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Archive 2021
Bay Classics
Here’s our comprehensive list of Bay Area’s classic food and drink establishments, starting with places that opened before 1950. We also remember those that are no more (provided they left an impression or were in business for a long time). And we include the ones that have already made a profound impact (Chez Panisse, for example). It pays to be the first of something as we celebrate the first Hakka, the first Burmese, the first Nepali, and so on. Don’t forget landmark buildings and unusual interiors.
San Francisco
Boudin Bakery (1849) [+ Bay Area locations] | Tadich Grill (1849) | Old Ship Alehouse/Old Ship Saloon (1851) | Ghirardelli Chocolate (1852) [+ East Bay, South Bay] | Mow Lee Shing Kee & Co. (1856) | The Old Clam House (1861) | Wagner’s Beer Hall/The Saloon (1861) | The Cliff House (1863-2020) | Jack’s/Jeanty at Jack’s (1863-2009) | Hang Far Low (1867-1960) | Sam’s Grill & Seafood (1867) | Guittard Chocolate (1868) [Peninsula HQ] | The Fly Trap (1883) | Eppler’s Bakery (1884-1999) | Fior d’Italia (1886) | Blum’s (1892-1970s?) | The Little Shamrock (1893) | Schroeder’s (1893) | Anchor Brewing Co. (1896-2023) | Molinari Delicatessen (1896) | Original U.S. (Unione Sportiva) (1890s-2021) | Swan Oyster Depot (1890s/1903)
Ernie’s (1900-1995) | Benkyodo Co. (1906-2022) | Sodini’s Green Valley (1906) | The House of Shields (1908) | John’s Grill (1908) | Sam Wo (1908-2025) | The Garden Court (1909) | Liguria Bakery (1911) | Balboa Cafe (1913) | New Woey Loy Goey (1913) | The Buena Vista (1916) | St. Francis Fountain (1918) | Roosevelt Tamale Parlor (1919-2022) | Tosca Cafe (1919) | Far East Cafe (1920) | Hang Ah Tea Room (1920) | Eastern Bakery (1924) | Alioto’s (1925-2020) | Lucca Ravioli Co. (1925-2019) | Grubstake Diner (1927) | Sabella & La Torre (1927) | Eagle Cafe (1928) | IT’S-IT Ice Cream (1928) [Peninsula HQ] | Lucca Delicatessen (1929) | Bud’s Ice Cream of San Francisco (1932) | Redwood Room (1934) | The Grotto (1935-2023) | Tommaso’s (1935) | Twin Peaks Tavern (1935) | Harris’ (1936) | Louis’ (1937-2020) | Original Joe’s (1937) [+ Peninsula] | Pier 23/Pier 23 Cafe (1937) | Sears Fine Food (1938) | Tarantino’s (1946-2023) | Tommy’s Joynt (1947) | Swensen’s (1948) | Wycen Foods (1948) | House of Prime Rib (1949)
Little City Market (1951) | La Victoria (1951) | Lyon’s (1952-2012) | Cinderella Bakery & Cafe (1953) | Kan’s (1953-2014) | Mitchell’s Ice Cream (1953) | Polly Ann Ice Cream (1955) | Red’s Java House (1955) | Caffe Trieste (1956) | Lefty O’Doul’s (1958-2017) | Yank Sing (1958) | The Mandarin (1959/61-2006) | Fleur de Lys (1950s-2014) | Rose Pistola (1950s-1972) [bar] | Four Seas (1960-2014) | Dianda’s Italian American Pastry Co. (1962) [+ Peninsula] | Dominguez Mexican Bakery (1965-2014) | Scoma’s (1965) | Tommy’s Mexican (1965) | Empress of China (1966-2014) | North Beach (1970) | The Helmand/Helmand Palace (1971) | Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store (1971) | Thanh Long (1971) | Hon’s Wun-Tun House (1972) | La Taqueria (1973) | Washington Square Bar & Grill (1973-2010) | The Cinch Saloon (1974/75) | Hunan/Henry’s Hunan (1974) | Just Desserts (1974) [Delta-Suisun Bay HQ] | Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop (1974) | Eats (1975) | Double Rainbow Ice Cream (1976) | Golden Gate Bakery (1976) | Khan Toke Thai House (1976) | Hing Lung Co./Go Duck Yourself (1977) | La Reyna Bakery (1977) | Ten-Ichi (1978) | Ton Kiang (1978-2020) | Villa d’Este (1978-2022) | Greens (1979) | La Mediterranee (1979) [+ East Bay] | Sushi-Man (1979-2009) | Zuni Cafe (1979)
