Personal Parking

In case there were any doubts.. This truck parks here:




Found in Berkeley on 6th near Gilman, (across the street from Jimmy Beans)

Lanesplitter

In our Berkeley days (pre-2004) had we wanted pizza we would head to Zachery's in Rockridge or on Solano.. or order delivery from North Beach Pizza. If we were on campus we'd hit up Blondie's once in a while. Here in Emeryville, our local options include Lanesplitter, Arizmendi's, Rotten City (which we've not been to yet!) and more recently, Hot Italian...



Our local Lanesplitter is where Adeline, San Pablo and W MacArthur Blvd meet. Pretty ideal location for a place called 'lanesplitter', right? Turns out that Lanesplitter is a local chain and are named for that fun motorcycle habit of "splitting lanes" when they ride through traffic giving people like me a heart attack as they zoom up on the yellow line, cutting through traffic. Then again, it could be for bowling.. either way.. there's a random pin sitting above near the bar and a dust covered motorcycle perched high above just to give you pause to consider over your drink..


The drinks are posted on the chalkboard behind the bar as well on the menu.. they have a few beers on tap... and a cider.


Two Rivers Pomegranite Cider

As for the food, you can pretty much hit the place at almost any time and there's some sort of special going on.. The first time we came here they had a "Happy Hour" special of $5 off a large pizza. This makes it only $2 more than their medium, so it's worth it.


One of the more popular pizza choices is the "HeartStopper" (bacon, gorgonzola, roasted garlic, spinach)


It's really large! (that's my pint glass being held up to compare)

Other than the size,(which you can get in small, medium and large) not sure why it's called a heart stopper. I imagine like any pizza, if you eat too much, you'll have the same clogged arteries you'd get if you ate too much of anything not healthy. I'm over-thinking it here, though.. so moving on..


Here's a slice.. Notice how the topping just sort of stop about an inch before the crust? (and in some cases sooner) Call me picky but I like my toppings to completely cover the pizza. You're paying for the toppings right? Otherwise it's just a cheese pizza.

The crust itself was nice and chewy though.

We came back last weekend (since one of us were craving pizza and the other was happy to go along with me... er.. ahem..) While the pizza wasn't amazing (honestly I'm not a NY style pizza fan but I DO like pizza a LOT) but the service the first time was pretty good.


Sean ordered the Vegetable Lasagne:

It was pretty large and could easily have been shared if so inclined.

I ordered the 2 slice w/ drink combo:

the combo is a large one-topping pizza. I chose spinach.

As you can see this time around the toppings go all way to the crust.. This pizza was actually better than the other pizza. It seemed crispier, and the edge was just as chewy as the other pizza we'd tried.

I got the 2 slicer so Sean could have one. He in turn, let me have about half of his lasagne. I ate about half of my half and handed it back. It was good, cheesy, robust (is there another way to say 'meaty' when talking about the denseness of vegetables?), and filling. The lasagne had a nice garlic flavor to it as well. I would totally order this alone to split between the two of us.

The lasagne came with a side salad.. I had ordered one as well off the 'sides' menu:


I can't say how much dressing they actually put on the salad, but I hope it's not this much. As it was I used very little of mine and had plenty left for Sean to use so he wouldn't need to touch his dressing. The "breadstick" is that same chewy crust-like bread. Good stuff.

I think we were better off doing the combos than ordering a huge pizza. One doesn't have to stuff yourself full of pizza to leave this place full and satisfied.

I wish I could say the same about the service. It's very hit or miss.. First time (on a Tuesday) was amazing.. Manager or someone greeted us at the door, explained the menu since we'd said we'd never been here before. Our server was was a very efficient lady whose name I wish I could recall. The experience made us happy enough to come back when the mood was upon us.

This last time, goddess server was working but not in our section. Being a Saturday evening, it wasn't too crowded and they seemed to have plenty of help, but our server was distracted or just not giving a crap. It seemed like the server from the other section was picking up the slack, cleaning tables and seating people. She attempted to serve us our food but it was for the couple next to us. The busser ended up serving our food in the end.

One family had to physically get up and get our server's attention to explain they were ready to order. The couple seated next to us had to ask for their check. When he came around with it (finally) he didn't look at us or ask us if we needed anything or were ready for our check.. Sean waved the guy down finally to ask for OUR check and we were able to pay up and head out.

The pizza was definitely good enough to go back. It could be a Friday night thing, or a service anomaly (these things happen). It's one for two however you look at it.. and like Sean said, worse case, we can always order 'to go' next time. =) It's so close though, why not try it again?



Lanesplitter Pizza
3645 San Pablo Ave
Emeryville, CA 94608

Emeryville Amtrack Station

A few photos from the Emeryville station as we cut through on our way to the Peet's at the Emeryville Public Market Saturday morning:


to San Francisco


it's a plaque..


'graffiti' on the Emeryville Amtrack Station's pedestrian bridge..


clear day from the pedestrian bridge.. view to the Emeryville Public Market

Another Friday Night at Rudy's

AKA: the "I can Haz Cheeseburger" Rudy's edition..

Friday night soda run had us thinking about food.. Our neighborhood pizza and bread joint Arizmendi's was closed, and somehow we ended up here.. Rudy's (which was already a favorite, but is fast becoming one of our 'regular' places).

