Rockridge Neighborhood Food Walking Tour

Last Sunday we spent a glorious Spring day in Oakland's Rockridge Neighborhood on a delicious and informative food walking tour, "Rockridge Neighborhood Heritage Tour," offered by Local Food Adventures. 

Local Food Adventures is a small locally-owned company whose walking tours focus on Oakland, California, neighborhoods.  

I chose the Rockridge tour because Rockridge is one of my favorite Oakland neighborhoods.  Rockridge is one of the first Bay Area neighborhoods Jim and I discovered when we moved to California over 40 years ago.  While Rockridge has become more gentrified since we first discovered it, it has continued to retain its local neighborhood spirit. Rockridge is easy to get to; it's right off Highway 24 and has its own Bart station right in the midst of its bustling business district.

Over the past several years, with so much changing in the Bay Area, we've not gone to Rockridge as often as we used to. I signed up for the tour in hopes of rekindling my love of the neighborhood.

We were not disappointed and are already planning our next visit.

There were just four of us on our three-hour tour: Maureen and Mike from San Jose, who had come from San Jose on Bart from the newly-opened Warm Springs station, and me and Jim, who drove the 14 miles from home and were easily able to find parking in the neighborhood on a Sunday morning. (Note: Rockridge is a busy residential and business district; on other days and at other times of day, parking can be scarce, making Bart and excellent option for getting here.)

We met Debra, our guide, at the Rockridge Library. After introductions and a bit of talk about our favorite foods and food interests, made our first of six stops at A16 restaurant.  A16 is known for its Tuscan pizza.  

We were seated at the counter that surrounds the wood-fired pizza oven.  While we enjoyed some freshly-prepared pieces of frittata, the pizza chef told us a bit about A16, its pizza oven, and Tuscan pizza. Since it takes only 90 seconds to bake a Tuscan-style pizza in the oven's 900 degree heat, we got to watch the pizza being prepared from the stretching out of the dough to it's completion.  We had the Margherita pizza, a classic that is topped with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, basil and olive oil.  

Before tasting A16's Margherita, I've never been a fan of this simple pizza.  This tasting changed it all for me. It was amazing!

Next stop was Cactus Taqueria. I had eaten at Cactus Taqueria when it first opened in Rockridge, over 20 years ago.  I remember liking it and appreciating that all their meats are antibiotic/hormone free.  Our Crispy Chicken Tacos were filled to overflowing with Mary's chicken, guacamole, cheese, salsa and lettuce.  I love their self-serve salsa bar that features at least half a dozen salsas. Yum! And, of course, I'll be back sooner than 20 years from now.

Next stop was the bustling Rockridge Market Hall Foods, a European-style indoor market with a bakery, a coffee roaster, fresh produce, wine, meats, fish, flowers, packaged fancy foods, prepared foods, pasta, and cheese. Our focus was on the cheese section.

The cheese monger talked with us about cheese and the cheese shop's cheese selections.  We enjoyed two tasty cheeses, each garnished with preserves, also sold at the Market Hall.  

After our cheese tasting, we had some time to explore and shop in the Market Hall.

At this point, about half way through our tour, we took a break from eating and walked through some of the residential parts of Rockridge. We saw many examples of the neighborhood's Arts and Craft style architecture.  Architects Julia Morgan and Bernard Maybeck, working mainly in the first half of the 20th century, designed and influenced the design of many buildings in Rockridge and other parts of Oakland and Berkeley.   

Rockridge's College Avenue Presbyterian Church, constructed in 1917, was designed by Julia Morgan. 

Our next tasting stop was at Ver Brugge Meats and Seafood, an old-style butcher shop and market, complete with hand-lettered signs in the window to advertise the week's specials.

Here we tasted freshly-cooked house-made Whiskey Fennel Chicken Sausage and Pork Bratwurst that were paired with a deli mustard and a horseradish sauce  Both sausages were so tasty that I bought some, and a bottle of the deli mustard,  to take home.

We then went next door is La Farine, a French bakery that has been here since 1977. La Farine's signature pastry is their morning bun. 

Sorry that Jim's mini morning bun is half eaten in this photo; they are so good, it is hard to not devour them immediately.  I left La Farine with more morning buns, scones, and a loaf for bread to enjoy at home.

Our tour ended at Dreyer's Ice Cream. Dreyer's dates back to 1928 when it was founded as Edy's Grand Ice Cream in Oakland by Joseph Edy and William Dreyer.  Edy was a candy maker and Dreyer was an ice cream maker. The top picture is a painting of what the ice cream parlor looked like in times past. Today, Dreyer's is a subsidiary of Nestlé.  

 

Dreyer's Rocky Road ice cream combined both of its founder's talents into one ice cream flavor that remains popular to this day. Rocky Road, introduced in 1929, mixed chocolate, marshmallow and nuts into chocolate ice cream.  Before this time, the only ice cream flavors were vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry.  Our tour ended with a scoop of Rocky Road.

In addition to learning more about Rockridge and enjoying generous samples of foods at all six stops, we recieved a map of the area and discount coupons for future visits at most of the places we visited.

Local Foods Adventures other walking tours are the "Grand Lake Cultural Cuisine Tour" and the "Rockridge Ice Cream and Gelato Tour" (great suggest for where to take kids this summer). All tours include food tastings, food demonstrations and some history of the neighborhood  Our guide, Debra, knew Rockridge well and shared her knowledge and love of the neighborhood with us in such a way that we felt like had instantly become part of the neighborhood.

One last note:  I bought my tickets to this tour at a discounted price through an offer by Livingsocial.com.  Over the years, I've taken advantage of many Living Social offers and have saved money and been introduced to new services.  Their offers change constantly and often are from new companies who are seeking a larger market than they can market to on their own. Check them out and sign up for their emailings for the area in which you live. 

