Tips for Dining, Eating, and Food Shopping in the SF Bay Area (including Berkeley, Oakland, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and San Jose)
Start New ThreadThe Dopo spinoff Adesso (the place that had the Scopa sign in the window for months) is finally open. Opening special, free food if you buy a drink.
4395 Piedmont, corner of Pleasant Valley, 601-0305.
By Robert Lauriston
on Mar 12, 2009 06:09 PM
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Photos:
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adding a link...
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Adesso
4395 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA
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That's Dopo's address. I'd correct it, but no edit buttons.
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oh no...please tell me this isn't where the King's X used to be? (guess it has been too long since my father lived around the corner, but that used to be a good place for a straight up, simple, strong drink, back in the day...)
Hard to tell from your photos, but I am assumng it is a bar with food?
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Italian restaurant / wine bar / bar. The tiki bar across the street is the former Kings X.
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Is it the ground floor of that new condo building?
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kc72: Bingo!!
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Those are actually photos I took and yes its in the style of a Sicilian Bar with little yummy dishes. Salumis, Pates, Panini, cheeses, etc. Its a full bar as well. Its across from the Tiki Bar which hasn' been Kings X for a few years now...
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Kona Club!
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No, the King's X tuned into the Tiki bar (Kona club), Adesso is across the street:)
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According to the Chron, the free appetizers will be a regular thing, 5-7 Mon.-Sat., 10:30-11:30 Mon.-Wed., and 10:30-midnight Thurs.-Sat.
Story also says 30+ kinds of house-cured meat and 11 pates.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
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Guess they got some data on the proposed name from an Italian. I burst out laughing when I drove by the place with its earlier name: it's a slang term for , um, hooking up with someone.
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to be sure, the word translated means broom.
Strangely enough, if you were to translate its current name, Adesso, with the other restaurant- Dopo, you've have Now n' Later.
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Literal translation is broom, and it's also the name of a card game, but it's a double-entendre.
Yeah, I was thinking their next venture would be Prima.
Dopo means after (later is piu tarde).
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There's restaurant called Scopa in Healdsburg that might have felt infringed upon.
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My wife and I went to Adesso last evening and had a lovely time... The atmosphere is nice and the place has a fun vibe that I would expect in the city - quick drinks, snacks, and high turnover.
We had a couple nice glasses of wine and a lovely appetizer - Buratta Salad - highlighting fennel and artichoke hearts. The Charcuterie looks fantastic, but I don't eat that stuff. Everyone else seemed to be wolfing down the Salumi platters though.
For our wines we had a Sangiovese Algianico blend and a Barbera d'Alba that were both healthy pours and fairly priced in the $9 range. I was even intrigued by what I thought was a bargain for a Bay Area wine bar; a $5 glass of wine (Negroamaro). I tried it and it was drinkable - nothing great but decent...
We also took advantage of the complimentary Foozball table in the far corner and had some fun before heading out for the evening. I'd say that it hits the mark right on - Adesso is someplace you meet up with friends and grab a really good cocktail (haven't tried them yet but everyone seemed pleased with the drinks they ordered) have a light snack before dinner and then shove off - only to return at the end of the evening and play a little Fooz while taking in that nightcap... I think this will be a staple of Piedmont in no time...
Prima di Dopo and dopo di Dopo e perfecto!
P.S. - I posted this using my wife's account because mine is acting screwy
Joe - jgotshal
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Adesso
4395 Piedmont Ave, Oakland, CA
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The free appetizers are an amazing deal. The style of the food is very similar to Dopo's.
I had arancini (fried rice balls stuffed with pork ragu), sardine crostini, ciccoli, mortadella, coppa, a couple of kinds of salame, slices of pressed sandwich with ragu and mozzarella, another pressed sandwich with salami and rocket, tuna and egg crostini, rocket salad, Caesar salad ... probably forgetting some things.
Left stuffed and all I paid for was two $4 beers (also delicious).
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The free stuff is, of course, great...but it's worth springing for the duck on the salumi menu.
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Tried the duck salumi ($8) and, wow, it was fantastic--flavors really popped, especially that touch of Meyer lemon. Also really liked the meatball panini (can't remember the exact name of it, $10?) that we tried, in addition to stuffing our faces with all the tasty free appetizers.
Had a $9 glass of a jammy, spicy red, and my wife had a great cocktail featuring Swanton Berry strawberries. We paid about $44 after tax and tip, and that's about as much as I could imagine spending here, at least when they're offering all that free food. Great, great deal.
Place was packed at a little after 5:00 on a Wednesday afternoon..
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That meatball panino is one of the best things I've had from the free spread. I might order one sometime so I can eat my fill.
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I've been to Adesso twice now, and love it, though it's going to get (even more) packed in there in the next few weeks because of Bauer's rave review. The cocktails are delicious, that strawberry cocktail especially.
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Went last night and yes, it was packed; and yes, it was incredibly loud. We shared our table with a trio of drinkers who seemed oblivious to the food (as they were paying their tab, they were discussing going to Barney's for a burger - the horror!)
Had the pate misti, the boar salumi, the marche salumi, the umbrian salumi, the arancini, the proscuitto and mozzarella di bufala piadina, and the polpettone panini. Everything was AMAZING - best of their kind we've had outside of Italy.
Totally worth the noise (with food like that, who needs to talk?) I'm almost bummed about the free food - we were hoping that an early Tuesday evening might be emptier/quieter. :)
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How early were you there? I've found the noise level acceptable from 5 to 6:30 or 7. It's later in the evening when they crank up the music that it's painful.
