A break from the biking for some photos from around rockridge:
Simon. He said he was trying to see his family on Easter. He talked about his sister in Emeryville and his dad who’s 82.
Outside of Cole coffee, dogs wait for their owners to finish their drinks
Bica Coffehouse (5701 College Ave, Oakland) just opened today across the street from Rockridge BART. It replaces Cafe Lyon, which closed last May. I had an espresso made with coffee from De La Paz’s 14th St. Espresso blend. It was nice and brewed well on their La Marzocco Linea. A bit bright, citrusy and a little sweet.
(Pardon the less-nice iphone photos)
de la paz 14th st espresso via bica coffeehouse
They plan on rotating their coffees between Flying Goat, Ritual, De La Paz, Verve and Barefoot about every 2 weeks. In addition to coffee, they also offer teas and a few different types of pastries from Bisbane Bakery.
saw this on the way home:
I heart zombies
“I heart zombies”
update: you can expect to see some wild-looking mugs at miam.maim: http://www.unitedbrands.us/miam/miammiam-mugs/fallseries.html
yet-to-open cafe/lounge miam.miam (5856 college ave) just posted a huge blue bottle banner in their window. after having a banner in the window promising frozen yogurt in “summer 2009″ and then “holiday 2009″ from peeks into their front door, it looks like they’re finally getting closer to opening. The huge banner is a little misleading – the size of it makes you think that blue bottle is actually opening at that location, but not so.
Bittersweet, just down the street also serves blue bottle (or at least they did last time I was there), so miam.miam isn’t alone.
this gets me to thinking – blue bottle’s got a pretty strong brand going if cafes are clamoring to serve their coffee and use it in their advertising, right?
on a slightly related note, scream sorbet is opening up a shop at 51st and telegraph in temescal (5030 telegraph ave), 2 doors down from bakesale betty. they’re scheduled to open in June, according to a not-fake poster.
they’ve got a hilarious set of fake posters in the window:
scream sorbet posters
hilarious fake ads and websites:
“squidazzle! Bringing squid and squid-based technologies to the greater bay area since early 2010. We’ll make you aware what the squid has to share”
“the root seller: your year-roud source for roots and tubers”
“the mauve emporium: love mauve? so do we! finally, the store that’s nothing but mauve. If it’s arguably mauve… we’ve got it!”
“TROUGH: food by the minute – Grand opening special!!! Only $9.99 for 10 minutes! That’s less than a dollar a minute!!” (looks like landing page is broken)
“MARZIPAN MADNESS – The DIY almond paste sensation that’s sweeping the nation!”
update 2: samples today but real opening is on sunday the 20th 7am-7pm
update: via teh twitters, @cafezoeoakland is prepping for a 6/18 opening, pending inspection.
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peeked through the window of cafe zoe in rockridge and saw this:
the under-construction cafe zoe, through the window
there hasn’t been a lot to be found about cafe zoe (6000 college ave) on the interwebs, which had been vacant for quite some time (one year? two years?) Apparently it used to be Baby World but they seem to have moved over to the Temescal neighborhood.
Anyways, back to the photo: Rockridge is a neighborhood with a pretty high cafe per resident ratio, but I’ve yet to find a place with espresso that I really like. On College ave, there’s Cole Coffee (who have a consistent gathering of people sipping coffee outside), A Cuppa Tea, Spasso, and Peaberry’s in Market Hall. I don’t remember what the espresso was like from Bittersweet or Hudson Bay Cafe, but the fact that it wasn’t memorable probably means something. Though each of the places have their draw, I wouldn’t go to any of just for an espresso unless I really needed a caffeine fix. The nearest place to me is the relatively new Remedy Coffee in Temescal, who do a really nice job with Ritual’s beans.
The machine in the photo is a La Marzocco FB80, a dual-boilered, PID’ed out crema-churning beauty (with some nice detailed reviews) that runs somewhere between $11,000 and $17,000 depending on how many groups you want. A little searching online found this job posting which indicates that Cafe Zoe will be serving award-winning Ecco Caffe coffee (whose coffee I have not tried but hope to soon, as they are planning to relocate their roastery and open a cafe in portrero hill).
I’ve seen this machine before at the Blue Bottle in Williamsburg. So, I’m excited. serious coffee + serious machine + a job description that implies a serious commitment to coffee (“The espresso bar was designed with the barista in mind! Super equipment, great workflow, and the best view in the house.”) probably means serious coffee.
update 05.12.10: crossroads confirms that they’ll have a second rockridge location. As of May 9th, the shelves were being stocked!
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New tenants coming soon – we saw a banner for crossroads trading company while walking by the old cotton and company shop this morning. I’m guessing that Crossroads is moving from their old location – two spots in Rockridge sounds like a little much.
