Subluminal

I haven’t had a drink in a bar for four months now, so I’m trying to remember where are all the places I used to go… All these great places that I miss dearly (if you’re looking for things to do in the meantime, check out you hikes in the East Bay and the Bay Area.)

Berkeley Art Museum / Pacific Film Archive during the Covid-19 pandemic

Theatres

• Berkeley Rep (2025 Addison), repertory theatre (Shakespeare etc), but also more modern things
• Aurora Theatre (2081 Addison)
• Berkeley Playhouse (2640 College) – very close to your place
• Shotgun players (1901 Ashby) highly recommended
• Cal Shakes
• ACT (415 Geary, San Francisco)

• Landmark Shattuck – Best regular theatre in Berkeley
• California theater – arthouse theater, only two screens but only good movies
• Pacific Film Archive – older movies, great place to catch up with cinephilia
• Grand Lake Theater (Oakland) Very cool theater with organ player on Fri and Sat shows (hours in green)
• The New Parkway (Oakland) theatre with a strange selection of movieswhere we can drink beers
• Castro Theater (San Francisco) very interesting selection of movies, with singalongs etc.

Restaurants and Bars

• Jupiter (Shattuck) – beloved Berkeley bar, with good pizza
• Comal (Shattuck) – upscale Mexican
• Cheeseboard Pizza (Gourmet Ghetto)
• Cafe Panisse (Gourmet Ghetto) – Beloved pizza place
• Kiraku (Telegraph) – my favorite Japanese restaurant, very busy
• Imm (University) – very good and cheap thai restaurant
• Millenium (Rockridge) – upscale vegan restaurant; unique, worth a try!

Music

• The Backroom (1984 Bonita), a very nice, intimate place with a lot of jazz and blues. You sit in couches and can bring your own wine. Very cheap (<$20)
• Freight and Salvage (2020 Addison), the place for country, blues and word music in Berkeley
• California Jazz Conservatory (2040 Addison, where the music school is; often concerts
• Ashkenaz (1317 San Pablo), a legendary venue for world music. Check out their weekly cover of the Grateful Dead, quite an experience usually on Wednesday. Lots of reggae.
• The Soundroom (2147 Broadway, Oakland) a non-profit that brings a lot of great jazz players in the Bay Area. highly recommended
• Yoshi’s (510 Embarcadero West, Oakland) another legendary Jazz venue in Oakland. A bit more upscale, but very nice still.
• In San Francisco, there’s SF Jazz, Slim’s and Club Deluxe that I like very much

• UCBSO (Hertz Hall, Berkeley) UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, very good music, affordbale
• Cal Performances (Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley) World class dance and classical music. A bit expensive, but there are ways to get cheaper tickets
• UC Theatre (University Ave)
• Greek Theatre (Hearst Ave) — in the summer
• The Fox Theatre (Oakland)
• The Fillmore (SF)