Di Bartolo

So we moved to Oakland’s Grand Lake neighborhood a few months ago and were stoked to be walking distance from Grand Ave. Cheap deals galore: amazing lunch deals at Miss Saigon, free weekday popcorn at the Grand Lake Theater, all-you-can-eat fruit sampling at the Saturday Farmer’s Market, $4 well drinks at the Lucky Lounge (to be reviewed very soon), and no less than ten inexpensive nail salons on every block. Heaven for two bargain hunting cheapskates like us.

But then mom comes to town wanting to treat and we need someplace a little more upscale. Cheap noodle soup won't cut it. Enter Di Bartolo, the most elegant place in the hood. A couple years ago John DiBartolo, owner of Café Di Bartolo next door, decided to break away from coffee and bagels, and along came his chic Mediterranean inspired restaurant with a wood-fired oven and a red-curtained private happy hour nook in the back.

And happy it is. From 4-7 the drinks flow smoothly with $3 draft beers, $4 well drinks, and wonderfully crafted $5 martinis. The well vodka is Fris (praised elsewhere on this blog) and the bartenders are highly skilled in shaking up just the right ratios. Nestled in the back you feel like you’re at a private party exclusively separate from the hoi polloi dining out front.

If you can get here early, then come for the drinks but stay for the food. The kitchen offers up a few half-priced happy hour nibbles from 4-5:30pm. There’s a feta salad with stone fruit that is truly delightful. The garlic fries are addictive and loaded with bits of garlic. The specialty of the house is the pizza and there are a few on the happy hour list including the pancetta and egg concotion (I’ll take my eggs with coffee and toast, thank you very much). The pizzas are a bit more that five bucks but with cocktails this cheap, you can afford to splurge a bit.

And speaking of splurging, their specialty cocktail list reads like poetry. They use ingredients like rosemary, cucumber-mint, and figs to create some pretty outrageous refreshments. They don’t come cheap, but damn they’re gorgeous.

Deets:
Di Bartolo (Reviews & Map)
3306 Grand Ave, Oakland, CA 94610
510.451.0576
Happy Hour: 4pm-5:30pm (food), 4pm-7pm (drinks), Tues-Sun

Mariscos La Costa

La Costa is not a place for the shellfish-shy. Located in the heart of the Fruitvale District , home to Oakland’s largest Latino population, this taqueria is the wet dream of seafood. La Costa is a no-frills joint, somewhere between a taco truck and a fast food drive-through. You order from a menu painted on the wall above the front counter and the friendly guys at the window take it all down; within minutes your number is called in Spanish and you have a tray of mouthwatering mariscos in front of you.

Tostadas and seafood cocktails are the specialties of the house. The tostadas are topped with ceviche, fresh prawns, huge pieces of octopus, or any combination thereof. The seafood is crazy-fresh and the Cadillac version, with whole prawns and giant morsels of octopus tops out at $3.75. Criminally cheap in my book.

I haven’t yet tried the seafood cocktails but they look great and seem to be de rigueur for any order. They don’t resemble the shrimp cocktail most of us might be used to; these are more soup-like and are served in a giant plastic cup with grated cheese and all manner of seafood floating about in the gazpacho-like broth. A medium-sized cocktail will run you about $7.50 which is quite a deal considering the amount of goodies they cram into one cup.

Speaking of cocktails, there are none here. BYOT (tequila) if you have a hankering for the chile-suppressing power that only hard liquor can provide. Also, the dining is alfresco so carry a sweater if there’s a chill in the air. Better yet, bring that flask of heart-warming tequila!

Another perk: oysters are $1 each and they’re big & meaty. Again, not for the faint of heart when it comes to the fruits of the ocean. If you do decide to bring along some die-hard carnivores there are items on the menu to appease such as lengua and carne. But understand that these are mere distractions. At La Costa, seafood is the name of the game.

Deets:
Mariscos La Costa (Reviews & Map)
3625 International Blvd, Oakland, CA 94601
510.533.9566
Hours: 9am-7pm Daily