EAST BAY INSOMNIAC

L’AMYX

4179 Piedmont, Oakland • 595-8322

3437 Lakeshore, Oakland • 594-8322

SERVING:

• hot tea
• chai tea
• bubble tea

PARKING: street

REVIEWS: yelp

À Côté

5478 College Ave, Oakland • 655-6469

SERVING:

• seasonal Mediterranean cuisine in small plates formation (see menu)
• wine and cocktails (see menu)
• desserts, cheese and ports (see menu)

OPEN UNTIL: midnight (Fri-Sat) • 11PM (Wed-Thurs) • 10PM Mon-Tue/Sun

PRICE RANGE: $$$

PARKING: street

REVIEWS & PHOTOS: yelp

HERBIVORE

2451 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley • 665-1675

SERVING:

• vegan soup, sandwiches and salads (see menu)
• vegan organic entrees (see menu)
• wine, cocktails and desserts (see menu)

OPEN UNTIL: 12AM (Thurs-Sat) • 10PM (Sun-Wed)

PARKING: street

THE EBI REVIEW: This is what it says on Herbivore’s website: “Herbivore is a vegan restaurant that offers an international menu and an enjoyable atmosphere. The food is enjoyed by vegans and non-vegans due to the quality and method of preparation, and the variety and richness of the menu.” Allow me to deconstruct. Herbi-BORE offers vegan versions of classic fare with an Asian flare. The “atmosphere” consists of modern uncomfortable tables and chairs that breach personal space with their proximity. Vegans and non-vegans find the food bland and unexciting. How does a restaurant that should be unique come up so ordinary? How do they render pesto so flavorless? How does a lentil loaf taste even more boring than it sounds? I don’t know. It continually disappoints. That said, props for existing. Vegan insomniacs have to eat too. Also, points for irony. Last time I was there, they were playing “Meat is Murder.”

OTHER REVIEWS:

FENTONS CREAMERY & RESTAURANT

4226 Piedmont Ave, Oakland • 658-7000

SERVING:

• delicious creamy old-fashioned ice cream, sherbets and sundaes (see menu)
• sandwiches and burgers from the grill (see menu)

OPEN UNTIL: 11PM (Sun -Thu) • 12AM (Fri & Sat)

PARKING: small lot and street

WEBSITE: Fentons Creamery

THE EBI REVIEW: Fentons reminds me of the East Coast. They serve gigantic creamy scoops of brilliant hard-to-find flavors like: Black Walnut, Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch, Coffee Cookie Dream, Heath Bar, Toasted Almond and my all-time favorite: Butter Brickle. Definitely a kid-friendly establishment, the place is often packed loud, sprawling families. Fentons offers burgers, sandwiches and salads on its traditional American fare menu, but it takes a true American diner to follow that up with a Fudgeanna. I don’t do well with the crowd so I normally get my treats to go and sit at the tables outside or walk along Piedmont. I also invariably get the Butter Brickle each and every time. Nicole concurs that it could use a little more ‘brickle,’ but we’re both psyched that they have it at all. Fentons is a Bay Area landmark and an EBI Munchies Category champ. Wish it were open a little later.

MORE REVIEWS AND PHOTOS: (more…)

CAFFE MEDITERRANEUM

2475 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley • 549-1128

SERVING:

• coffee
• tea
• pastries

OPEN UNTIL: 12AM

PARKING: street

THE EBI REVIEW: Once upon a time, the East Bay’s oldest cafe was ‘bohemian’ and radical. Now it’s not. According to rumours, Ginsberg wrote part of “Howl” here. Testimony and history would indicate that Caffe Med was a pretty happening place. Robert Anton Wilson name-dropped it in Schrodinger’s Cat:

Two Berkeley acid-heads, known on Telegraph Avenue as The Cat and The Dog, dreamed up a more intense disinformation matrix in 1980. “What would happen, ” The Cat asked one day in the Cafe Mediterraneum, “if we bought a truck and painted on the side of it INTERNATIONAL COCAINE IMPORTERS INC., and drove it around the streets?” “In Berkeley,” The Dog said, “the cops would just laugh. They’d be sure it was another put-on by the Hog Farm or the Merry Pranksters or somebody. But in San Francisco they wouldn’t take a chance. The first cop would stop the truck and search it.” “Nah,” said an unsuccessful poet named Robert W. Anton. “They’re more hip than that in San Francisco. But in L.A…” The debate spread from the Med to Moe’s, from Moe’s to Sather Gate, leapt the Bay…” (–Robert Anton Wilson aka Robert W. Anton, 1979)

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