More Modernism Week in Palm Springs

Today is the last day of Modernism Week in Palm Springs. Our Modernism activity was a tour of six homes in the Twin Springs condominium complex. All 40 homes in Twin Springs were designed and built in 1972 by architect in South Palm Springs. 

Two of the units we visited still have the original foil wallpaper and popcorn ceilings. Others have been remodeled but still keep with the mid-century theme.  

Palm Springs designer Arthur Elrod actually had a condo in Twin Springs and designed the interiors of many others. His three bedroom "model" home was one on the tour. 

Each residence was designed by Wexler to enjoy the outside vista and has an unbelievable view of either the San Jacinto Mountains or the desert-landscaped pool areas and stream. Large rooms, high ceilings, sunken master suite tub and sunken living rooms on the ground floor, with patios or full length balconies on the second floor, provide the perfect care-free, indoor-outdoor, Palm Springs condominium lifestyle.

VACATIONING IN SOUTH FLORIDA

In January, I spent a week in South Florida, a nice Winter break even for those of us who live in "Sunny California."

I spent a day in South Beach, the southernmost part of Miami Beach. Years ago, when I was a child in  Boston, many of my more affluent friends and relatives would spend the entire winter here. The hotels in South Beach were small; the architecture Art Deco.  By the 1950s and 1960, a bit to the north along Miami Beach, developers started building high rise housing and hotels. The Fontainebleau and Eden Roc were two of the landmark hotels that were built in this era. Visitors started gravitating to these places, leaving South Beach mostly as an inexpensive retirement community for aging seniors from the Northeast. The area eventually declined until the 1980s when the South Beach renaissance began.  The hotels were restored and modernized, Cubans fleeing Castro's Cuba gave the area a cultural mix, and the TV show "Miami Vice" presented the area as an appealing place to be.

Today, South Beach is booming and beautiful. Visitors come to South Beach from all over the world. There is always a modeling shoot or a movie filming going on. The Art Deco hotels are historic icons that now charge high rates and are always full. Along Ocean and Collins Avenues there is activity 24 hours a day.

While I've been to South Beach many times since the 1980's, it was not until this visit that I took the Miami Design Preservation League's Art Deco Walking Tour. The daily tours last about 90 minutes and cost $25 per person ($20 for seniors/students/veterans).  Reservations not needed; you can purchase your tickets online in advance or just show up at the Art Deco Welcome Center a few minutes before the 10:30 a.m. start time and purchase your ticket. 

The walk was mainly along Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue. It is the hotels that have the most interesting Art Deco architecture. Our guide took us into the lobby of the Winter Haven Hotel (1939) and up to the rooftop pool and bar of the Congress Hotel. 

We detoured a few blocks to South Beach's Art Deco Post Office, on Washington Avenue at 13th Street. It's architecture, murals, and ceiling are worthy of a detour.

Another highlight of our tour was the mansion where Italian fashion designer Gianni Versace lived until his untimely death in 1997 when he was shot on the front steps as he was heading out for his daily breakfast at the nearby News Café. His mansion is not Art Deco, but has been an attraction since 1992, when Versace bought and opulently renovated it with such details as a 54-foot long 1000-mosaic swimming pool which is lined in 24-carat gold. It is now in the process of becoming Villa by Barton G, a luxury hotel with an upscale restaurant, Il Sole.  

After the tour, I had lunch at my longtime favorite, the News Café (since 1988). My father and I used to have lunch here every time I visited Florida. It's a popular, casual restaurant, outdoor café, bar, and international news stand, right on Ocean Drive. The News is open 24 hours a day. While other restaurants along Ocean Drive have become glitzy, with pushy "hawkers" trying to lure in customers, the News has remained low-key and seems to be as popular as ever. I had my "usual," the Mahi Mahi Sandwich...yum!!! 

And, just across from the frenetic activity along Ocean Drive is beautiful Miami Beach where there is always room to swim, walk, and sun.

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I spent another full day in Coral Gables at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. The garden is named for David Fairchild (1869-1954), a famous plant explorer, educator, and scientist who traveled the world in search of plants that might have potential use to American people. Fairchild retired to Miami in 1935 and, in 1938, created, with a core group of supporters, including Robert H. Montgomery, an accountant, attorney, and business man with a passion for plant collecting, this Botanic Garden on 83 acres of land. They chose this location south of Miami because it is the one place in the continental United States where tropical plants can grow outdoors year-round.

Admission to the Garden includes a tram ride through the garden, giving an excellent overview of its entirety.  After riding the tram, I further explored the garden on foot.

Right now, until May 31, 2015, Fairchild is exhibiting the glass art of Dale Chihuly.  This exhibit is the biggest Chihuly exhibit I've ever seen. The Garden is a perfect setting for the glass works that pop up unexpectedly, blending in and complementing the lush plants.

The Fairchild has several places to dine, including the Glasshouse Café that overlooks the Wings of Tropics exhibit and which has a Chihuly chandelier in the center of the dining room. There are several casual places to buy food as well as to picnic. 

  

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When I am in South Florida, I usually stay in Coral Springs, near where my parents lived in retirement, about half an hour's drive north of Ft. Lauderdale.  The nearest beach is Deerfield Beach, a beautiful beach with a fishing pier, walking paths along miles of beach, and several pleasant places to eat.  I like the restaurants that have seating facing the beach. This visit, I enjoyed a pleasant lunch on the outside patio at the Deerfield Beach Café which is open for three meals a day. It also serves to-go food to take to the beach and is a popular spot for an ice cream cone.