Hot Spot: Zachary's Pizza

Friends! Countrypeople! Lend me your ears! I'm here to tell you about a spectaculous, miracular, fantabulous... you get the idea. A great day I had recently! And by recently I mean approximately 3-4 weeks ago, because my life-to-blog ratio is a little off. I'll work on being more current! This day involves 3 different locations (are you excited already?) and they all involve food & drink. Which means it was my favorite kind of day! I had a day like that this past weekend but I'll have to wait until next week to post about that.

But, I digress.

First stop: Blue Bottle Coffee

I met up with my friend Val (Val! from law school!) at Blue Bottle in SOMA for brunch. We both got coffee and a bite and sat in front of this coffee-brewer-boiler-light-up thing, watching the barista (baristo?) brew hand poured cups while we chatted. Did you know they have sit down brunch at the SOMA location? We didn't really get anything substantial since we were just catching up before getting pizza with other law school friends, but damn if I didn't want at least three other peoples' plates that I saw in passing.

We've already decided we're going back at some point - you can come too! Well, maybe.

Second Stop: Zachary's Pizza

We hopped on Bart and got off in Rockridge, a smaller residential part of Oakland on the border between Oakland and Berkeley. Rockridge is home to one of the only two Zachary's Pizza locations! So, we went there. And we pizza-ed. They have crazy drawings on every menu, and colorful portraits and sayings plastered on the walls. This place not only has great cheese-on-bread-with-sauce, but it has panache! Style! Flair! It's just plain fun. We got one deep dish and one pepperoni-and-pineapple (my favorite combintion) and demolished them both between four of us (I took some awkward pictures of my friends eating lunch but didn't have the heart to post them so YOU'RE WELCOME Anthony, Eli, and Val! Big ups to me.) It was...delicious. I mean, I think I've only ever met one pizza place I didn't like  - coincidentally it's down the street from my apartment, how unfortunate! or fortunate, for my waistline at least - but still, this is good pizza.

We didn't demolish them nearly well enough though because Val and I both took home leftovers and carried them around with us, up and down the street, popping into adorable homewares shops left and right, trying not to spill on the pretty things. I even bought a couple of mint-green cabinet pulls to dress up my IKEA bookcase! I haven't done that yet, but, soon. I'll probably post about it, don't worry.

At some point both of our pizza bags started leaking on the way home (points detracted for poor wrap-man-ship!) so that was kind of a downer, but that really just incentivized us to eat it more quickly once we got back to the city. So, maybe they're geniuses at Zachary's. Who's to say?

Third Stop: Bica Café

So this one only counts as a stop because Anthony got coffee there while the three of us stood around and observed the adorable decor and the plethora of coffee varieties. I also got that sick action shot of a barista pouring water (whooaaaaaa) shown below! Someday I'll go back and actually try something there, but for now, I feel comfortable recommending it based on ambiance alone.

Bonus: Pig Roasting on a Spit

I have no idea what occasion this was for, or even what venue it was attached to, but Val and I were lucky enough to pass by a whole pig roasting on a spit on our way back to the Bart station. So, that happened.

What an eventful Saturday it was. Have you been to Zachary's? Or Rockridge? Evan lives near the main downtown area, I really should go visit her more. Yeah, Evan, I said it! But I'm not allowed to go in any more of those cute shops, do you hear me?