InBerkeley

Books Inc opened its Berkeley store at 1760 Fourth Street today. The doors opened early to welcome the crowd that had gathered outside eager to experience a new book store after witnessing so many go the other way in recent years.

Co-owner and president Michael Tucker told Carolyn Said at the Chronicle: “I’m a Berkeley boy, so for me it was absolutely anathema that there wasn’t a general-interest bookstore left here.”  Said’s story also explores why an independent chain like Books Inc has managed to survive against the odds. Read it here.

o Books Inc coming to Fourth Street – August 6, 2009

Books, Retail, West Berkeley Books Inc

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit music and culture venue that specializes in presenting live world and roots music, is once again holding its Dance-A-Thon fundraiser event next week at its Berkeley venue on San Pablo Ave., just south of Gilman St.  This is the first Dance-A-Thon since the 1998-2002 annual series, which helped raise funds toward the purchase of the current Ashkenaz building from the late founder David Nadel’s estate.

This year’s Dance-A-Thon will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., and will feature 12 hours of live music from around the world. It’s an event for the whole family, and will feature activities for the kids, great raffle prizes and good food in the Back Studio.

There are two ways you can attend the event: You can pay a $20 door price the day of the event, or for $10 you can preregister as a sponsored dancer. Anyone who gets sponsorships totaling $100 or more gets their Dance Card number entered into a drawing for one year admission to Ashkenaz. All the proceeds are tax-deductible and will go toward Ashkenaz operating expenses.

Ashkenaz was founded in 1973 by David Nadel, a dedicated human rights activist and folk dancer who pioneered the presentation of world music long before the genre had a name. For 24 years he led Ashkenaz to become a community watering hole presenting music as diverse as Balkan, Cajun, Zydeco, African Highlife, Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat, Calypso, Soca, Blues, Contra Dance, Eastern European Folk Music, Flamenco, Reggae, Salsa, Ska, Soukous, Bluegrass, East & West Coast Swing and more. In 1996 David was murdered by a drunk he refused to let back into the building.

Visit the Ashkenaz web site for more information about the Dance-A-Thon event, or about being a sponsored dancer, volunteering or donating prizes or cash.

Events, Music, West Berkeley

Bayer Healthcare has apparently decided to continue processing its Kogenate hemophilia drug at its West Berkeley plant, according to this article in the San Francisco Business Times. As a result, the company said it is investing $100 million in its West Berkeley facility — its largest single investment in the site — to increase production of the drug, but there is no indication as to whether this will result in more jobs at the site or not.

(Photo: Rupert Ganzer via Flickr)

Business, West Berkeley

The 636 solar panels atop the new Berkeley Bowl West building at 920 Heinz Street in Berkeley must be doing their job pretty well.  Tomorrow, the market’s owners are receiving a $167,029 solar energy rebate check from PG&E.

Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, representatives from PG&E and Sun Light & Power President Gary Gerber will be on hand, too, no doubt to promote solar energy, boast about what a great job they’re doing and to get their photos taken. In preparation for tomorrow’s event, southeastern Berkeley and parts of the downtown area were plunged into darkness early this morning to remind citizens of just how important electricity is to our daily lives. No word on whether Berkeley Bowl West was affected by the blackout or not.

The solar panels atop the acclaimed Berkeley Bowl West facility are expected to produce 149,633 kilowatts of electricity per year, and were installed by Berkeley-based by Sun Light & Power.

You, too, can attend the rebate-receiving ceremony. It will take place at noon on Friday at the Berkeley Bowl West.

Architecture, Business, Environment, Events, Government, Green, Politics, West Berkeley

Photo by Kava Massih Architects

John King approves. Read why the Chronicle’s architecture critic likes how Kava Massih Architects approached the task of designing Berkeley Bowl West here.

Architecture, Retail, West Berkeley Berkelely Bowl West

An insider’s account of the demise of Eccolo on Fourth Street:

Fifty hardworking people lost their jobs when Eccolo closed on Berkeley’s Fourth Street strip last week, released into a vast ocean of unemployed restaurant workers. But the ripple effect is even more discouraging. Farmers, handymen, our cleaning crew and the neighborhood preschool we made lunch for daily are only a few of the dozens of local small businesses affected.