Lichee Garden (1980-2012) | Masa’s (1983-2013) | Gourmet Carousel (1984) | Mandalay (1984) | Square One (1984-1996) | Stars (1984-1999) | Sugar Bowl Bakery (1984) [East Bay HQ] | Fog City Diner/Fog City (1985) | Marnee Thai (1985) | R&G Lounge (1985) | Tommy Toy’s Cuisine Chinoise (1985-2013) | China Moon Cafe (1986-1996) | Kuleto’s (1986-2016?) | Angkor Borei (1987-2020) | Hing Lung (1987-2012) | La Folie (1988-2020) | Lucky Creation Vegetarian (1988) | Caffe Roma (1989-2022) | Postrio (1989-2009) | La Traviata (1980s?) | Moose’s (1990-2008) | Pasta Bene (1990-2023) | Fringale (1991-2020) | Boulevard (1993) | LuLu (1993-2017) | Hawthorne Lane (1995-2006) | Rose Pistola (1996-2017) | Chow (1997-2019) | Farallon (1997-2020) | Jardiniere (1997-2019) | Gary Danko (1999)
Jai Yun (2000-2018?) | Tartine (2002) | Humphry Slocombe (2008) [+ East Bay, Peninsula]
East Bay
Jelly Belly (1869), Oakland [Delta-Suisun Bay HQ (Ill. originally)] | Del Monte (1886), Walnut Creek | Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto (1890-2018), Berkeley | Fentons Creamery (1894), Oakland | Ratto’s International Market & Deli (1897), Oakland | Berkeley Farms (1910-2020?), Berkeley | Dreyer’s (1928), Oakland | Henry’s Publick House/Henry’s (1928), Berkeley | The Original Hick’ry Pit (1928), Walnut Creek | Neldam’s Bakery (1929-2010), Oakland | Kasper’s Legendary Hot Dogs (1930), Oakland | Casa Orinda (1932), Orinda | Caspers Famous Hot Dogs (1934), Oakland | Trader Vic’s (1934), Emeryville | Jade Palace (1945), Oakland | El Charro (1947-2020), Lafayette | The Original Mels Diner (1947), San Leandro [+ Delta-Suisun Bay]
Loard’s Ice Cream (1950), Oakland | Merritt Bakery (1952-2023), Oakland | Nation’s Giant Hamburgers (1952), San Pablo [+ Peninsula, Wine Country, Delta-Suisun Bay] | Silver Dragon (1956-2012), Oakland | Brennan’s (1959-2018), Berkeley | Jim’s Coffee Shop (1960), Alameda | Nordic House (1962-2022), Berkeley | The Albatross Pub (1964-2020), Berkeley | Le Bouc (1967?-2002?), Alameda | Flint’s Barbecue (1968-2010), Oakland | KC’s BBQ (1968-2023), Oakland | Your Black Muslim Bakery (1968-2007), Oakland [So. Calif. originally]
The Cheese Board (1971), Berkeley | Chez Panisse (1971), Berkeley | Jade Palace (1971-2023), Newark | La Brasserie/Trio Bistro & Grill (1972-2008), Oakland | Golden Peacock (1972-2022), Oakland | Juan’s Place (1972), Berkeley | Narsai’s (1972-1986), Kensington | Everett & Jones BBQ (1973), Oakland | Rockridge Cafe (1973), Oakland | Royal Cafe (1973-2020), Albany | Mama’s Royal Cafe (1974), Oakland | Au Coquelet Cafe (1975-2020), Berkeley | Bay Wolf (1975-2015), Oakland | Donsuemor (1976), Alameda | Nabolom Bakery & Pizzeria (1976), Berkeley | Scott’s Seafood (1976), Oakland [+ South Bay (SF originally)] | La Farine Bakery (1977), Oakland | Otis Spunkmeyer (1977), Oakland [So. Calif. HQ] | Prima (1977-2020), Walnut Creek | Poulet (1979-2023), Berkeley | Ricky’s Corner (1979-2022), Rodeo | Doug’s Bar-B-Q (1970s-2007), Emeryville
Blondie’s Pizza (1980), Berkeley [+ SF, South Bay] | Caffe Venezia (1980-2013), Berkeley | Mudd’s (1981-2008), San Ramon | Bette’s Oceanview Diner/Oceanview Diner (1982), Berkeley | The Acme Bread Co. (1983), Berkeley [+ SF] | Aidells (1983), San Lorenzo | Buffalo Bill’s Brewery (1983), Hayward | Nan Yang (1983-2013), Oakland | East Ocean (1984), Alameda | Elio’s Family (1984), San Leandro | Semifreddi’s (1984), Kensington | Le Cheval (1985-2023), Oakland | Lalime’s (1985-2020), Berkeley | Chevys Fresh Mex (1986), Union City [+ Peninsula, Wine Country, Delta-Suisun Bay] | Oliveto (1986-2022), Oakland | Brewed Awakening (1987-2022), Berkeley | Grace Baking (1987), Richmond | Ho Chow (1987-2023), Fremont | Rivoli (1994-2021), Berkeley
Silicon Valley/South Bay
The GrandView (1884/1934), San Jose | Chiaramonte’s Deli & Sausages (1908), San Jose | Hochburg von Germania (1909?-1999), San Jose | Schurra’s Fine Confections (1912-2018), San Jose | Wilson’s Jewel Bakery (1921-2006), Santa Clara | Peninsula Creamery (1923), Palo Alto | Greenlee’s Bakery (1924), San Jose | Wing’s (1925-2019), San Jose | Dinah’s Shack (1926-1989), Palo Alto | Patty’s Inn (1933-2021), San Jose | Mark’s Hot Dogs (1936), San Jose | Peters Bakery (1936), San Jose | Clarke’s Charcoal Broiler (1945-2020), Mountain View | Lou’s Village (1946-2006), San Jose | San Jose Tofu Co. (1946-2018), San Jose | Bertucelli’s La Villa Delicatessen (1947), San Jose | The Village Pantry (1947), Los Altos | Kirk’s Steakburgers (1948), Palo Alto | Neto’s Sausage (1948), Santa Clara
