I think I mentioned something about doing a BJ get together in San Francisco, but things turned out to be busier here than expected, and the only possibility is something in the 510 rather than the 415, and now Friday is the last day that I’ll be here (shipping out late Saturday).
What do people think of something near Bart on Wednesday or Friday evening? I’m thinking of the Jupiter in Berkeley.
Update. How about Jupiter Wednesday at 7? I could do a touch earlier too. If people want could do Triple Rock instead, which will be less crowded.
Update. The more I think about it, the more I like Triple Rock instead. What do people think? Triple Rock is a five minute walk from Bart, whereas Jupiter is right next to Bart. Jupiter is crowded and a touch hipsterish. Triple Rock is from the old school.
replicnt6
I hear there’s a great mate bar on University Ave. What? Too soon?
Steeplejack
Goddamn best version of that song. And I say that as an unregenerate Allman Brothers fan.
Chris T.
Jupiter has good pizza too (or did a decade ago at least).
MobiusKlein
You should crash DeLong’s office hours
Ah, Berkeley. Had my first street drug solicitation there. ‘Red dragon acid’ but I had now clue what it was at that time.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Bonus Lou Rawls: “Dead End Street.”
Raven
@Steeplejack: You know there was a version where Lou talked about a Caddy, White on White in White. I’ve searched forever with no luck.
PZ
Down for Berkeley. Wednesday would work better than Friday.
Raven
@Steeplejack: Saw em twice before Duane died. I even found a CD of the show on Boston Common on their website.
Shadows mom
Jupiter was good last time I was there about a year ago. Friday is good.
Shadows mom
Jupiter was good last time I was there about a year ago. Friday is good.
Violet
How are you feeling now, DougJ? All better?
BethanyAnne
Mmmm, Jupiter. I’m beginning to get excited to be back in the Bay Area. I’m moving back in late September – which if my timing holds, means the Grexit will happen in early September. //sigh One of the places I like in Berkeley is a Vietnamese place, about 2 blocks north of Jupiter. Just across the street from that Scandinavian furniture place on Shattuck. Looks like hell, but I love the food there.
Steeplejack
@Raven:
Oh, I’m your man. I’ve got a few things to do right now, but I’ll run it down. It might be “Street Corner Hustler Blues.”
. . . Damn, I got the kung fu grip. “White-on-white tab-collar shirt” at 1:30. “His automobile: white on white in white” at 2:10.
In a similar vein, check out Ronny Jordan, “The Jackal.”
Full disclosure: like the Jackal, I have a Ph.D. in street strife. And I do love the high life.
SiubhanDuinne
We’ve all been worried sick about you, Matė-SensitiveDougJ. Hope you have recovered from your bad trip.
@replicnt6: LOL, I’m going to hell for laughing at that, aren’t I?
laughingman
Jupiter has great beer, brewed by Drake’s in San Leandro. They usually have some amazing brews on tap, almost always Nitro Old Rasputin and they carry Old Speckled Hen too. Pizza is great, wings are better.
Triple Rock Brewery isn’t too far from Downtown BART and has great chili and burgers.
I’ll happily show up on a Wednesday or Friday. Elementary School teachers have a lot of free time nowadays.
Raven
@Steeplejack: See what the mind does, right rap wrong song. Thanks, that has been years in the making for me. Now my old ass has to hit the hay.
Manfommadras
FrIday evening at jupiter works! Looking forward to this…
Steeplejack
@Raven:
I have visited Duane’s grave (and Berry Oakley’s) at Rose Hill Cemetery in Macon. Nearby is the grave of “Elizabeth Jones Reed, loving wife of Briggs H. Napier.”
One of my transcendant experiences was seeing them in Mobile when they opened with that song (my favorite), sort of waffling slowly from “Are they still tuning up?” to “Jesus, they’re playing my song!” It was right at twilight after an all-day Southern blues-rock extravaganza. Good times.
DougJ
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’m fine now…but it took a few days, that’s for sure.
Amanda in the South Bay
I might show up, either date works.
schrodinger's cat
@DougJ: Have you seen a doctor yet? Good to see you blogging again DougJ of many names.