Ultimately, it was the piddling state of the economy that made us decide to close. Most restaurants never make much money, and Eccolo was no exception.

via SFGate.

Business, Food, Issues, West Berkeley, restaurants

Chocolatier Blue, the Berkeley-based gourmet chocolate maker, is opening a second store on Fourth St. in the location formerly occupied by Sketch.  A call to Chocolatier Blue confirmed they are planning to open the new shop in September, though an exact date was not available.

Owner Chris Blue was chocolatier for Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago before opening the first Chocolatier Blue at 1964 University Ave., and spent his childhood summers on a self-sustaining family farm in Nebraska, which is where he learned about organic agriculture and how important it is to support local farms.  His hand-made confections use Amedei chocolate, which is considered by many to be the best chocolate in the world. Fresh organic cream is shipped directly from a Nebraska farm, raw butter is from the 5-Star Butter Co. in California, pistachios are from Sicily and raw produce is from local markets.

Business, Food, Retail, West Berkeley

How utterly disappointing. Just a couple of weeks after extolling the virtues of its plum sorbet, I have to report the disheartening news that Sketch, the gourmet ice-cream store on Fourth Street, is to close on July 26. [Hat tip: Eater SF.]

Owners Eric Shelton and Ruthie Planas say they are shutting up their first [business] baby in order to concentrate on their first real baby whose arrival is expected in about a month.

This from their website: “It’s been a great five years getting to know many of you (many by name, some by facial recognition, some by their consistent ordering patterns) and seeing many of your children grow from the womb on up to being able to see over the counter.”

They stress that Sketch isn’t disappearing, however, “just taking a ‘lil break from the retail aspect”. Their candies, pastries, sauces/fixins, ice cream cakes and other custom orders will be available online.

Add another vacant retail space to the growing number on Fourth Street.

Food, Retail, West Berkeley

It’s one of those things you generally don’t get too excited about, but a good wine vinegar can really make a big difference in a salad dressing or when cooking. While I can appreciate good wine vinegar, I’m usually annoyed by the rip-off prices you see in the supermarkets, which usually treat wine vinegar as a “gourmet” product, and price it accordingly. As opposed to plain old distilled white vinegar, which you can buy by the gallon at Costco for very little money, wine vinegars can run anywhere from a couple of dollars to more than $20 for a pint.

And so it was with great satisfaction one day that I discovered the house-made wine vinegars available at the Oak Barrel on San Pablo Avenue.  Best known as a supplier of wine, beer and vinegar making equipment, the folks at Oak Barrel Winecraft also make their own label red and white wine vinegars.

No fancy lables, no fancy bottles, you can get their vinegars in 750-mL cork-stoppered wine bottles as well as 4-liter jugs.  4 liters of either red or white wine vinegar will run you less than $5.  And it’s very good amber-colored white wine vinegar and ruby red wine vinegar, higher in acidity than most of the supermarket stuff.  After trying the vinegars in the 750-mL bottles, I now buy the 4-liter jugs and use them to refill the 750-mL bottles I keep in the kitchen. If you’re adventurous, you can stuff some herbs, garlic or whatever into the bottles to make your own flavored vinegars, too.

Given them a try.  Oak Barrel Winecraft is located at 1443 San Pablo Avenue, on the east side about two blocks north of Cedar; (510) 849-0400.

Food, General, West Berkeley Food

Government stimulus money may help a new residential building project in West Berkeley see the light of day, after it was put on hold last year when the economy began to tank.

Last year a design was approved by the City of Berkeley for a mixed-use project on the corner of San Pablo Avenue and Grayson Street (pictured above). The plans, by San Francisco based architect Andre Rothblatt, show 23 market rate condos (including 20% inclusionary units) over commercial space, landscaped private and common decks and patios, and a spacious lobby entrance to the residential units.

Now, the project’s developer, Grayson Group LLC, has applied for a federal loan under the terms of the new Administration’s stimulus package and is in the process of converting the project into multi-family, low-income rental units.

Rothblatt, who remains on the project, says he believes this is consistent with the requirements of eligibility for the federal loans, and it is a move that has been welcomed by the City of Berkeley.

The loan application is under review and a response is due in July.

[First published on SFGate's On The Block. Photo: Andre Rothblatt Architecture.]

Property, West Berkeley Property, West Berkeley