Very casual Berkeley/Albany/El Cerrito with AC and without Ronald McDonald

[lmnopm]

Suggestions? Too hot to cook, or even bring something in tonight, and methinks many of the small places around here are going to be awfully hot.

[potato or yam]

Ate dinner at Chick-O-Peas on Shattuck Ave in Berkeley tonight and it definitely had air conditioning. It was so cold inside that I regretted not wearing a jacket.

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Chick-O-Pea's
1926 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA

[Nina]

Remembering this thread from last year when it got incredibly hot unseasonably early....any updates?

[Glencora]

Pyramid's happy hour seems pretty tempting right now.

[lexdevil]

Sahn Maru has AC. Sold me on it the first time I went there, as it was a scorcher.

[Melanie Wong]

Actually Korean bbq places that have grilling at the table are often a good bet for strong AC and ventilation.

[susancinsf]

Indeed; I had to come into town for a quick dive club meeting last night. They had decided to meet at the private front room in Sura, which was fine with me since I love the food there. I was muttering to myself over the fact that on the one day that it was as hot in Oakland as it was in Merced, I was forced to come to the town that has no AC.

To my surprise, while I actually am not sure if they do table grilling or not, or even if it was air conditioned, they had somehow managed to get the place quite pleasantly cool even while it was still over 90 outside. Ten of us had a very enjoyable meal.

It was slammed by the way, more crowded than I have ever seen it, mostly with Korean families. We decided that no one wanted to cook and knew it would be nice and cool there....

and our dinner was great, though they did run out of Sierra Nevada ale which disappointed some of my dining companions. I knew I had a two hour plus drive home and stuck to coke and cold noodles. Perfect dinner for a night like last night.

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Sura
4869 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, CA 94609

[lmnopm]

I believe the Beta Lounge on Durant has AC. More wine/beer than food, but a nice selection of light things to eat.

[nicedragonboy]

the hummus at beta lounge is excellent.

[lmnopm]

Time for updates - we have several hot days-a-coming. Sushi Solano may have had AC - I remember it being comfortable in there yesterday.

[Robert Lauriston]

Discovered by chance yesterday that Seoul House in Oakland has AC.

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Seoul House Korean Restaurant
348 13th Street, Oakland, CA

[lmnopm]

Has anyone stumbled across any others since the last post?

[rworange]

Tofu Yu which opened today in the strip mall with the Japanese Market and Baskin Robbins. Lovely air conditioning. I thought of you.

ALSO, they have Maggie Mudd organic vegan ice cream, so to speak. I like the blueberry a lot.

Post from today's openeing.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/553011

[ML8000]

My guess is that the chains in El Cerrito Plaza, Macaroni Grill, Pomodoro and the others will have AC. Almost all chains provide AC. At ECP you can at least play the odds with several options.

[Scott M]

One of the nice things about living in the Bay Area is you don't need AC....right?

[Midlife]

Never been there but relatives have brought in take-out from China Village on Solano in Albany. Pretty good on my sensitive Asian food meter. Are they not A/Ced????

[susancinsf]

China Village occured to me as well; for some reason I have in my head that they are air conditioned (but can't swear to it, so worth a call).

Fortunately I am in LA, where air conditioning is the norm when the sun comes out :-)

[Robert Lauriston]

Confirmed in another topic.

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China Village
1335 Solano Ave, Albany, CA 94706

[kc72]

A/C in the Pacific East Mall. Or just head to Daimo.

Or give that new Jac's Asian Bistro a try -- not sure about the A/C situation though

[rworange]

I would guess not at Jac's. I was thinking Pacific East Mall too. Fat Apple's? T-Rex?

[Glencora]

You could look around for places with closed windows and doors. Or go to the Cerrito theater. Or skip dinner and hang out at the library.

[Robert Lauriston]

Pyramid's the only place I know of.

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Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse
901 Gilman St, Berkeley, CA

[Chuckles the Clone]

Anything worth eating there? I had a colleague who loved the place and insisted on lunch there pretty often and the couple of times I strayed from a very plain and somewhat sub-par hamburger I was very disappointed.

[DezzerSF]

One time I had the Mediterranean Steak sandwich:
"Marinated, grilled & sliced Tri-Tip, romaine, marinated tomatoes, red onions, feta cheese, herb vinaigrette & a side of mint yogurt sauce."

I thought it was pretty tasty.

[Robert Lauriston]

At Pyramid I usually order the fish & chips, pretty good though if I were craving that dish rather than air conditioning I'd go to Sea Salt.

Sometimes I get the pepperioni pizza, edible if you don't mind soft, blonde crust and too much cheese. Again, if I were craving pizza and beer rather than air conditioning, I'd go to Lanesplitter.

I'd order that Mediterranean steak sandwich again, especially if sitting outside.

Onion rings and Caesar are decent.

[chemchef]

I thought the grilled salmon sandwich was decent as well.