Tao Tao (1951), Sunnyvale | Treat Ice Cream (1951-2021), San Jose [acquired by Marianne’s] | Plumed Horse (1952), Saratoga | Shuei-Do Manju Shop (1952), San Jose | Lou’s Living Donut Museum (1955-2006), San Jose | The American Italian Delicatessen (1956), Los Altos | Ming’s (1956-2014), Palo Alto | Original Joe’s (1956), San Jose | Minato (1957), San Jose | Estrellita Mexican Bistro (1958), Los Altos | Holder’s Country Inn (1958), Cupertino | Paolo’s (1958-2015), San Jose | Stan’s Donut Shop (1959), Santa Clara | Henry’s World Famous Hi-Life (1960), San Jose | Longhorn Charcoal Pit (1960-2021), Sunnyvale | The Wagon Wheel/Walkers Wagon Wheel (1962-2000), Mountain View | Souza’s Bakery (1963-2001?), Santa Clara | Aki’s Bakery (1965?-2005?), San Jose | Falafel’s Drive-In (1966), San Jose | Casa Vicky (1968-2022), San Jose | Cicero’s Pizza (1968), San Jose | TOGO’s (1968/71), San Jose [+ Bay Area locations] | El Calderon (1969-2013), Mountain View
Chef Chu’s (1970), Los Altos | Jim’s Coffee Shop (1971-2000), Palo Alto | Emile’s (1973-2014), San Jose | The Armenian Gourmet (1974-2014), Sunnyvale | Hobee’s (1974), Palo Alto [+ Peninsula] | Emperor Norton’s Italian (1975-2020), San Jose | The Fish Market (1976-2023), Palo Alto [+ So. Calif. locations] | Bill’s Cafe (1977), San Jose [+ East Bay] | Eulipia (1977-2013), San Jose | Gervais (1977-2008), San Jose | Le Papillon (1977), San Jose | Portuguese Bakery (1977-2021), Santa Clara | Su Hong (1977-2019), Palo Alto | Dittmer’s Gourmet Meats & Wurst-Haus (1978), Los Altos | La Foret (1978), San Jose | Chelokababi (1979), Sunnyvale
Dolce Spazio (1980), Los Gatos | Teske’s Germania (1980), San Jose | Douce France (1981), Palo Alto | Khanh’s (1981), Campbell | MacArthur Park (1981), Palo Alto | Lion and Compass (1982-2017), Sunnyvale | Tony & Alba’s Pizza & Pasta (1982), San Jose | The Duke of Edinburgh (1983), Cupertino | Lee’s Sandwiches (1983), San Jose [+ SF, East Bay] | Baja Cactus (1985-2021), Milpitas | Bella Mia (1985-2014), San Jose | Rollo’s Donuts (1985), San Jose | Vung Tau (1985-2023), San Jose | White Lotus Vegetarian (1985-2007), San Jose | Fresh Choice (1986-2012), Sunnyvale | Jing Jing (1986-2024), Palo Alto | Osteria Toscana (1986), Palo Alto | Suzanne’s Muffins (1986-2000), Palo Alto | Chez Sovan (1987), San Jose | Specialty’s (1987), Mountain View [+ Peninsula (SF originally)] | Straits Cafe/Straits (1987), San Jose [SF originally] | Tied House (1987-2019), Mountain View | Una Mas Mexican Grill (1991), San Jose [+ SF] | Kathmandu West (1992-2001), Cupertino | Amber India (1994), Los Altos [+ SF] | L’Amie Donia (1994-2004), Palo Alto | Chocolate Dream Box (1994-2020), Los Gatos
Sunny Donuts (2001-2020), San Jose
Peninsula
Rossotti’s Alpine Inn (1852), Portola Valley | Duarte’s Tavern (1894), Pescadero | 7 Mile House (1903?), Brisbane | See’s Candies (1921), South San Francisco [So. Calif. originally] | Moss Beach Distillery (1927/33), Moss Beach | Cook’s Seafood (1928), Menlo Park | Sodini’s Bertolucci’s (1928-2020), South San Francisco | Ann’s Coffee Shop (1946-2021), Menlo Park | Wing Fat (1947-2022), San Mateo | The Ravioli House (1948), San Mateo
Val’s (1952-2022), Daly City | Harry’s Hofbrau (1954), Redwood City [+ East Bay] | Millbrae Pancake House (1959), Millbrae | Alice’s (1960s), Woodside | Late for the Train (1976-2003), Menlo Park | Copenhagen Bakery & Cafe (1977), Burlingame | Cafe Borrone (1979), Menlo Park | Flea St. Cafe/Flea Street (1980), Menlo Park | Bakers of Paris (1981-2020), South San Francisco | Woodside Bakery & Cafe (1981), Menlo Park | Basque Cultural Center (1982), South San Francisco | Brothers Delicatessen (1982?-2008), Burlingame | Windy City Pizza & BBQ (1982-2022), San Mateo | Iberia (1984), Belmont | Pasta Moon (1987), Half Moon Bay | The Mountain House (1988), Woodside | Buck’s (1991), Woodside | China Bee (1992-2022), San Mateo | Empress Court (1992-200x?), Burlingame [aviary for peacock] | Viognier (1997-2020), San Mateo
