Where to Eat and Drink


Welcome to Alameda Magazine's Best of 2005 Food & Drink issue. Here's where you'll learn if your eating and drinking tastes are in line with how Alameda Magazine readers feel about snacking and sipping their way across the Island.
    Institutions aplenty-Tucker's, Ole's, Kamakura and Jim's Coffee Shop for starters-scored well, and the results in the best pizza and best burger categories were no surprise, given the strong showings by the 2004 category leaders. Angela's and Asena are top-of-mind noshing destinations for readers, while La Piñata, Speisekammer and Peet's earn the edge for sloshing. Readers' definitions of "new," however,
didn't exactly jibe with ours. We said goodbye to a couple of categories, including best sushi and best burrito, but we introduced some new ones-best steak and favorite food to go.
    It's fun to see how readers vote, and I especially liked the choices that Alamedan T.J. Stuhlreyer made. Now this is a reader who holds himself in pretty high regard, voting for his own abilities in cooking and mixology to dub himself Alameda's best chef and best bartender. And Stuhlreyer's house is the best place for breakfast, too. Turns out he tended bar in Old Sacramento through his college days at Sac State and hates the long lines at Ole's. Asks Stuhlreyer, "Where better to go for a delicious café mocha [made by Alameda's best amateur barista, my wife, Kim] and a satisfying bowl of Honeynut Cheerios but here in the '502 at my house?"
    Look for the ballot for the 2006 contest next spring, and we'll publish the results in early fall. If there's a category you'd like to see mentioned, suggest it. And that applies not only to food and drink topics, but overall categories as well.
    This issue of Alameda Magazine also offers a preview of a newly developing Island tradition-The Nutcracker, thanks to ballerina extraordinaire Abra Rudisill and her Alameda Civic Ballet. And if you've ever wondered how the folks along palm tree-lined Burbank Street live, here's your chance to find out, on page 68. For shopaholics, the season is now officially upon us, so Laurie Isola colors your world with an expanded Treasure Hunt devoted to finds in hues of red, gold and blue.
    Finally, I'd like to thank all of our Gina Jaber fans who have written letters wondering where to find her. I want to reiterate that we're still publishing her column, Just Between Us. The column has a new, more forward home-up near Snapshots-to make room for fine images, art and multimedia about the A-Town for our last-page feature, Alamedia.

                    Until next issue,

                    Judith M. Gallman
                    judy@alamedamagazine.com