The Eastside Gang spent last weekend off the ranch luxuriating in the East Bay with our friends Perry and Lisa. They have a couple of pretty rad girls, so we brought our monkeys and turned them loose on the electric scooters that can be found on every corner in Oakland. Ok, that would be irresponsible, but we did find an abandoned Byrd, or Lime, or ScootScoot, and all took turns ripping up and down their cul- de-sac. The adults spent 3 days eating and drinking our way around the greater Bay Area. I kicked it off right by immediately devouring 2 lunches on our first day there. How could I not? On our way to tacos we passed a nondescript corner store with a line of people out the door. There was a hand-written menu taped to the window with 1 sandwich, 3 pies, and 4 kinds of cookies. Lisa causally mentioned, "That's Bake Sale Betty's." BSB? WTF? I'd been reading about her delicious fried chicken sammy for years, so, of course, I had to pop in after devouring several tacos to give it a try. Yep, well worth it.
Perry is my favorite bartender. Never mind that he works in a bank, if he had a waxed mustache, sailor tattoos, and rolled up the cuffs of his jeans over his Danner boots he could work nights in the hiperest of hipster bars. And, after a dinner of my only favorite pizza in the world (Zachs: deep dish sausage, mushroom, spinach), he made an assortment of cocktails that had me sleeping like a baby. He might have roofied me for all I know, but the delicious drinks were worth it.The only hiccup in our quest for the best food in the Bay was at a science fair. But, it was a science fair at AT&T Park, so as the kids and I examined eyeballs and brains in the visitors' dugout, my stomach didn't really care that all it was getting stuffed with was ballpark fries. And I didn't really care either, because I knew we were heading for a shining star (or, rather, 2 shining Michelin stars) for dinner at Chez Panisse. Regina and I have wanted to eat there for years and so we decided to treat ourselves for our 19th anniversary (it's the food anniversary, according to my made up list).
I made the reservations and that, in itself, was a challenge. Reservations can only be made 1 month prior, so I set a reminder on my phone and, one day while I was out feeding cows, I called. It was busy, so I called again. Still busy. I hit redial. Yep, busy. I had the feeling that this might be a popular joint in town. Redial, redial, redial. I felt like I was trying to win Metallica concert tickets through a radio station -- 97th caller wins! -- but finally, after 20 or so tries, I got through, and got the last seat for an 8:45 dinner reservation. 8:45? Were are we, Lisbon? That's often my bedtime, but anything for Alice Waters. Of course, the meal was amazing and, besides our friend Paul asking the waiter why the burnt-honey ice cream was burnt, was super adult-like. For us, anyway.The East Bay offered us even more than that. We got to hang with friends, eat good food, dive into cool cocktail bars, go on a distillery tour, and even go to a youth soccer match that amazed Dylan and Grady (matching uniforms! more than 2 soccer balls for warmups! painted field lines! a ref!). We drove home, wore out and happy. When we adult, we adult well.
