I've marked a select group of stores, restuarants, and other landmarks on the maps; click on a colored circle to see what it marks, or else browse my list of places of interest.
This to-scale map covers most of Berkeley, including the downtown area, a little bit of North Berkeley, the Elmwood area, and West Berkeley over to the water (the Oakland-Berkeley border to the south is also marked). The yellow line marks the route of AC Transit Bus 51, which I take to go to school, the supermarket, and almost everywhere else. I've marked a select group of stores, restuarants, and other landmarks on the maps; click on a colored circle to see what it marks, or else browse my list of places of interest.
Landmarks and Places of Interest:
If you head straight west here, you have the option of going to the Berkeley marina, a park that sticks out into the Bay. I hear it is very scenic, but unfortunately it's the only place in all of Berkeley which does not have a leash law for dogs. You can also continue across the very long Bay Bridge to downtown San Francisco (and to the San Francisco airport in about half an hour). If you go north, in ten minutes you'll find yourself at the Target in El Cerrito, a wonderful place for outfitting an apartment inexpensively. They have everything there! If you head south, you'll be at the Oakland airport in half an hour.
Berkeley Amtrak/Greyhound Terminals
This is a great store. Their stock changes often, and they tend to have plates and glasses with nice designs and of first quality for under $1 apiece! Also, within a block of this store is Sur La Table, a very complete, if sometimes overpriced, gourmet kitchen store. I am in love with everything in there, from the copper pots in the windows to the attachments for my mixer to the row upon row of nested heart-shaped layer cake pans. Next door to Sur La Table is O Chame, a Japanese-type restaurant with lots of lovely udon dishes, and Ginger Island, which is similar though inferior to the Elephant Walk. Across the street is Bette's Diner, a 50s style diner with really good breakfasts (big baked fruit pancakes, potato pancakes, etc).
Berkeley Outlet: Used Office Furniture A warehouse full of desks, chairs, filing cabinets, and bookcases. We got a $20 bookcase here, a nice cabinet to put my microwave on, and my deskchair which my father says costs $300 new (for $120). We have to come here to get you a good desk.
This is where we got my unpainted bookcase and dresser. The furniture is of a very good quality and is reasonably priced. Also the store smells wonderfully of wood. . . A few doors down are both a South American market, like one would find in Jackson Heights, Queens, and a diner called the Bleach Bottle Pig Farm, whose owner makes beautiful pigs out of bleach bottles and then adorns her restaurant with them. It looks like a neat place.
Berkeley for some reason teems with Thai restaurants, but this is the best one by far that I've seen. They have an unusually extensive menu, with lots of interesting whole-fish dishes. And they have the best dessert I've ever had, a divine mango with sticky rice. Right next door is a little Thai shop with things like Asian spices and sushi rice for sale.
This is a great Italian restaurant, with lots more than pasta with tomato sauce; their risotto with rock shrimp is great, and they have a dessert with espresso ice cream, fudge, and hazelnuts which I would definitely order again. They also have a neat wine-tasting special Monday-Wednesday; three different wines, related by a theme or vineyard, with little blurbs about their fruity or cedery tastes and cocoa noses. You get three three-ounce glasses for $7.95, and with the help of the written description, I almost started to think I could tell them apart! Cafe Venezia is also across the street from the TravelLodge where my parents and I stayed.
At the intersection of Cedar and Shattuck, in North Berkeley, this a particularly well-stocked Andronico's (a fancy chain supermarket) with a nice sushi counter. The insurance agent with whom I have a renter's insurance policy is located on this corner as well.
What can I say? All the crepes here are wonderful--they are as cheap and as good and as large as in France, only there is a better variety here. Although my father was partial to things with ham and turkey and cheese, or sometimes to ricotta with cinnamon, I loved the classic nutella with banana, or the superb nutella with raspberries. My mother liked the tomato, cheese and avocado, which I must admit is great as well. I would eat here everyday if I wanted to always be very full and very happy after lunch. And you know what else? This wonderful crepe place is just a block away from the Berkeley BART, two blocks from Darling Florist, and not far from a nice reconditioned vacuum store where we got a great vacuum. . . .
The campus computer store, at the corner of University and Bancroft
Doe (Main) Library (on campus)
Sproul Plaza Entrance (on campus)
This is a good Indian restaurant; I thought of Paul because they say they have live Indian classical music Thursdays-Sundays. They also have an all you can eat lunch buffet special and are very close to campus. A block further north on Oxford is a Ben and Jerry's, for dessert.
First Congregational Church of Berkeley. This is the church I go to sometimes, at the corner of Dana and Durant. The 51 stops right in front of it on Durant for going home.
This is a really nice Japanese restaurant. It looks like a warehouse from the outside, but inside it is nice and has wonderful food. The sushi and the hamachi teriyaki are particularly good. On weekends there is usually a line around the block in the evenings for a table, but the sushi bar ususally has two seats available.
There are lots of great bookstores in these two or three blocks along Telegraph; my favorite for now is Moe's, which is huge and always seems to have the books which my Pilot tells me are my number 1 priority to buy! Right across the street is Amoeba Music, and up the block is Rasputin's. While both places buy and sell new and used CDs, I like Amoeba more--the clientel looks more normal to me, and the music selection includes things I might actually buy as well as things I'd want to sell. A few blocks up Telegraph, actually on Bancroft, is the best new bookstore I've found here--University Press Books, for those books by nice professors which are usually only in print for a short time.
This is a nifty fondue place. All they have is fondue--lots of different kinds of cheese fondues, a chateaubriand fondue, a champagne fondue with which you get the half of a bottle of champagne to drink after they fill up the pot, and of course chocolate fondue for dessert. It looks like a fun place to go with a big group as well as just on an intimate date. Fondue Fred's is actually located inside a mini-mall with several other restaurants; there's a Japanese place, an Indian place, and a Korean barbecue place which advertises "rice cakes broiled at table." I peeked inside and didn't see any barbecues on the tables, though, which puzzled me, but I would still try it for this great dish.
This is basically only accessible by car, although we did see a few hearty souls biking up the side of this mountain. Once you get to the top of the hill, though, you have a great view out across the bay as long as there isn't any fog. The museum was closed for the evening when we got there, but they have the distinction of having a very large (maybe 40 foot long) model of a whale which sits out in front of it, and which children are meant to climb on. When we got there, the whale had been removed for cleaning and repair, so all we saw was the 40 foot long whale-shaped print where the ground was a different color. I said, "Hey, that looks like a giant whale!" Then we saw the sign that said the whale was temporarily removed. All in all, it looked like a promising place!
My Apartment (corner of Stuart and College)
7-11, Elmwood Drugstore, Nabolom Bakery (corner of Russell and College)
I very carefully took note of this; Norman will like to come here after climbing up the hill to visit the whale.
I feel very safe, living only two blocks away from a fire house. When I hear the trucks go by, morning and night, and know that the firemen are saving people, I feel very safe indeed.
Berkeley Public Library Tool Lending Library As long as you have a regular library card, this branch of the library will "check out" tools such as drills, electric screwdrivers, and saws on a day by day basis.
You can get here by the #6 bus west from the corner of College and Ashby in Elmwood. On Saturdays, a huge flea market is held in the commuter parking lot.
I shop here every week; it is a far cry from a Star Market, but it is nearby and has to suffice.
Freeway Entrance
CITY | UNIVERSITY | APARTMENT | FAQ | CREDITS | MORE INFO