David Koch
its only a 15 ride to the 415 from Berkley
Bruce Webb
Friday would be insanely crowded at Jupiter. Better choice and much more in tune with Berkeley would be the Roaring Rock four blocks north on Shattuck.but Weds at Jupiter might be okay crowd wise. And I hear the pizza is still good. But Jupiter is maybe a little heavy on Hipster attitude as opposed to the 80s Berkeley vibe at Roaring Rock. And if the weather is good RR has the rooftop place as compared to Jupiters enclosed cramped patio deal.
I live a block and a half from the BART station so either location works for me, and it is not like I am a Balloon Juice regular. But frankly coming to Berkeley just to experience what is much the same hipster brewpub that you could find anywhere seems a missed opportunity.
Some people swear by the home brew and pizza at Jupiter, but Roaring Rock has a couple of decades more brewing experience and was one of the earlier Bay Area brew pubs Which is to say one of the earliest period (with all respect to SF, Seattle and Boston). And pretty good food along the typical brewpub sandwich and pickle lines.
Of course nothing would prevent a pizza meetup at Jupiter and a five minute (or less depending on intake) walk up the street for a more tavern/music/beer pub scene at RR after. Or maybe instead if the yuppie/sommelier vibe at Jupiter turns folk off.
kindness
The Trappist in downtown Oakland. Killer Belgian beers. Pacific Coast Brewery is around the corner. Both off the 12th St Bart.
So that’s my vote. Please announce though. I’ll go.
MobiusKlein
@SiubhanDuinne: laugh all you like, but Mate is just bad for some people. DougJ’s not the first.
Bruce Webb
Oops, showing my age. Roaring Rock had to rename itself Triple Rock decades ago after the Rolling Rock folk from Latrobe kicked up. Back then nobody thought Rolling Rock would come back to life as a cheap mass produced beer actually marketed in California. But they had lawyers.
Anyway RR in Berkeley has been Triple Rock for more than 20 years. Chalk this one up to hazy 70s and 80s memories. (hey it was and is Berzerkeley, give an aging hippy a break here)
Turgidson
@kindness:
Love the Trappist.
I can’t go either night (and people would wonder who the hell I was anyway), but I’d go for the Trappist over the usual Berkeley haunts. Jupiter and Triple Rock are both fine, but not particularly memorable. Beer enthusiasts ought to really enjoy the Trappist. (also if you want pizza in the East Bay, go to Zachary’s, for fsm’s sake. Nothing against Jupiter’s pizza, but like I said…not memorable)
kindness
@David Koch:
You haven’t taken Bart or ridden the Bay Area freeways lately, have you?
15 minutes at 2 AM, during the day, not so much.
moops
Wednesday at Jupiter works fine. Would be nice to have something in my actual town for the first time.
xian
@kindness: I second the Trappist.
Chris T.
@Turgidson: Zach’s on Solano (which is where I ate way too often) is hard to get to via BART. Zach’s in Rockridge would work. Both are always insanely crowded though. (Which is why I would order takeaway from the Solano store, and pick it up along with a quick stop at Andronico’s across the street….)
Zagloba
Wherever you all decide, I’ll show up.
/Posting from DougJ’s no-longer-quite-so-undisclosed location.
The prophet Nostradumbass
If you had said the 650, I might have, but there’s no way in the world I’m going to Berkeley.
Have fun.
xian
@Turgidson: @Turgidson: no not zachary’s! if you want pizza in the east bay go to Pizzaiolo, Marzano, or Boot & Shoe.
DougJ
@Chris T.:
I hate Zach’s. Overrated.
DougJ
@Bruce Webb:
The more I think about it, the more I think Triple Rock might be better. Let me check out how much farther from Bart it is.
replicnt6
@SiubhanDuinne:
Pretty sure. I’ll be wearing a pink carnation, so you’ll recognize me.
DougJ
@Zagloba:
Ha! Feel free to bring some others too, though not anyone who might be offended by my online rantings.
Chris T.
@DougJ: I just love their (Zach’s) pesto pizza. Or did 10 years ago anyway. All my Berkeley food-lore is a decade out of date.
