News about great shops in your neighborhood

News about great shops in your neighborhood
We’ve Got Issues

It’s hard to believe that Piedmont Avenue’s Issues has only been around for a year. This pocket-size, periodical store, located just behind the Piedmont Grocery, sells newspapers, magazines, books, LPs and DVD’s (in an experimental vein with an emphasis on late ’60’s/early ’70’s avant-garde music), journals and buttons. Owners Noella Teele and Joe Colley sell conventional and alternative publications, including many of McSweeney’s offerings. They have ’zines and small books by local artists, jewelry from Erica Weiner and letterpress cards from Hello Lucky. Their T-shirts—bearing the store’s name—do double duty in starting discussions with new friends. The front counter itself displays weathered (by small children and literary dogs) clippings of literary lights.

Issues, 20 Glen Ave., Oakland, (510) 652-5700; www.issuesshop.com.

—Susan Sanford

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It’s in the Jeans

Few things in the realm of female-hood can be as agonizing as trying on clothes, particularly jeans and swimsuits. And most of the time, this task is endured solo without the help of those quaint people we used to call “saleswomen” who would at least bring a bigger size. Finally, help has come to East Bay women in the form of Jeanomix (Juh-nah-mix) on Bay Street in Emeryville. Jeanomix is billed as a “denim bar” because brands like Seven, True Religion and Joe’s Jeans are displayed across a saloon-style bar and because root beer is free on tap (too bad it can’t be something stronger). But most importantly, Jeanomix boasts trained salespeople who can eyeball your shape and present you with some picks that will make sure the bulges are in the right places. The store trains its sales force to understand the shapes and sizes of women and men and to know when someone needs a higher waist or a straighter leg. “One of the things we wanted to do was to create a store for grown-ups,” says chief executive Bill Parker who is overseeing the launch of some 200 stores in the next 10 years. Jeanomix also sells woven tops, T-shirts and pants that aren’t denim. The jeans range in price from $100 to $250.

Jeanomix, 5659 Bay St., Emeryville, (510) 899-6220; www.jeanomix.com.

—Andrea Lampros

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Neighborhood Nosh

After a week’s closure in early September, Oakland’s Oliveto Cafe reopened with a more extensive menu—thanks to some new cooking equipment—and an updated design that includes a steel-and-glass partition to shield diners from the busy foyer. Before the remodel, the cafe, located in the heart of the bustling Rockridge neighborhood, had only a pizza oven. Now Chef Pierre Harriet can turn out simple, savory Italian dishes like cassuelas, polenta and panini using the cafe’s new double-deck oven, cast-iron panini press and salumi slicer. Harriet and pastry chef Jenny Raven have developed an Italian menu of la cucina povera, food inspired by home and farm kitchens, cafes and bakeries. The menu features breakfast items like egg-and-pancetta pizzas and polenta with cream and cinnamon until 11 a.m. and then choices like salumi, sausages, focaccia and cannelloni (an old cafe favorite). The baristas also got a new toy in the 46-year-old manual espresso machine.

“We really want the cafe to have its own identity,” says Allison Gurley, the assistant front-of-house manager who oversaw the remodel. The cafe, which used to close between lunch and dinner, will be open all day to serve everyone from the hurried BART commuter dashing in for morning coffee, to the diner hungry for something at 3 p.m., to the night-cappers.

Oliveto Cafe, 5655 College Ave., Oakland, (510) 547-5356; www.oliveto.com.

—Sarah Weld

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Let the Sun Shine In

In the face of rising electricity costs and a nationwide focus on going green, illuminating rooms with natural light is an attractive choice for homeowners. But many older houses in the East Bay do not have the best designs for natural lighting. Enter the Solatube—literally sunlight in a tube—an angled reflective tube that captures light from your rooftop and directs it down into hard-to-light spaces like bathrooms, kitchens, laundry rooms, garages and family rooms. Sola-Brite in Pleasanton is the main distributor of Solatubes in the East Bay and San Francisco, selling about 2,500 tubes a year. “People want their homes to be light and bright and a lot of these older homes were not designed very well to bring in light,” says Sola-Brite general manager John Izzo, who adds that Solatubes are leak-proof, can be installed in about two hours, are Energy Star–rated and do not bring in any heat or UV rays. Solatubes can be installed with daylight dimmers for bedrooms and also with electric lights so you can use the same fixture at night.

Sola-Brite, 5729 Sonoma Drive, Suite H, Pleasanton, (925) 600-1400; www.solabrite.com.

—Sarah Weld

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Budding Enterprise

Jeff Eckart and his sister Chris Szybalski left the computer industry behind to pursue what they love: plants. In January, they bought Westbrae Nursery, on Gilman Street and Santa Fe Avenue in Berkeley, from the Lasagna family that had owned it since 1917. Both lifelong gardeners, Eckart and Szybalski are infusing the petite nursery with a family flavor, making sure everyone who enters is greeted and helped. “It’s a small nursery, so you get personal attention,” says Eckart. “But we also let people do their own thing.” Eckart and Szybalski have rearranged the plants, fixed the roof and are preparing to repave the pathways in what is an abundant, yet manageable space to ponder plant choices.

Eckart says Westbrae is specializing in color succulents and drought-resistant plants—a good choice for the green-minded East Bay. The nursery has seeds and starts for your winter vegetable garden: cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spinach and kale, as well as winter color that includes primroses, pansies, snapdragons and mums. The nursery has a wide selection of garden tools, organic fertilizers and soil. This month, Westbrae launches a gift section with whimsical garden decorations. To his customers, Eckart says: “Thanks for the support. It’s been a great first year.”

Westbrae Nursery, 1272 Gilman St., Berkeley, (510) 526-5517; www.westbrae-nursery.com.

—Andrea Lampros

Faces of the East Bay