The Village Pub (2001), Woodside | Alhambra Irish House (2019), Redwood City [1896 landmark building (Alhambra Theater)]
Wine Country
Kozlowski Farms (1949), Forestville
Highway 29 Cafe (1963-2018), American Canyon | The French Laundry (1978), Yountville | La Gare (1979), Santa Rosa | John Ash & Co. (1980), Santa Rosa | Madrona Manor (1981), Healdsburg | Mustards Grill (1983), Napa | Tra Vigne (1987-2001?), St. Helena | Terra (1988-2018), St. Helena
North Bay
Marin French Cheese (1865), Hicks Valley [Wine Country HQ] | Nick’s Cove (1931/2007), Marshall | Buckeye Roadhouse (1937/38), Mill Valley | Straus Family Creamery (1941), Marshall [Wine Country HQ]
Marin Joe’s (1954), Corte Madera | Red Boy Pizza (1969), San Rafael [+ East Bay (SF originally)] | The Royal Frankfurter (1972-2007), San Rafael | Las Guitarras (1973), Novato [SF originally] | Mama’s Royal Cafe (1974-2018), Mill Valley | Frantoio (1995-2019), Mill Valley
Delta-Suisun Bay
Nut Tree (1921-1996), Vacaville
Black Oak (1960-2021), Vacaville [So. Calif. originally] | Coffee Tree (1965-2003), Vacaville | Starbread Bakery (1986), Vallejo [+ East Bay, Peninsula] | First Street Cafe (1996-2020), Benicia
Side Trips and Sidebars
KA tour | food halls | #MochiDonutsForICU | takeout problem | chicken Kyiv | sham 100 | Chinese palaces | Japanese fusion | India.Foodie | Oakland cemetery | Fremont mission | paper menu | from the vault |
For those keeping score....
Kouign-Amann Tour In chronological order. All individual size only except where noted. Two spiral-shaped so far. 1 Manresa Bread, South Bay - full-sized version available (nine-inch round?) 2 Seven Hills Baking Co., Castro Valley - sea salt topping (zut alors) 3 Starter Bakery (at Philz Coffee) - sea salt topping (crikey) 4 Rolling-Out Cafe, SF - best nontraditional version (mango sticky rice) 5 B. Patisserie, SF - multiple flavors 6 Arsicault Bakery, SF - best traditional version, spiral-shaped 7 Crispian Bakery, Alameda - caramelized bottom sticks to teeth 8 Jane the Bakery, SF - tastes closest to croissant 9 Jina Bakes, SF - one of the sweeter traditional versions; best chocolate version 10 Juniper Cafe, SF - traditional version with sea salt topping; second-best nontraditional version (black sesame, spiral-shaped) 11 Feel Good Bakery, Alameda - the least sweet |
More than just another food court....
Food Halls After visiting Castro Valley Marketplace, a relatively new food hall that seems to have the perfect design and tenant mix, we began to think about other options in the Bay Area. Well, you can start with Alameda since Alameda Marketplace is a sister food hall. Emeryville's The Public Market has been around since the 1980s. Oakland has Rockridge Market Hall and the reborn Swan's Market. There's the larger Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco. Check out Los Altos' own State Street Market and two in downtown San Jose: San Pedro Square Market and SoFA Market. While you're in Wine Country, don't forget Napa's Oxbow Public Market. Support the women-led La Cocina Municipal Marketplace in San Francisco's Tenderloin. Then there's the humble International Food Court in San Francisco's Financial District. |
Let them know you care....
#MochiDonutsForICU ICU and other healthcare workers have been to hell and back since 2020. Let them know you care by giving them a dozen mochi donuts from Modo Hawaii and other places. Food safety experts may disagree, but they seem less perishable than, say, pizzas and chicken wings—though whatever you bring them will be garbled up fast. How about a refreshing pitcher of horchata or other aqua fresca when it’s hot outside? A dozen cannoli...kouign-amann...whatever you prefer. |
Timing is everything...when to charge the customer makes all the difference. Bay Area restaurants need to get their act together.
