In the early 20th century, the area now known as Old Oakland was the commercial nerve center of the East Bay. Today, after a few decades in the shadows, the blocks bordered by 8th, 10th, Clay, and Washington streets are bustling once again.

Exploring the area may only take an afternoon, but the charm of the neighborhood will draw you back time and time again. And, undoubtedly, as Oakland's tarnished reputation begins to shine again, Old Oakland will continue to flourish as well.

The best day to visit is a Friday, when the bustling Farmer's Market (voted the best by East Bay Express) is operating. Open from 8am - 2pm every Friday year round, you'll find everything from Asian produce to live oysters and other fish to all manner of flowers and potted plants.

Wander the streets, marveling at the gorgeous brickwork and Victorian architecture, then head to GB Ratto's, an Italian market that's been in continuous operation since 1897. The current site (827 Washington St.) includes a wonderful deli and cheese counter, along with all manner of pantry staples in bulk and specialty items from Europe.

By now you'll want a bite to eat. Caffe 817 at 817 Washington Street) serves up wonderful breakfasts, sandwiches, and salads (all made with organic ingredients) in a charming Tuscan-inspired atmosphere punctuated by artwork from local artists. Don't miss their perfect lattes and espressos, best enjoyed at a sidewalk table watching the world go by.

Continuing down Washington St., head to the Housewives Market (between 9th & 10th streets), housed in the former Swan's Marketplace building is an old-fashioned market with several vendors including a fishmonger, two butchers, a sausage-maker and liquor/wine shop.

The Swan's building also houses the Museum of Children's Art, or MOCHA. Founded in 1988, MOCHAs mission is to "ensure that the arts are a fundamental part of the lives of all children." This adorable urban museum is a great way to keep the kids entertained for a couple of hours--don't miss the drop-in workshops.

Spend the rest of the afternoon perusing the shops and galleries tucked away all over this little gem of a neighborhood. Don't miss A-1 Fish Market (which isn't really a fish market at all, but a store for anglers!).

As the day winds down, head over to Pacific Coast Brewing Company for a sampler of their tasty brews (I love their Imperial Stout, brewed in the style of the Russian Czars).

Dinner is at the newly-opened Tamarindo Antojeria Mexicana, a delightful small-plate restaurant showcasing the regional flavors of Mexico. Don't pass up the Cajeta Crepe for dessert.
And thus your day in Old Oakland comes to an end. Hopefully, you'll have a sense of the history that Oakland bears witness to, and you'll understand that the analogy that Oakland is to San Francisco as Brooklyn is to Manhattan really does apply.

posted by Fatemeh Khatibloo-McClure

"A lot of people are passionate about wine on different levels. For me, wine is a way of life."

Shelley Lindgren is one of a new breed in the wine trade. She's a young, down-to-earth, urbanite, female sommelier. Add to that the fact that she's a co-owner of one of San Francisco's hottest restaurants and that she was named one of Wine & Spirits' Best New Sommeliers of 2004, and you have the makings of one Wine's Life that has its course set for the stratosphere.

Lindgren grew up in the North Bay area and has been working in local restaurants since she was 15 years old. She's always been most comfortable in the front of the house, even though she earned a Culinary Certificate from Tante Marie. She worked her way across some of the finest establishments in the Bay Area, from Left Bank to Boulevard, before finding her place at Fleur de Lys.

It was there that Lindgren started thinking about a profession in wine. Working at the restaurant 5 nights a week while studying full time at the University of San Francisco didn't leave her much free time, but what she did have she spent at wine shops, looking and listening and learning. Most of her papers as an English Writing major focused on references to wine in literature from Shakespeare to Horace, and she realized that wine was everywhere, as long as you were looking for it.

When Lindgren started seriously toying with the idea of becoming a sommelier, there were only just a few in San Francisco, and most of her friends didn't even know the term. What gave her the much-needed push to take the leap? The realization that people were buying wine for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes it was on the sole basis of price. Sometimes, they just weren't given much of a chance to get excited about something new or unique.

"I'd go to moderately-priced restaurants," she says, "and I'd struggle to find a wine that I wanted to have with dinner. Not that the lists were bad, there just wasn't a lot of excitement there."

After building a strong base in French wine at mainly French restaurants, she was ready to expand her knowledge, and she headed to Bacar to learn Austrian wines. Even then though, she (and, she jokingly confides, the rest of the staff) knew Italian wines were her passion.

So when she became a partner in a restaurant venture, it was a natural opportunity for her to build a wine list that reflects both her passion and chef Christophe Hille's southern Italian cuisine. But how does Lindgren get around selling wine to people who can barely pronounce Aglianico or Nerello Mascalese, let alone know what one tastes like?

"Customers are smarter than a lot of people [give them credit for]", she says of the unusual list. "I try not to be pedantic because, frankly, in the several minutes while I'm talking about a wine, it's sitting on the table, and my customer could be [forming their own opinions]. I try not to tell people what they should taste in a wine, and I try to keep the descriptions approachable--'light fruits' or 'dark fruits' instead of 'blueberry' or 'raspberry'.

You can really hear the passion in her voice as she talks about how "romantic" the history of wine is, and her excitement about helping to bring some near-extinct varietals to the dining public. After all these years, though, Shelley Lindgren still doesn't consider herself an "expert."

