Bocanova in Oakland features long communal tables and windows that open out to the Bay. Lacy Atkins/The San Francisco Chronicle 2008
I was invited for an adventuresome trip to Oakland to have dinner at Jack London Square at Bocanova. It’s an unusual restaurant in that you have difficulty finding the entrance, although it’s a huge space. When you enter, you know you’re in a different world. Very long community tables dominate the dining room. The big chairs look like they come from the religious world—they look like monks should occupy them.
My recommendation: be sure you start with one of the fancy pan-American drinks. I chose instead a Salty Dog. The food is designed to be served family style. You can’t get the full experience without sharing their version of a Caesar, then following with the fish of the day, and then the Spanish-seasoned meat dishes of beef and chicken.
The open nature of the dining room looking out over the Bay invites visits from total strangers. A recognizable San Franciscan will log more visits than your Facebook page.
Will I go back? Probably not, because they didn’t make Bauer’s 100. So for the remainder of 2011 I’m only going to eat at one of the 100s.
However I closed my dining week back in San Francisco. After Joey Alioto’s funeral I walked up to North Beach Restaurant for lunch because I knew it was going to be like Columbus Day. It was kind of like an Italian New Year’s Eve or an Italian Fat Tuesday. People just gathered there, spontaneously, to celebrate the life of this restaurateur who was the manager and partner of Alioto’s on Fisherman’s Wharf. It ended up consuming the entire afternoon. Needless to say the crushed grapes, also known as wine, flowed like water. Everyone was sending everyone else a glass and every quality wine in the place was tested by somebody.
A perfect exit for Joey.