Take out the Takeout Problem [Note: After we discussed the dim sum issue at an Alameda restaurant in 2021, we went for 14 months without incident. Then in a span of two weeks, we experienced issues in San Leandro, Redwood City, and Santa Clara. Three months later, the same thing happened in Brisbane. We should mention we always place our order in person to minimize any potential problem. See Updates below.] When you order food to-go, the potential is always there that you may get charged for item(s) not delivered. That’s because restaurants tend to charge the customer before the kitchen even gets the order. This is more of an issue for things like dim sum because some items are sold out as time passes during lunch. The best solution is to charge the customer after the food comes out of the kitchen (same as dine-in). Otherwise, an employee needs to reconcile what was charged with what the kitchen actually made. So here’s our pro tip for customers: Before you leave the restaurant, take a quick scan of the kitchen’s copy of the order and look for anything specially marked or left unchecked. If not, you could be in for a surprise later. If you order via a food-delivery service, check your order before the delivery person leaves (not sure if this will do much good). Updates After we placed our order at this San Leandro restaurant, we were notified the mushroom pate was not available to-go, so we replaced it with the rolled pork belly ($35 in 2023). We realized the pork belly was missing when we got home. Counting boxes wouldn’t have helped in this case because they put one dish into two boxes. They didn’t give us the kitchen’s copy of our order, so we’ll never know if they got the pork belly substitution. We were all set to partially blame the ordering error on the fact that three different people handled our order—the bartender took our order, someone else informed us of the pate issue, and a third person handed our order to us—until we remembered the previous week when only one person was involved with our order. Shortly after we placed our order at this Redwood City restaurant, the person who took our order returned and asked if we wanted rice or fries with the chicken curry. She was the same person who later handed the order to us. When we got home, we realized the chicken curry was missing. Unlike the San Leandro place, we were not charged for the missing dish. So perhaps something went wrong with the electronic ordering system—either software bug or user error. Our advice is if you had to make some kind of change/update to your order—however minor—that’s the cue to pay close attention to what comes out of the kitchen. And then we have no explanation for what could’ve gone wrong at this Santa Clara restaurant a week after our San Leandro experience. There was no substitution or clarification with our order. Yet for some reason, the salmon plate we ordered was missing when we got home. With no kitchen copy of our order, we can’t tell if they got the right order. But we do know someone—either the person who took our order or the kitchen—packed four small salads for the four plates we ordered. Unlike the San Leandro restaurant, we were successful in resolving the billing problem at this Santa Clara place. It’s a little unfortunate that we experienced the same problem at our first-ever Brisbane restaurant. We had to wait a little longer than usual to get our food because this place was quite busy on a Saturday before 5 pm. It didn’t help that after we placed our order, a large party with a reservation showed up. We were really looking forward to try the pork adobo with rice. We just want to talk about food and not go over this takeout problem ad nauseam. After lockdown, you’d think every restaurant must have had plenty of experience with to-go orders. Do we have to open and inspect every box like a customs officer? We’re starting to appreciate see-through containers. We’re not being facetious because a few years ago, a San Jose restaurant gave us the wrong dish. |
A classic dish is back in the news....
A Timely Dish As current events unfolded in 2022, we started to think about a dish that was popular here and in Europe through the 1980s. Of course, we’re referring to chicken Kiev. Whether you decide to make this dish yourself (old and new Sunset recipe), be sure to use the preferred romanization and pronunciation. Just as Bombay became Mumbai and Ayers Rock is now Uluru, Kiev really should be Kyiv. Journalists and others are finally coming around. U.K. consumers called on food companies to rename their products. Kudos to The Refuge for its Kyiv chicken liver. Somewhere Street (Kyiv 2019/2022) [►] Coming Home [►] |
Everyone loves a ranked list, but when it’s kind of meaningless....
Dubious Top 100 List A certain social media site has been publishing a top 100 list of “best places to eat” since 2014. We first heard about it when USA Today covered the 2021 survey. It turns out the 2021 list is nothing more than a popularity contest and perhaps an outlier. You see, visitors to this site were asked to vote for their favorite restaurants. For what it’s worth, two Bay Area places made the top 100—San Bruno’s Mazra (No. 2) and Berkeley’s Creekwood (No. 36)—neither one we’d heard of before. Sensing this site probably had to change its methodology because of the 2020 pandemic, we looked up its 2020 survey, which was published in January 2020. The 2020 list was based on diner reviews on the site in the previous year. As you can imagine, this tends to favor new or relatively new restaurants. The Bay Area places that made the 2020 list were Fairfield’s Pikul Thai Bistro (No. 10), San Francisco’s Shish Ke Baba (No. 12), Santa Clara’s Achilles (No. 37). Albany’s 310 Eatery (No. 55), Burlingame’s Tuna Kahuna (No. 67), Campbell’s Trattoria 360 (No. 70), and Oakland’s Porque No? Tacos (No. 71). This site uses a five-star rating system, and we’ve often wondered how you rank one business over another. For instance, should a restaurant that receives a five-star average from 100 reviews be ranked higher than one that receives a four-star average from 1,000 reviews? We’re not surprised this site doesn’t bother to go into such pesky details. Transparency is not its strong suit. After all, this company has been the target of numerous lawsuits regarding its business practice. So instead of calling it the top 100 “best places to eat,” this site should call it the top 100 “mostly new restaurants based on a methodology whose details we prefer to keep to ourselves.” Title too long? Well, it’d be honest for a change. For the 2022 survey, visitors were once again asked to send in nominations. True to its erratic form, no Bay Area restaurant made the cut this time. We suspect this company will revert to the old methodology starting in 2023. While this national survey is a good marketing move, we’ll stick with more meaningful lists from Michelin Guide and San Francisco Chronicle. What this site should do is publish regional lists for major restaurant markets like New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and, of course, the Bay Area. We find it amusing when its co-founder/CEO appeared on 60 Minutes in 2018 complaining about Google using its search engine to push its own reviews. Talk about one shady business trolling another shady business. Pot, meet kettle. |
Where have all the great food palaces gone?
