Just a fraction of the collection of oddities at Cafe Van Kleef   Oakland is not San Francisco, and therein lies what attracts and repels many people to and from the East Bay city.  San Francisco in the west, framed by delicate curls of

As usual, the air is balmy and the sky is overcast. Just as it should be on any respectable Saturday morning. It’s the perfect weather to cozy up with a bowl of soup on your overstuffed couch you paid too much for, and if you didn’t know, it’s also the

I mentioned them at the end of my last column, but let me officially introduce Donny and Dave. I met these two fellows up in the mountains a few weeks ago. Donny walked up first, and by his shuffling stroll, disheveled garb, and red-rimmed eyes, I presumed him to be

Part of living in San Francisco means having a love/hate relationship with Muni. On the plus side is the fact that it’s an affordable mass transit system that allows many of us to live a car free life. On the minus side is that it never quite works like it’s

It’s a gorgeous day in Raleigh, North Carolina. The sun is out, but he appears to be in hiding today. Are we feeling a little shy Mr. Sun? Or could it be that you’re on punishment? It’s almost as if Mother Nature deliberately arranged the clouds to shun the beaming

I’m sure when Louisiana-born Dale Hawkins wrote Susie Q in 1957, the last thing he thought it would spark was a Nola, Louisiana food truck (with a name that literally gives new meaning to the word food porn: Susie Q’s lunchbox, indeed) that sat in a parking lot in the

As a general rule, straying from the main drag for the purposes of late night calorie consumption would seem counterintuitive. As Fattmink mentioned in last week’s post, my neighbourhood, not as well-trafficked as other Mission environs, would definitely qualify as off the beaten path unless you consider “psych ward– close”

I don’t care which way the mass populous votes or how beautiful AT&T Park is, I am an Oakland A’s girl through and through. I’ve been going to the Coliseum (O.co be damned!) since before I could walk and that ballpark is as real as it gets. It’s noisy, kind