InBerkeley

Another opening to report. The Dailey Method is opening a studio in Berkeley today in The Elmwood.

The Dailey Method, which promises to get you “longer, leaner, stronger and more fit”, is a group fitness regimen inspired by exercise guru Lotte Berk. This will be the company’s eleventh Bay Area location.

The studio is at 2631B Ashby Avenue, close to College,  in a building that has long been empty, so it will be good to see it occupied. For a while it looked like it would be leased to a large restaurant, but that idea was nixed by concerns over increased traffic and decreased parking opportunities. The Dailey Method website promises “an ample parking lot conveniently located behind the building”.

More information can be found here.

No news yet on the other vacant retail spaces in the same building.

Business, Retail, The Elmwood Business, Retail, The Elmwood

You’ve got to love BioFuel Oasis. First off, this women-run cooperative launched, in 2003, the only bio-diesel station in the East Bay (and possibly the whole Bay for all I know) out of a run-down warehouse in west Berkeley.

Now they have taken over a 1933 (traditional) gas station that had seen better days and, largely with their own sweat equity, transformed it into, well, a veritable oasis.

The place looks great — with planters under canopies and solar panels keeping the whole place powered up.

BioFuel Oasis is run by Novella Carpenter, Jennifer Radtke, Margaret Farrow, Ace Anderson and Melissa Hardy and it’s having its official grand opening celebration on Saturday July 18, noon to 5pm. There will be “grillin’ and chillin” with free food and non-alcoholic drinks, a live band and — wait for it — a fuel filter changing rodeo.

It’s free and all are welcome. Find details here.

Business, Events, Green, Green living, Retail Business, Green, Retail

Perhaps you’ve been on vacation, or just haven’t come out from your cave for a while. Whatever your excuse, the big news for foodies in Berkeley this month was the opening of the new Berkeley Bowl West at Ninth Street and Heinz Ave.

In case you missed it, Steve Brown writes about the latest addition to this Berkeley institution in the San Francisco Business Times.

And Lance Knobel just reminded me of this article on his initial visit to the new Berkeley Bowl West.  (Thanks, Lance.)

General Berkeley, Food, Retail

How refreshing to be reporting on a retailer that is expanding rather than closing up shop.

According to Diablo Magazine, Elmwood Stationers will be opening a second store in Lafayette.  The store, which has being going strong since 1966 on College Avenue, will share space with custom jewelry shop Ware Designs, in a space near Trader Joe’s.

I patronize this store for its personal service rather than schlep down to Office Depot in Emeryville. And, I don’t know if it’s new, but their website’s pretty nice too.

Meanwhile, in case you missed the news, two art galleries recently opened in Berkeley: Hazel Wolf Gallery is in the new downtown David Brower Center; and Alphonse Berber Gallery is in a Julia-Morgan-designed building on Bancroft Way opposite the UC campus.

Arts, Business, Downtown, Retail Arts, Business, Downtown, Retail