square-(510)521-3768
Lake Merritt
Oakland Museum of California-10th
and Oak Streets- (510)238-3842
Alice Arts Center-1428
Alice Street-(510)238-7219
Cameron Stanford Home-1418
Lakeside Drive-(510)763-9218)
Madison’s at the Lake Merritt Hotel-1800
Madison Street-(510)832-2300
Children’s Fairyland-corner
of Grand and Bellevue-(510)238-6876
Lake Merritt Wildlife and Rotary
Nature Center-on
Bellevue-(510)238-3739
Lakeside Park Garden Center-on
Bellevue-(510)238-3208
Gondola Servizio and Lake Merritt
Boating Center-on Bellevue-
(510)663-6033
Arizmendi-3265
Lakeshore-(510)268-8849
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