"When wine becomes your life, you're continually keeping up with tasting groups and meeting people in the industry who are bringing new ideas and old traditions together. I learn something every single day--I don't think anyone can say that they are truly an 'expert' because the industry is always changing and evolving."

Shelley Lindgren is co-owner and sommelier of A16 restaurant on Chestnut Street in San Francisco.

Photo courtesy of A16.

posted by Fatemeh Khatibloo-McClure

"Back when I was just beginning to drink wine, I visited my aunt & uncle in Switzerland. Marc loved his glass of wine when he came back from the office and, though he could have afforded French or Italian wines, he drank the local wine from the place where he grew up. He taught me that it doesn't matter what the label is, how much it costs, or what the reviewers say. The [only thing that] matters is that you enjoy the wine."

Listening to Spencer Garrett talk about wine is like taking a journey that starts in Italy and winds its way through Switzerland and Turkey before settling somewhere between Berkeley and France.

Studying in Florence some dozen years ago, his wine's life started with bottles of the local Chianti, shared with fellow students over dinner or picnics. But somewhere along the way, the intellectual in him came out, and he found himself buying two different bottles of 1990 Chianti to taste side-by-side.

"It was a seminal moment," he says, "because it went from appreciation of wine for its social aspect, to being able to think of wine in an academic, comparative way."

After moving back to the States, Garrett took a non-credit wine-tasting class and continued exploring wine as a hobby, all the while calling Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay his "house wine." A few years later, he was studying archaeology in Turkey and watched his hobby turn into a Master's Thesis.

"Over nine months, I brainstormed 11 possible thesis subjects and when I took them to my advisor, he [crossed off every one but] the last... it was my last choice, but I spent 18 months researching classical Greco-Roman wine making... in the Mediterranean."

After a stint at a custom crush facility in California, Garrett turned his attentions toward wine sales and today, he helps wine buyers stock their cellars at Kermit Lynch, an importer & retailer in Berkeley.

In his 20 months there, he's tasted over 950 wines, and he says that 99% of his wine purchases have been from their own stock. So, has access to this extremely focused collection of imports changed his own palate?

"Absolutely. One aspect is that [Kermit] is really, really good at choosing wine, whether it's $10 or $150 wine. And I love Rhones, red & white Loire wines and White Burgundy. I have some California wines that I can't drink anymore because they don't taste right [to me]. But I also don't eat the way I used to; I don't have as much red meat as I think the American wines call for."

When asked what he considers a "pinnacle" moment in his wine's life, Garrett tells two stories. First, of a family reunion last November in the private room of Farallon with a magnum of En Remilly Chassagne-Montrachet.

"The celebratory act of having it in a magnum, in this private room; having family & friends gathered there... and everybody across the spectrum loved [this wine] -- it sang for the people who know a lot, and it sang for the people who didn't know anything. And the wine worked with every single plate."

Then, Garrett starts talking about a tasting of Paul Bara Champagnes... his eyes close, his hands start gesturing, trying to capture words that could possibly describe the experience.

"When the ['93 Comtesse Marie de France] went into my mouth, it rose up and tingled and levitated... I felt 50 pounds lighter with that Champagne in my mouth... I felt like I was swallowing a golden orb."

Clearly, Spencer Garrett is passionate about his wine. So does he have a message for wine consumers?

"There is so much out there to taste and explore and learn. No one can taste it all. But it's like traveling -- you never know who you're going to meet. Go to different restaurants, try different things, explore. Just get excited about it."

Spencer Garrett works for Kermit Lynch, the eponymous Berkeley wine importer and retailer of French & Italian wines.

posted by Fatemeh Khatibloo-McClure

I remember, long ago, my parents sitting around our dining room table with their friends, crystal stemware glowing from within like bowls full of rubies in the warmth of candlelight. Their hushed tones as they told "grown up" jokes dissolved into laughter that permeated the house and made me long to be a part of these dinners.

Somewhere along the line, wine became, for me, a symbolic representation of those dinners.

Fast forward 10 years, and I'm a sophomore in college. I have a date with a guy I really like, and I want to show him how worldly, how sophisticated I am. I buy my first set of wine glasses from Crate & Barrel, and that signature white box is a trophy I carry home with me on the Metro.

I make us dinner - spaghetti with marinara sauce I doctor up from a jar of Prego. I make garlic bread. And I serve Franzia White Grenache, which I somehow think is a step up from the ubiquitous White Zinfandel. Of course, I can't tell the difference. But the guy is impressed, as are his buddy and the buddy's girlfriend (the four of us have squeezed into the round table in my studio that's meant to seat three). We sit and chat and laugh for hours, until it's time to say "goodnight".

That was the first time I managed to successfully recreate my parents' dinners in my own home. But it wouldn't be the last; rather, that dinner became the start of my life as a hostess. And, subconsciously, the start of my thirst for knowledge about wine.

What is it about wine and its ability to bring people together? Certainly, other libations have the same "lubricating" properties... but wine, wine... it's the elixir of geniality, the potion of repartee.

Over the next two months, I'll bring you discussions with a series of Bay Area wine professionals. We'll chat about their first memories of wine, and why they chose their given professions. We'll explore wine's life, in all its guts and glory.

I hope you'll come back two weeks from today, on Sunday April 24th, for the first of these exchanges. In the final installment of the series, I want to tell your stories. So, if you have a good one to share, email me at fatemeh@gastronomie-sf.com.

posted by Fatemeh Khatibloo-McClure