East Bay Restaurant Rec Required!

[whiner]

Ok:

Here is what we need...

A restaurant in the East Bay. Wine-friendly food. (eg. not Indian.) Apps somewhere in the $8-$18 range. Main coures somewhere in the $18-$30 range. Relaxed environment. Low corkage with good stemware. Able to accomodate 10+ people on a Wednesday.

Any ideas?

[SLRossi]

If you're planning on bringing remarkable wines as your post implies, you might want to think about a smaller place and discussing a paired meal with the chef. Given it is a Wednesday they may have time and interest. A small glass from each bottle could easily make that corkage disappear.

[rccola]

Riva Cucina is totally wonderful, able to seat 10 and with a curtain to divide you from the rest of the place (if you discuss first, I assume). Also, the best, most authentic light northernish Italian.

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Riva Cucina
800 Heinz Ave, Berkeley, CA 94710

[Scott M]

Mezze is a contender.

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Mezze Restaurant & Bar
3407 Lakeshore Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610

[JasmineG]

Dopo would work, and I've seen parties of 10 there, though it probably couldn't go much higher than that. Their corkage is low.

I don't know what the corkage is like at A Cote, but they would work at one of the big tables.

[Ruth Lafler]

Are you willing to come to Alameda? Pappo could handle a group like that. Or Acquacotta if you want to try something really new, although I'm not sure if Acquacotta is taking reservations yet.

http://papporestaurant.com/
http://www.acquacotta.net/