We started it off with the Boneless Buffalo Chicken Tenders:


I came in craving mac & cheese and ended up ordering a Bacon Classic with cheese, served w/ salad instead of fries:


Sean ordered a very similar burger, "The Chupacabra" which was goat cheese and bacon:


I had a Coke Zero and Sean had the "Shaken Jesse" and after we ate all that our original server (whose name I can't recall but runs the counter really great!!) had already gone off shift. Another guy, "M" was working the counter.. He kept hitting me with a new Coke Zero as we decided on dessert..

Sean went along with me and we split a slice of the Coconut Cream Pie:


Not sure why it was served with a dollop of whipped cream (we were asked if we wanted it a la mode which we declined) but who cares: it was good. The graham-y crust was sweet and crumbly and had a cinnamon-y-ness to it as well coconut. I am pretty sure there were bits of coconut in the crust.. If you don't like coconut, you won't like this but it was good! The pie itself wasn't especially coconut-y, but had a creamy, whipped texture to it. I would definitely order it again next time I've gone without a cooler pie for a while.

E*Ville City Hall

The City of Emeryville's Town Hall was built in 1903..It was in use for over 60 years until the city outgrew it and moved to another location in 1971. Eventually those city facilities were no longer adequate and it was decided to renovate the original city hall and expand offices into the modern glass and steel structure adjacent to the original building. The City of Emeryville has made these facilities home since 2001.

Saturday Walk-about

Saturday we headed out to have breakfast at Rudy's and then take our little cart to various places to run errands before the day got too late. On our way to Rudy's I spotted this plaque partially hidden by bushes on Park Avenue:


It commemorates where the Oakland Ball Park once stood.. which is now a parking lot..

Also along Park is the park-like area of the Pixar campus.. Roses grow along the fence line:


After breakfast, while we 'ran' our errands and got our daily steps in, Sean & I came upon a couple ducks and their family swimming in the creek near the 80:



I made a quick video as they swam by:




We continued on, passing up IKEA where a big semi was unloading a steaming pile of mulch. Seriously.. this semi had this mechanism that would push out the mulch in large clumps.. falling onto the pavement in one giant heap.. and yes I got a video of that:



We made our way after, as we had cold milk in our TJ's cooler bag we needed to get home with after all! We were approaching the bridge we saw someone had finally started working on the busted lightpost that had been sticking out of the pavement, wires askew, tripping anyone up that didn't see it.


Well, at least they put some cones there.

Soy-riffic Soyrizo Saturday!

Yes, another post about Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe! We haven't been here for breakfast since we moved (I have to use that clarification, as we HAVE eaten here since we decided we wanted to come home).

It was still relatively early, but the place was busy.. about 15minutes and then we got a seat in the back.. We immediately ordered our coffee!

Coffee here.. time to order..

I"ve been cutting back on my meat eating (No really!) and I like to do "Meatless Mondays" and on occasion a few meatless meals in between. One of the things I wished I could have tried during Lent was the "Meatless Soyrizo Scramble" ($9.50) so this was as good a time as any:

Soyrizo scramble: consists of 3 eggs, corn, green onions, soyrizo, and pepper-jack cheese.


served with black beans.. at least a cup's worth.. It may be more than you possibly could need or want after the scramble and toast.

Sean ordered the French Toast Deuces Wild ($10.50):

2 slices of Challah French Toast served with toasted almond slices, 2 eggs any style and choice of a meat (veggie sausage, chicken-apple sausage or in this instance: bacon). They also have a pancake version called "Pancakes Deuces Wild!" of course..

Sean said he chose this in honor of a friend of ours (who was working her final breakfast shift at a Disneyland Hotel restaurant.) When we were regulars at her restaurant, we often ordered a similar item called "Hooked on Twos."


One of the things I really like about Rudy's is how vegetarian-friendly they are. Many of the dishes are veggie-friendly, or can be made veggie or vegan-friendly with tofu substituting as the protein.

The staff is pretty knowledgable, providing very good and often friendly service. The food is always good to really great! I'd be hard-pressed to mention anything that wasn't worth trying at least once.

We definitely don't go here enough to be regulars, but between here & Doyle Street, I'm a very happy & stuffed Meeko. So until next time.. =)

Queued up & Ready to Go!

Carts all lined up for what is sure to be another busy Saturday at IKEA Emeryville.

We showed up shortly after opening to pick up some extra "Gorm" shelves for our storage area in the new place.

Nation's Giant Hamburgers & Breakfast!

Nation's Giant Hamburgers (and Pies) is a local Bay Area chain.. According to their Company Website they started as a hot dog stand on San Pablo Avenue well over 50 years ago. You can go to the site to read all about how they created the "best hamburgers in the nation" and all that..

Honestly I can say Nation's is right up there in my top five of best freaking bacon cheeseburgers I've had. I like to order them with hash browns on the side:


They have bbq sauce you can pump into a little condiment cup so I use that on my cheeseburger as well Tabasco for the potatoes. One of the things I forgot about was how they cut a whole slice of onion to put on the hamburger.. I mean a whole slice.. I end up taking a bit off (as well a good amount of the mayo that is slathered on the bun) as a couple rings of raw onion are all it really needs, IMHO:


Some of the Nation's locations do breakfast all day like the one we went to in Albany.. We'll usually get the one or "two egger" breakfast with linguica (Portuguese sausage) but today Sean decided on bacon as his meat side.. and wheat toast.


Wash it all down with a soda.. (Diet Coke):


Nation's is also known for their pies.. One of these days we'll leave some room so we can share some pix of their pies (especially the cream pies or the strawberry pie!). The distance is a bit far to walk or ride bikes, so more than likely it would be when we have a car for the day, which might be few and far between.