New Restaurant and Cafes Opening in Berkeley!

Berkeley continues to be a vibrant community.  The fact that a bunch of new eateries opening or soon to open attests to that fact.  The following article was taken from the SF Business Times and written by Sarah Duxbury can be read at their site as well.  The link is at the bottom of ths post.

Restaurant tenants are feeding Berkeley’s retail real estate market.


A host of new restaurateurs have signed leases to open in different corners of the city, each seeing a different opportunity even as an economic recovery remains uncertain.


“In this marketplace, the one tenancy we are seeing expand is food service,” said John Gordon of Gordon Commercial Real Estate. Gordon is fielding several food service inquiries every day, he said.


Jennifer Millar, owner of Sweet Adeline’s Bakeshop, scored six months free rent to open the 75-seat Addie’s Pizza Pie in the former Spud’s Pizza in South Berkeley. Her partner on that project is Thomas Schnetz of Flora and Dona Tomas, both in Oakland. The restaurant, which will serve New York-style pizzas and egg custards, should open by late spring.


In August, Anja Voth will open a German bakery restaurant in the old Metro Lighting space on San Pablo Avenue in West Berkeley. She said it will recreate traditional North German recipes with local, seasonal ingredients, “pretty much like my grandmother used to make.” Voth said she had been seeking a space for nearly two years.


Amy Murray from Venus Restaurant has bought the vacant Downtown Restaurant, and plans to remodel and open an 80-plus-seat restaurant called Revival Bar and Kitchen by summer. It sought a bigger space because Venus, with just 44 seats, couldn’t keep up with demand. It will remain open once Revival arrives.


Christian Geideman will open the East Bay’s first “izakaya” restaurant — sort of a pub-tapas bar that specializes in grilled meats. Sometime around April the Japanese-trained chef will open his 50-seat restaurant in 1,800 square feet custom built by Zen master and carpenter Paul Driscoe.


“This is decidedly not sushi,” said Patrick Kennedy of Panoramic Interests, and his landlord. “Basically, this is Japanese food for carnivores.”


Gordo Taqueria has signed a lease to open its fifth Bay Area location on Telegraph; Pinkberry will move in next door.


These new deals build on the success of recent entrants.


Gather opened in the David Brower Center less than two months ago and has been an instant success. A 28-seat prix-fixe fine dining restaurant called eVe opened on University Avenue in December.


“It seems like the energy’s there. You hear about smaller restaurateurs, newbies and folks with one or two restaurants, out poking around,” said Steve Smith, a broker with Norheim and Yost. “It may be that with the turn in the market and in the process of bottoming out, there are opportunities for them to seize.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2010/03/15/story6.html?b=1268625600^3020201&s=industry&i=commercial_real_estate

For more information about Buying or selling a home in Berkeley or other parts of the East Bay please visit my website http://www.billfletcherhomes.com/.  Or feel free to call or email me, bill@billfletcherhomes.com, for a home valuation or other real estate related needs.

Berkeley Unified Schools and Test scores

As a former educator I could rant all day about ow we mis-use educational tests. They honestly measure very little, as they are norm referenced,and so are designed to have winners and losers; and our dependance on the scores put pressure on teachers to teach to the test thus taking a great deal of the joy and creativity of teaching out of the classrom. We're always comparing our tests to other countrys' test scores and bemoaning the fact that we're losing the competitive edge. And as I see ths preference for tests and teaching to the tests as one of many problems with our system, I, nevertheless am the one who will rip open my cild's test envelope and pour over the scores within. I want my child to be in the 90th percentile, damn it!

Well this is a small preamble to announce the fact that Berekely's test scores have demonstrated minor shifts this year, a four percent increase in english/Language arts and a 1 percent drop in math. Both scores by the way are well above the state average. So I guess if you believe that test scores are a significant way of measuring a school or distrcit this is another good reason to consider Berkeley as a home-buying option if you have or plan on having children.