The spread of free eats during the early-evening and late-night happy hours at Adesso (4395 Piedmont, Oakland) goes far beyond anything in SF proper. For the first two hours of business (5 to 7 Monday through Saturday), and then again for the last hour (10:30 to 11:30 Monday through Wednesday, 11 to midnight Thursday through Saturday), the buffet counter at the back of the room offers platters of house-made salumi and pâtés, panini, crostini, stuffed piadine (flatbreads), deep-fried croquettes, and salads.

This isn't one of those not-so-happy-hour deals where the food comes out once and disappears. The kitchen keeps it coming, constantly bringing out new items and replenishing old ones. In the course of an hour and a half at the bar, I sampled at least 20 different items, completely stuffed myself, and paid only my $12 bar tab. Quantity doesn't trump quality, either: this food is as good as you'll get at any Italian restaurant in Bay Area. If you've eaten at Adesso's parent restaurant, Dopo, you know what to expect.

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The $35 ticket covers porky eats such as fireplace-roasted pig, corn dogs, sausages, pig tails, chicharrones, and cold cuts by Camino chef Russell Moore and guests Sam White & Chris Kronner of OPENrestaurant, Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats, Leif Hedendal of Cooking with Leif, and Taylor Boetticher of Fatted Calf. An open bar will feature drinks from co-sponsors Trumer Pils, Oliver McCrum Wines, Pacific Edge Wine & Spirits, Leopold Bros., St. Barts Spirit Company, and Beaune Imports. Entertainment will include a whole-pig butchery demo.

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Jason Mecier

From March 13 to April 26, Eclectix Gallery (10082 San Pablo, El Cerrito, 4 blocks from El Cerrito Plaza BART) presents a group show of art about food, wine, cooking, and eating. The opening reception, 7-9:30pm this Friday, will feature edible art from Sweetface Bakery and live music by Eclair de Lune. The closing reception, 3-5pm on Sunday, April 26, will include a vegetable and fruit carving demonstration by Jimmy Zhang.

The gallery is open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 10pm, and Sundays from noon to 6pm. Other noteworthy foodie destinations in the immediate neighborhood include the El Cerrito Plaza farmers markets on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm, the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater, where you can drink good beer and eat passable pizza while watching second-run movies, and Banh Mi Ba Le (10174 San Pablo) for good cheap Vietnamese food. While you're in the area, you might also want to check out the inedible but awesome Mod Lang (6328 Fairmount) and Down Home Music (10341 San Pablo) record stores.

JC Garrett

San Francisco's annual Beer Week draws beer geeks from all over the world for ten days of tasting, guzzling, and chugging, culminating on the 15th with the Celebrator-sponsored "Best of the West" mega-pouring at the Oakland Convention Center. Here's my short list of the most interesting of the many events:

• Saturday, 2/7, 11am on, The Bistro, 1001 B St., Hayward (4 blocks from Hayward BART): Double IPA Festival, $25 admission includes 5 tastes
• Sunday, 2/8, 1pm on, Jupiter Brewing, 2181 Shattuck, Berkeley, and Triple Rock Brewery, 1920 Shattuck, Berkeley (both near downtown Berkeley BART): barrel-aged sour ale tasting, $10 admission includes two tastes
• Tuesday, 2/10, 6pm-midnight, Toronado Pub, 547 Haight: Russian River brewer Vinnie Cilurzo in person
• Wednesday, 2/11, 5-11pm, Thirsty Bear, 661 Howard: tasting of local cask-conditioned ales, $35
• Thursday, 2/12, 5-9pm, City Beer, 1168 Folsom: sour Belgian red ales paired with chocolate
• Saturday, 2/14, 11am on, Toronado Pub: Barleywine festival
• Sunday, 2/15, noon-3pm, City Beer: tasting of five beers from Scandinavia, $tba
  
  

The owners of Oakland's deservedly ultra-popular Italian restaurant Dopo are opening a wine bar/small plates place called Adesso (in Italian, dopo = after, adesso = now) a couple of blocks down Piedmont Avenue in the new Il Piemonte complex at the corner of Hidden Valley Road. According to a since-removed Craigslist help-wanted ad picked up by Eater SF last month, they're planning to open in February.

Speaking of Dopo, since getting its full liquor license, it's been offering one of the largest selections of amari (Italian after-dinner drinks) I've ever seen in this country. The list includes hard-to-find bottles such as Ciociaro, Luxardo, Meletti, and Nardini.

As we mentioned some time ago, Rachael Ray spent some time in the Bay Area putting together a show for her latest series, Rachael's Vacation, which aired last week and will run again February 6 at 11 p.m., February 7 at 2:30 a.m., and February 15 at 2:30 p.m. on the Food Network. More >>

By Meredith Brody

We weren't consciously aware of longing for Trader Joe's Almond Snowman Cookies over the past year, so when our heart leapt up when we saw them on the shelves again we were slightly embarrassed.

Last year we'd passed them by, thinking $4.99 a box was, well, too much, but eventually broke down and bought one.

And then promptly went nuts and purchased every box in sight until they disappeared (within a few days after Christmas, alas).

This year we bought four boxes - in their cheery, red-green-teal blue-chartreuse-and-white-sriped box, with nifty snowmen careening across the cover - right away. (Three of the boxes' contents have since mysteriously vanished.)

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By Meredith Brody

The November issue of Oakland magazine is a food issue, bannered as "Food for Food Lovers," and one of the cover story banners reads "Seven Top Chefs Dish on the Restaurant Scene."

The piece, "Articles of Faith," begins: "Never before has Oakland had the kind of thriving, upscale restaurant scene that today not only gives Oaklanders the sort of options they used to seek out predominantly in San Francisco and Berkeley but also attracts more and more diners from those outsider bastions of gastronomic sophistication...Proof of Oakland's cornucopia of haute cuisine can be found in the fact that even with seven of the city's fabled, famed and rising-star chefs gathered around one table at the same time, another such roundtable or two could easily have been organized featuring different voices from different kitchens."

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By Meredith Brody

I love eating out with the kiddies. I have six godchildren, aged between early 20s and three, and I must admit I have a weakness for the one who is the best eater. At the age of 9, Chester was so appreciative of a multi-course tasting menu we were enjoying at Redwood Park, George Morrone's old restaurant in the base of the Transamerica Pyramid, that Morrone presented him with a signed menu reading "To Chester - I think someday you will have my job."

Chester asked me "Should I tell him I'd rather have yours? Being a chef is too much work!" (And also heartbreaking: Redwood Park closed within the year that we dined there, and Tartare, Morrone's next place, also had a brief life. The ex-Aqua and Fifth Floor chef is now keeping a lower Bay Area profile as the executive chef of Boca Steak and Seafood in Novato.)

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