Piedmont, Piedmont Avenue

I can’t believe that I have lived all this time in the Bay Area and never been here to Piedmont until this past week. What an amazing little lane this is. Not only does it have two of the top rated restaurants in the Bay Area (according the SF Gate list of the Top 100 Bay Area restaurants) but it is just packed with coffee houses and other entertainments.

Piedmont itself is a bit new to me. I had always mistakenly believed it was a suburb like Danville or Pleasanton, but now I see why it is talked so highly of. It does have a suburban area up in the hills, but Piedmont is more like a semi-upscale, nicer cleaner Berkeley really.

And Piedmont Avenue is definitely the heart of the fun in Piedmont. Let’s start with the restaurants, which is what brought me here in the first place. The two restaurants that are listed on the Top 100 are--drum rollllllllll--are Dopo and Adesso, two Italian joints owned by the same guy. We came here to Dopo and loved it.

But Dopo and Adesso are only a couple of the draws of Piedmont Avenue. You also have a few American restaurants, like Commis and Bay Wolf; an Ethiopian place, Messob; some Japanese places, like Geta, Kana and B-Dama; a Asian fusion joint, Ninna; some Indian joints, Raj and House of Curries; a couple of tapas places, Bar Cesar and Barlata; and a BBQ place, Honey Badgers. Basically, you have a passport to world cuisine living here.

You also got a pretty good movie theater, the Piedmont Theater which is a classic old theater from the age of the movie palace one of a dozen or so left in the Bay Area. They show mostly indie type movies for grown-ups--not the usual blockbusters. So right now, for example, they are showing the critically acclaimed Silver Linings Notebook; No, a political movie about Chilean politics with Gael Barcia Bernal starring; and Stoker, a sort of thriller with Mia Wasikowski and Nicole Kidman a truly creepy roles. Nothing for the kiddies here.

There are also a ton of shops, like The Bee’s Knees, Instyle Threads, True Essence Boutique, The Rare Bird for furniture, Phillippa Roberts for jewelry and flowers, and Happy Heart jewelry.

And, of course, all the usual sort of places that you need to live anywhere, drug stores, groceries, laundries etc.

On weekends this place is packed with 20 and 30 somethings getting coffee and being busy. It is pretty great for people watching and meeting friends.

And in case you are curious, a 2-bedroom costs between $1500 and $2000 roughly. Though there are no apartments for rent on Piedmont Ave. proper--these are mostly in and around the side streets.

I love this place though and would love to live here.