The Sandwich Search Begins....

Jono found his sandwich spot!

Lunch Rush @ Genova

Yummy-ness! Turkey on Dutch Crunch w/extra Mayo!

A sandwich is defined as two or more slices of bread with a filling such as meat or cheese placed between them. Jono and I do not eat just regular sandwiches-our sandwiches have standards-high standards. First they must have the best bread-dutch crunch, sourdough, soft roll-it has to be fresh and taste yummy by itself or the sandwich is going to suck. Next is the different sandwich options the place offers-if they just have the basics that's what you will get: a basic sandwich (there are exceptions to this rule but usually its how it works out). Our old favorite was Traverso's back in Santa Rosa and we're on a quest to find a equal substitute in the East Bay. Kelly told us about this place back when we visited Bakesale Betty across the street. Genova has got the same vibe as Traverso's with the deli inside of an "Italian grocery store" that sells everything from cheese and salads to pasta and panini. We got there around the same time as the lunch rush, so we took a number and waited for it to be called. We each got turkey on dutch with cheese, extra mayo and salt/pepper/oil/vinegar. We grabbed a seat outside and dug in. The sandwich was pretty good. I really wished I got mine heated because I always think sandwiches taste better warm, but it was good-okay it was really good. I think Jon has already been back like 3 times. So if he-the Sandwich Nazi-likes it you know it must be good.

5095 Telegraph Avenue
Oakland, CA 94609-2067
(510) 652-7401

Some Thai Food @ Summer Summer

Jono @ Summer Summer

Crispy Spring Rolls

Jono and I were craving some Thai Food, so we decided to try this restaurant that had a booth at the Framer's Market. Summer Summer Thai Eatery is just a few blocks away from our apartment on this first floor of some office building. The inside of the restaurant is really modern and not decked out with typical cheesy decor. It kind of resembled the set of House, which was funny because they also played the theme song over the sound system.

Drunken Noodles

 We started with Crispy Spring Rolls, because you can always judge a place by its Spring Rolls. The fact that we downed the entire plate in under three minutes, must have been a good sign. We only had half of one left before we remembered to take a picture.  For our main courses we ordered the Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles. We didn't share so I can't say how the Drunken Noodles were-but seeing as there wasn't any leftovers I'm guessing it was just as good as my Pad Thai-which was really good. And not to mention huge, I only ate about a 1/3 and took the rest home. It was good leftovers for the next couple of meals too.

Pad Thai

Summer Summer: 5885 Hollis St Emeryville, CA 94608
510.658.3234

 

Turkey Dinner in Berkeley

Family dinner @ Brennan's in Berkeley

Big Papa trying to decide which sandwich to get.

Open Faced Hot Turkey Sandwich

Brennan's is a old fashioned hofbrau meets sports bar. They are famous for their hand carved sandwich and real Irish coffee. Brennan isn't a sit down restaurant with table cloths and servers, it cafeteria setting. You walk in, grab a tray and watch as the guys behind the counter slice up your meet and assemble your sandwich. I got the Hot Turkey Sandwich, which was basically a small thanksgiving dinner on a plate complete with gravy and mash potatoes-and boy was it good! I think the "holy" rays of light in the picture below is appropriate. Since turkey dinner is my favorite dinner, I will defiantly be hitting up Brennan's very soon-it doesn't hurt that the prices are really reasonable and it has a full bar either. 

Too busy eating to smile for the picture!

Movie Magic in Oakland

Extra Ticket to get on the Moneyball Set

Emily 1 and Emily 2 getting ready to check in

2 hours later-Emily 1 is so over this

Brad's Out There! Emily2 Got So Excited-which is why its blurry!

On Tuesday, my dad told me he heard on the news that they need extras for the new Brad Pitt movie, Moneyball, which was filming at the Oakland Coliseum. Well, he actually told me that there was a Johnny Depp movie filming in Oakland and I figured out the rest from Google. The movie is called  Moneyball, and follows the Oakland A's 2001-2002 season. I guess the owner put together a team on "shoe string budget" by baseball standards, they managed to win the division and set the record for consecutive wins with 20 wins-which still hasn't been beaten. It stars Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.They are filming at the stadium for the next two weeks, and I signed up for Thursday from 4:30 pm to 11:45 pm for three people. I took the "Emily's"-Emily 1 is my friend from high school and Emily 2 is Andrew's sister.  We figured it would be a lot of sitting and standing around but we had no idea what we were in for. It took two hours to get checked in and after that we just sat around in the stands for awhile before we got to see anything interesting. Once filming got started it was pretty exciting-we were filming the scene from the 20th game of the streak when the A's gave up a 10 run lead-in the 9th making the score 11-11-then Scott Hatteberg hits a homer in the 9th and the crowd goes wild-we were that crowd. We filmed the scene were the disgruntled team enters the dugout and Phillip Seymour Hoffman (the coach) gives some sort of "just do it" speech to Scott Hatteberg, who goes out to win the game. I'm pretty sure we are in the shot where he goes to get his bat-we might be a little blurry but we should be there.  I think Emily 1 had enough of all of the waiting and was over it pretty early in the evening, but she got more into it when BRAD and ANGELINA showed up! Brad wasn't filming any scene's while we were there, but he came out and waved to us-just us not the rest of the extras that were there.