Bygone Golden Age? When Hong Kong-inspired restaurants such as Hong Kong Flower Lounge and Koi Palace opened/expanded in the 1990s, Bay Area foodies rejoiced because these high-end Cantonese places didn’t cater to proverbial Peoria. Sure, the Bay Area has seen some Hong Kong-style places since the 1970s, but nothing like these cavernous and opulent—some might say gaudy—restaurants. We had a whole steamed fish once at Mayflower that showcased the simplicity and finesse of Cantonese cuisine. And then lower-priced Daimo and Cooking Papa followed. Daimo expanded and then had to scale back. Cooking Papa changed ownership and quality suffered. Koi Palace and Mayflower are still around, but most diners would agree their best days are behind them. |
East meets West in Japan....
Japanese Fusion Japan has a knack for taking something from the West and giving it an interesting spin. The electronics and auto industries know this all too well. On the culinary front, yoshoku is food inspired by Western cooking. Examples include tonkatsu (schnitzel), tempura (fritter), korokke (croquette), hamburg (Hamburg steak/Salisbury steak), omurice (omelet and fried rice), sando (sandwich), potesara (potato salad), Kewpie mayonnaise, castella (sponge cake), Mont Blanc, pafe (parfait), and hanaboru (Portuguese biscoitos). Itameshi is Italian food with a Japanese twist. Neighboring China’s influence is reflected in ramen, gyoza (dumplings), chahan (fried rice), hatoshi (shrimp toast), chimaki/akumaki (sticky rice wrapped in bamboo leaves), and mochi. And from India (via Britain) we get Japanese curry. Japanology (yoshoku) [►] |
Indian restaurants have come a long way....
India.Foodie Years ago there was just one type of Indian restaurant, whose tried-and-true menu featured samosa, saag paneer, tandoori chicken, butter chicken, chicken tikka masala (a British thing), pork vindaloo, biryani, naan, and mango lassi. How times have changed. You know a cuisine has turned mainstream when its restaurants range from high-end places to humble counter-service spots and everything in between. We now have restaurants that specialize in one thing (be it chaat, dosa, pav bhaji, kati roll, biryani, idli, or breakfast, for instance) or focus on regionalism (Hyderabad, Chettinad, and other parts of India). There are places where chiliheads can really get their kicks (we’re looking at you, Biryaniz). Fusion adds even more variety as you can find plenty of Indian-flavored pizzas and some Indo-Chinese dishes. Oh, if you want something to drink other than mango lassi, sapota juice is even better. There are also some Pakistani and Bangladeshi restaurants as well. It finally dawned on us why Indian cuisine is so appealing to a certain palate. For people who like sauce or gravy, Indian food is perfect because every other dish comes with plenty of liquid gold. |
While you visit Belotti Bottega, Pomella, Fentons Creamery, and other businesses on Piedmont Avenue, take a little side trip.
The Quiet Side of Oakland At the end of Piedmont Avenue is Mountain View Cemetery designed in 1863 by Frederick Law Olmsted, arguably America’s most celebrated landscape architect. He is best known as the designer (together with Calvert Vaux) of New York’s Central Park and Prospect Park. Cemeteries are the precursor to public parks, so it makes perfect sense that Olmsted designed Mountain View Cemetery while he lived in California. Some of the noted graves include Stephen Bechtel, Warren Bechtel, Charles Crocker, March Fong Eu, James A. Folger, Domingo Ghirardelli, Thomas Hill, Henry J. Kaiser, Fred Korematsu, Bernard Maybeck, Julia Morgan, and T.A. Soong. Guided tours are no longer available, but the grounds are open to recreational visits Wednesdays and Saturdays. Originally designed in 1909 and redesigned in 1928 by the aforementioned Morgan, Chapel of the Chimes is a designated Oakland landmark located in front of Mountain View Cemetery. Notable residents include Dick Bartell, Al Davis, Bones Ely, and John Lee Hooker. Guided tours are available by appointment. Mountain View Cemetery [►] Chapel of the Chimes [►] |
While you visit Joyful Dimsum Bistro in the Mission San Jose District of Fremont, take a little side trip.
Missionquest Within walking distance from Ohlone College is one of five Spanish missions in the Bay Area. Mission San Jose was founded in 1797 and rebuilt after 1868. Here’s more info on California’s historical missions. California Missions Foundation (Mission San Jose) [►] |
What restaurants do or don’t do that we find especially annoying....