There's nothing wrong with Barney's so long as you've properly deadened your palate with cocktails.
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I was driving by Adesso about 4:45 p.m. one evening last week and there was already a line of about 10 people waiting at the door. My wife went one evening a couple of weeks ago and they got the last seats at the bar around 5:30 p.m. So it sounds like it can fill up quickly any day of the week.
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Walked in around 11 last night and for once it was *not* too loud. The place was full but not packed, and we got a table within 5-10 minutes. Plenty of free food and no crowd to fight for it, though not a big selection--hot piadina sandwich, cold baguette sandwich, the fried balls they make from the tail ends of the salumi, mixed olives, and rocket and radicchio salad. Also ordered some duck rilettes off the menu. With four glasses of wine it came to $52.68 before tip ... TANSTAAFL!
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TANSTAAFL?
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There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
(It helps to have a 16 year old boy in the house.)
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Wikipedia has a cite for the acronym from 1949.
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Yes, that's why I said "popularized (but not coined)." At any rate, us older folks are at least as likely to be familiar with the acronym as a 16 year old.
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Obviously, since I was the one who used it, and I'm old enough that I used to go to the Iron Pot and Assay Office for the free lunch, er, happy hour.
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How big is the space over there? and is it more of a lounge or restaurant seating? Was thinking of getting some friends over there for my birthday, but it sounds like it may be a challenge because of the crowds.
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Sort of restaurant on one side (chairs and tables) and bar on the other (tall tables with stools). I wouldn't go with a party larger than four, and two is best.
B is good for a crowd, has a similarly great bar, and takes reservations. Though no free food. http://www.chow.com/places/27961
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We went for a late dinner the other night and I ordered the n'duja. This is very different from Incanto's version (the only one I've had), Adesso uses a combination of pork, duck (I think including some liver), and I forget the third meat. Very spicy, delicious.
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They cut back the happy-hour free buffet from two hours to one, now it's just 5-6. The late-night free buffet is 10:30-11:30 Monday-Wednesday and 11:30-12:30 Thursday-Saturday.
Went last night about an hour before the free buffet started, so ordered a la carte.
They are now up to 43 kinds of salumi! We had the Calabria selection ($16), which included the piccante, which was quite spicy, the peperoni di Senise, which was slightly spicy and a bit sour from red wine, and the Calabrian, which was well-balanced and profound. All were moist and in perfect condition. These guys are really doing it right.
The arancini of pork ragù ($8 for five small ones, no sauce) are the best I've had anywhere. The flavors are very well balanced, intense porkiness, a slight sourness from cheese, and you can taste the rice.
The fresh mozzarella with artichoke conserva was new to me, a sort of ragout of artichokes, green olives, almonds, and mint in olive oil, something like a caponata. Delicious but might have worked better as a topping for bruschetta or maybe with a creamier, softer mozzarella.
The trotter terrine ($8) was a bit like head cheese, tasted like it had some tongue in it but that might have been trotter meat. Good if you like this sort of thing.
The prosciutto and mozzarella di bufala piadina ($12) was nice, the toasted piadina has a nice crunchy-soft texture similar to a flour-tortilla quesadilla. Good but personally I prefer the panini.
Around this time they started up the free buffet. We snagged some refreshing mixed chicory salad, some salumi-end balls, some chunks of I think Grana Padano, and tastes of an off-menu chicken piadina.
The meatball and mozzarella panino ($10) was one of the best pressed sandwiches I've had and seriously great bar food.
We'd overdone it by that point so couldn't face dessert, instead we had some Vecchio Amaro Del Capo, which is a light, Benedictine-like digestif, quite different from most other amari.
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Great article in the Chron today about the Dopo-Adesso salumi operation.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
Two hogs a week, wow.
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Do they sell retail? I am looking for for high quality(no rubbish) salumi in the Bay Area.
Fra Mani is too commercial now as I see them and I do not care for the use of some extras(dextrose at the least). I expect none of that in a proper version. Could you recommend the best in town, no fillers, nitrates/nitrites added? Charcuterie is fine as well. I will probably pass by La Bedaine anyways and might pick some up there too.
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They don't, for what you're looking for I'd try Boccalone.
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Boccalone Factory - Not Open to Public
1924 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94606
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Nitrates are traditional (they used to use saltpeter) in most cured meats. So is sugar, which promotes fermentation and is mostly consumed by the bacteria. Dextrose is the sugar of choice as it lowers the pH the fastest.
Good artisanal sausage retailers include La Bedaine, Fatted Calf, Boccalone, and Cafe Rouge. Fatted Calf is at the Berkeley and Ferry Plaza Saturday farmers markets and has a second store in SF:
http://www.chow.com/restaurants/91933...
I'm not sure any of them make what you're looking for.
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Cafe Rouge
1782 Fourth St, Berkeley, CA 94710
Fatted Calf
644-C First Street, Napa, CA 94559
La Bedaine
1585 Solano Ave, Berkeley, CA 94706
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Without proceeding into an argument about what is traditional, thanks to you both.
Any choice for best of favorite of those listed?
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I like them all about equally well. I mostly buy Fatted Calf as I go to the farmers market almost every week.
Boccalone's shop is in the Ferry Building. The Oakland address is where they make it.
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Boccalone Salumeria
1 Ferry Building # 21, San Francisco, CA
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Now open for lunch, 11am-3pm, Monday-Saturday. Counter service, "butcher shop sandwiches."
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