Peralta South

This section of Peralta straddles a stretch of 880 where commuters are flanked by the narrows of a waterway on the western end, while on the eastern end you have a series of north-south railroad tracks. All along the water there are marinas where boats float at port, their masts waving in the wind and tide.

The area along the water mainly caters to yachters and those associated with the Marina. There are, for example, a couple of pretty good places to go for food and drinks. Quinn’s Lighthouse is perhaps the best known of these. Right by the marina, Quinn’s is housed in a building attached to a small lighthouse (it actually looks more like an air traffic control tower at an airport. Quinn’s has a good selection of seafood and an even better list of lagers and wines. Another fun spot is the winery, Irish Monkey, on the eastern end of the neighborhood. Very good wines and a good spot for tastings.

You will also find the kinds of places you would expect in such an area, like the two hotels, Motel 6 and Executive Inn Suites, and the shops Outdoor Pro Shop and Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

There are two schools in this southern part of the neighborhood: Beacon Day School and Aspire Public School. Beacon Day is a private school teaching students from K to 8th. It is not a religious school and has a focus on arts as a way of teaching what they call “the whole student.” A very good, well regarded private school that tries create a diverse environment for its classrooms. The headquarters of Aspire Public Schools (a company that runs several Charter schools in the East Bay) is also here.

Also from the freeway is a great red brick building that used to house a bakery. Back when I was in college and my brother lived down in Fremont, I used to drive down and every time I would hit this point the car would be flooded by the most wonderful smell of baking bread. It was delightful, but it seems the bakery is long gone now, except that when I drive by the building the memory of the warm, doughy smell fills me again with a powerful nostalgia.