Pet Peeve You may be surprised to know it’s not the takeout issue we mentioned above. Or food poisoning (it’s happened more times than we care to remember). Or poor quality of pork (all fat and no meat) and other ingredients (please remove the strings from celery). Or customer service, a problem for all industries that we addressed in an earlier article. No, our No. 1 pet peeve is one that can be remedied easily: the demise of the takeout menu. We prefer to have something we can hold in our hands and write notes on. We don’t mind printing the menu from a restaurant site. But more often than not, these sites are not printer-friendly. We hate it when it takes up 10 pages for what should be a two-page menu. One solution is to put the menu in PDF. And test it first because we’ve printed PDF-style menus and ended up with text truncated. Another thing we like about a paper menu is for posterity. After a restaurant is gone, all we have left is the menu and maybe a business card. Internet Archive should have a copy of the defunct restaurant’s site. Sometimes a piece of memorabilia could be a useful research tool. After studying vintage photos and directories, one blogger came to the conclusion that San Francisco’s Hang Far Low likely opened in the 1860s. Well, our Internet search in 2024 yielded two HFL matchbooks on eBay (one red, one blue), and as we zoomed in on the photos uploaded by the sellers, the answer was right there. HANG FAR LOW RESTAURANT Oldest and Largest Chinese Restaurant In North America Since 1867 Monarch Match, the San Jose company that produced this matchbook, was in business from 1946 to 1966, when it merged with another company. In case you didn’t know, our site includes a built-in print function. Click on the options icon (gear symbol) below the title of each page and select Print and then click on the printer icon when the printer-friendly window comes up. |
What we wrote regarding Gulzaar Halaal in 2009 that was not published until now....
From the Vault About Durban: Located on the east coast of South Africa, Durban is that country’s third-most populous city. The history of Durban is like the history of the rest of South Africa: the Boers (Dutch farmers) and the British fought each other, and they fought the Africans. The British colonized this part of Zulu country in 1824 and formally annexed it about 20 years later. Indian diaspora: Between 1860 and 1911, over 150,000 indentured laborers from Madras (now Chennai) and Calcutta (now Kolkata) came to work in the sugar cane industry. More than half stayed at the end of their five-year contracts. Other Indians came to South Africa as merchants and business people. Durban claims the largest Asian community in South Africa today. Hindus outnumber Muslims about four to one. Durban is South Africa’s most culturally diverse city and is a popular tourist destination after the more cosmopolitan Cape Town. Any visit to Cape Town would not be complete without a tour of Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. Similarly, any Durban visitor must check out the Gandhi (1869-1948) exhibit at KwaZulu-Natal Museum (no longer available?). It was here in 1893 when the young attorney had an epiphany. Repeatedly arrested, Gandhi would spend the next 20 years fighting South Africa’s anti-Indian discrimination before returning to India. |
Playlists
St. Patrick's Day playlist...
GIBTI [►] Alone Again (Naturally) [►] Wavelength [►] Pump It Up [►]
Theme From Harry’s Game [►] Dirty Old Town [►] Bring Him Home [►]
A Good Heart [►] There Is a Light That Never Goes Out [►] Hope Road [►] Boadicea [►]
One [►] Dreams [►] Precious Little [►] Saltwater [►]
Troy (The Phoenix From the Flame) [►] Chasing Cars [►] Take Me to Church [►] Too Much to Ask [►]
Make Me Feel Good [►] Dream About U [►] Twister [►]
Cinco de Mayo playlist...
Coming soon.
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Why Baylindo
An independent site like ours is the ideal marketing space for any company doing business in the Bay Area (see below for political ads). Since our pages have been around since 2002, our site has earned the trust and respect of our fans and visitors. The Bay Area is one of America’s top five markets. About the size of New Jersey, the Bay Area has a population that’s slightly larger than Washington’s. Our pages are consistently among the top Bay Area-related search results (see below). You can create a YouTube channel like millions of others, but only a few can advertise on our site. You can pay $8 million for one 30-second Super Bowl ad, or you can communicate with your customers here for the next three months to two years at a fraction of the cost. Be sure to read the About page if you want to know more about our background and philosophy.
Our Mission
Our primary objective is—and always will be—to provide the best experience for visitors to our site. Our secondary objective is to keep our sponsors happy.
Ad Placement
We can basically place your advertising banner (one banner) anywhere on our site. But to strike the right balance between our two objectives above, we’ve decided to place banners/embedded videos near the top of the page. Since our site will never be plastered with lots of ads—we work with only a few sponsors—your banner will stand out clearly. Minimalism is good for individuals and Web sites. And since you’ll be working with us directly—and not through an ad broker/server—your banner will not be blocked by third-party software. After the scandals involving Facebook/Google and fake news/hate videos, it’s nice to know exactly where your ad will appear (no programmatic advertising here!). Once we set up your ad, it will be displayed automatically on all of our pages (36 and counting).
As you can see, the way we display ads on our site is clear and yet as unobtrusive as possible. Contrast that with sites that keep serving annoying pop-up ads when you scroll or click on something—and enough with the “Please rotate your device” message.