Valdivia
Hey Doug so happy to know the Mate didn’t fulminate you. We were worried :)
divF
Damn – I’m in DC till Thursday night, then home to Berkeley. If it is Friday, I’ll be there (wearing a Hawaiian shirt, as is customary in my shop on Fridays).
DougJ
@divF:
Where’s your shop?
divF
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL to its friends, LBL to old-timers, the Rad Lab to *really* old-timers).
kindness
@DougJ: From the downtown Berkeley Bart station Triple Rock is down Shattuck a couple blocks, across University and then down Shattuck another 3 or 4 blocks. Inner city small blocks not suburban blocks. It’s walkable.
David Koch
I got the worst case of food poisoning from Zachery’s. Hospitalized for 4 days. I never knew you could get so deathly ill from food poisoning until that event.
Blondies4ever.
chuck butcher
I’d love to come, but… 12hrs & 713mi maybe I’ll give it a miss…
The prophet Nostradumbass
I hear the gooseberries are doing well this year… and so are the mangoes.
guachi
I’m in. I’m vacationing in Monterey. Could you post an update on a finalized location tomorrow?
Ruckus
@David Koch:
Had a similar sounding episode from McDs once. Fever over 105, chills(in over 100 deg weather), intestinal – issues. I know where they got the idea for Linda Blair in the Exorcist. You had food poisoning so you know the scene. Took 3 days before I no longer wished I would just die and get it over with.
BTW I will starve before ever eating at McDs again
srv
I’m only available Friday, so you better do Wednesday.
Eljai
I think I might try to escape from my cubicle for this.
Origuy
I might be able to make either day. Coming up from Cupertino after work to Berkeley would be a bitch, though.
Chris T.
@divF: Guess that makes me an “old-timer”. Except my last time there was in 1993 :-)
Mike S.
lel, Triple Rock,
proof positive that this blog is hopelessly adrift.
Mike S.
@David Koch:
blondies forever?
pure grease! (though I’ve consumed it many, many times)
never had a problem with Zachery’s myself, but that in itself proves nothing
tybee
triple rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d9D_W1PbQc
kindness
Oh please oh please….Let’s do The Trappist instead. Much better beer, Bart is right there and there are a ton of places to eat in the surrounding the neighborhood. That plus I work in downtown Oakland so I could walk there.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Too bad Beckett’s went out of business…
Turgidson
You people are weird with your Zacharys hate. Easily the best pizza in the area. And I’m from Chicago so I win.
kindness
@Turgidson:
You call that stuff pizza? Mind you I like it but as a New Yorker that isn’t pizza. (also mind you the stuff out here in Cali mostly isn’t pizza either)
Turgidson
@kindness:
I like NY pizza just fine, but it’s basically just sauce and cheese smeared on a big round stale cracker. Chicago pizza is made of sterner stuff (and tastes better).
Also too, I’m firmly of the mind that Chicago makes the best thin crust pizza there you can find as well. (south side/suburbs institution Aurelio’s is my favorite thin crust ever…though I will concede that some of the flagship deep dish places make merely-average thin crust)
edit: I will also admit that “that isn’t pizza” is a common refrain among non-Chicagoans, as is “it’s lasagna with a crust underneath”. Oh well. It still owns. And I’m grateful the Bay Area has halfway decent clones like Zachary’s, Patxi’s, and Little Star where I can get my fix.
moops
I’m guessing this never got sorted out….
Bruce Webb
@moops: Nope looks like Triple Rock. see new post.
Plus nothing stops folks from doing Zachary’s or Trappist after. Even on Wednesday we don’t roll up the sidewalks at 9PM around here. Though between you and me take a local to Downtown Oakland after 9PM. Safe as houses if you know where and whAt you are doing. But like Times Squate in NYC a few blocks in some wrong directions will put you in WTF? Territory. Downtown Oakland is way gentrified from what it was 20 years ago. But like any biggish urban city anywhere it ain’t DisneyLand.
Whereas Oaklanders and even Bekleyites mostly understand the score. And two or three blocks plus or minus makes a difference in Downtown Oakland. Where Downtown Berkeley is a little more forgiving. But not Mayberry RFD.