Picture of the "Set"

A Beer Tasting @ Pyramid Brewery

Ryan, Me, and Andrew doing our Pyramid Tasting Challenge

The Challenge

After feeding our bellies, we thought we'd wash some of that BBQ down with some beer-so we headed to Pyramid Brewery. Nathan and Rachel took the more sane route of ordering a single beer, while Andrew, Ryan, and I each ordered a flight of beer. Our mission was to sample all the different beer that Pyramid Brewery had on tap, which was 13. It was a tough mission and challenged us-especially when we hit the IPA's. While we didn't take copious notes, I think we enjoyed the Hefeweizen, the Apricot Ale and the cider. There was also one that had essence of chocolate that Miss Rachel loved. They do serve actual food at the brewery and have a brewery tour once a day at 4 o'clock, we missed it because our trip to Lake Merritt took longer than expected-maybe next time....

Andrew, Nathan, Rachel and Ryan @Pyramid Brew

BBQ in Berkeley: Everett and Jones BBQ

Everett and Jones: 1955 San Pablo Ave @University Ave

Inside Everett and Jones #2

Chicken Dinner = Good

Nathan was too busy enjoying his food to stop & take a picture with Rachel.

Everett and Jones was started by Dorothy Everett, her eight daughters and son-in-law (which is where the "Jones" comes from) in 1973. What started off as a small family business has now expanded to four locations throughout the east bay. We hit the second location in Berkeley, which opened in 1974. It's a very basic and some might say "rustic" looking but we hoped that meant the food would be awesome. The inside is just a basic counter and a the back wall featured a menu with a few different options including beef brisket, ribs or chicken. I didn't know what I wanted, so I decided to get the inside scoop from the guy behind the counter. He said his favorite meal was the Chicken dinner-because you got potato salad-so I didn't question the expert and ordered the chicken dinner with Mild BBQ sauce (they have three levels of spice for their famous BBQ sauce: Mild, Medium, and Hot). Nathan and I both got the chicken dinners, while Andrew and Rachel got the beef brisket. We all switched meals halfway through the meal, all of us preferred our original choices to the others but agreed it was some good eats. Seating is limited at the this location so either go on a nice day to eat outside or take it to go- but wherever you eat it make sure you get plenty of napkins! Next time we are going to have to try the ribs maybe at the original location that has live music on the weekends...

Happy and Full Everett and Jones Customers

Lake Merritt

Chapman Gang (Me, Andrew, Nathan, Ryan And Rachel) @ Lake Merritt

Getting ready for adventures @ the lake.

Who knew there was a huge lake in the heart of downtown Oakland? Not I. Jono and I drove around Lake Merritt one night and it looked really cool-so I decided it would be the perfect place to take my college friends who were visiting for the weekend. So first a little history: Lake Merritt is technically an estuary that was formed by creeks and rivers that flowed into the San Francisco bay. In 1870, it became the United States first wildlife preserve and is still home to dozens of different species of birds. It there is a 3.1 mile walking path that borders the lake which covers over one hundred and fifty-five acres of land in east Oakland.

Ryan trying to feed the birds Nathan's Frisbee.

There were quite a few people out enjoying the lake on Saturday walking their dogs and chilling on the grassy areas around the lake. During our jaunt around the lake we discover "the birds of Lake Merritt", which is a large section of the lake where most of the birds hang out. It was like a little zoo for bird-except that they were all wild. There were many different types of birds including the Canadian Goose, the American Coot, Mallard Ducks, Pelican and, of course, Pigeons. If you like birds then you should defiantly bring some old bread to the lake to fee the birds, I didn't know there would be so many birds so we were breadless. :( We tried to get the birds attention by pretending that we had food for them, they did not appreciate that very much.

Ryan, Me, Andrew and Nathan exploring the Bird Habitat

Rachel, Nathan and Ryan getting ready for the kayak adventure.

Taking a break from rowing to enjoy the view.

We could walk around Lake Merritt any day, but it was such a nice day in Oakland that we decided to explore by sea...or by lake? Whatever-we rented some Kayaks for $10 and paddled our way around the lake. We paddled around the lake for about an hour listening to Pandora on the droid and trying to push the other boats into the fountains. And ended our time on the lake with an epic race to the buoy-Andrew and I dominated! I'm definatly going to spend a lot more time in the Lake Merritt area. I still have to walk around the other half of the lake, maybe do a pinqic or thing. There's also a really cool Farmers Market next to an old movie theater and some good restaurants I want to check out.

The Buoy Race Champion!