Ad Content
To keep things simple, we can start with your static company/site logo and direct traffic to you when people click on it. Note that just having your banner all over our site gives your company mindshare among Northern California residents. Of course, if you want to improve the click-through rate, you should create a compelling message and design some sort of animated picture (GIF file or Adobe Flash file, for example)—if you haven’t done so already. Our only requirement is that it should load fast and be legible in our banner window (256 by 144 pixels, the same aspect ratio as HDTV). You can change your banner anytime you want by simply sending us a different file each time.
Instead of a banner, you can have an embedded video that people can click to play. It’s completely your choice. For videos you need to upload to YouTube or your own server first, then we will simply use the embedded code for our site (YouTube and others use iframes to display content on third-party sites). If you’re not able to insert a promo code or keyword in your video, we can provide a custom message for you on our home page and our marquee pages such as Bay Area Radio Guide and A Practical Cheese Guide.
A word about how YouTube operates: When someone plays an embedded video on a third-party site, it will not be reflected in the video’s official view count. So if you have set up a YouTube channel, you should ask Google if there’s a way to keep track of clicks from third-party sites.
The order of banners is first-come first-serve. So if you sign up first, your banner will appear above others when displayed on a small mobile device. Contact us for our special offer.
Political Ads
In order to remain nonpartisan, we thought we’d only accept ads for ballot measures and nonpartisan offices. But some initiatives are just as divisive and polarizing as partisan offices (remember California Proposition 8 and Proposition 187?). Trying to pick and choose political ads is a fool’s errand. So bring on the political ads. Note that they will be displayed in a sidebar column above our Radio Menu.
Our Own Top 10 List
According to Joomla, our content management system, these are the 10 most popular pages on our site since December 2012.
- A Practical Cheese Guide
- Gold Rush and Silicon Valley
- Bay Area Radio Guide
- Bay Area Radio Mix
- Bay Area Treats
- Home Page
- Bay Area Radio Guide 2
- Latin Pop Radio
- About Bay Area Radio
- About Baylindo
First published in June 2014, our Cheese Guide became our No. 1 page just 16 months later. It's garnered twice as many hits as our Gold Rush and Silicon Valley page to date.
Search and Ye Shall Find (Sometimes)
Here are the August 2018 results if you use Google from a U.S. location.
Google Query | Ranking |
---|---|
"bay area radio" directory history | 4 |
"bay area radio" directory | 2 |
bay area cheese guide | 5 |
What about Bing? Well, this also-ran engine used to have our pages in the top 10, but after we moved to our own domain in December 2012, Microsoft became hopelessly confused. Before you clap for Google, we’d like to point out that it was Google that failed to index our pages between 2005 and 2007—ironic considering it was Blogger’s parent company. So here’s search engines’ dirty little secret: they are far from perfect. We are painfully aware of their shortcomings because we’ve been conducting monthly tests since 2003. Note that Yahoo uses either Microsoft or Google to power its search engine.
Turnabout Is Fair Play
This is how we rate our two main search engines.
Engine | Grade |
---|---|
B | |
Microsoft | D |
Copyright © 2002-2025 Calba Media LLC. All rights reserved.
Baylindo is dedicated to anyone interested in the San Francisco Bay Area. The nine-county Bay Area is like its own state within California. Whether you live here, plan to move here, or would like to visit someday, we’ve got you covered. There’s useful information for consumers, foodies, teachers, and students as well. This is not one of those computer-generated sites that litter the Internet. The name of our site simply reflects California’s Spanish/Mexican heritage. The word lindo means pretty or lovely in Spanish (neat and tidy in Italian).
After writing about the Bay Area for 10 years—we first published a Web page on a local radio station in October 2002—we decided it was time to put all the related pages under our own address. If the world ended in 2012, we figured we’d go out with our own domain name. So our URL may be different, but it’s the same great content our loyal fans have come to know and love. If Web content is king, we must be royalty by now.
If you continue to visit our old address at blogspot.com, you’ll see a change of address notice. We recommend that you point your browser to baylindo.com from now on. For your information, we will introduce a new Facebook page to go with our new site soon.
Just because we’ve finally launched our own site, it doesn’t mean we’ve changed our editorial standards. We have no desire to be the next Yahoo (no thanks) or Rupert Murdoch (hell no); we just want to continue to muse on subjects we care about. Indeed, our company remains an independent publisher. It is not affiliated with any entertainment or media company.
Despite the fact that Google’s search engine had trouble with our pages between 2003 and 2007—sometimes failing to index them altogether—people managed to find them somehow. According to an unrepentant Google, our flagship page, Bay Area Radio Guide (nee simbayradio.blogspot.com), had garnered over 36,700 pageviews by December 2012. And if you know this company as well as we do, this figure is likely an underestimate.
Here are some other brands/companies established in 2002:
- Barefoot Contessa (Food Network)
- GoPro
- History Detectives (PBS)
- PARC (incorporated in 2002)
- Santana Row (San Jose, Calif.)
- SpaceX
- Toyota Scion
- Vizio
- Wynn Resorts
Copyright © 2002-2025 Calba Media LLC. All rights reserved.