Produce and Waterfront, Oakland

When talking about this area of Oakland, you must begin, of course, by mentioning Jack London Square, Oakland’s number one tourist attraction. I should begin by saying that I have always found Jack London Square to be more than a little bit over-rated—kind of a B grade Fisherman’s Wharf. The restaurants (notably Scott’s Seafood) there and the Barnes and Noble are okay, but I’ve never found them to be worth all the hub-bub. In fact, if all there was to this area was the waterfront Square, I doubt anyone from other areas of Oakland would spend too much time here.

It is actually the area slightly inland that makes this area really attractive.

There are, first of all, a number of different fish markets and produce centers here. When I used to work in the area I would sometimes come here early, when the area fills with wafting fishy smells, schools and schools of fishy smells. This is where Oakland restaurants come to get their fresh produce for their healthy menus. You can really hear the sounds of bustling city here, from the traffic on the freeway, to the fairly regular rumblings of the freight trains rumbling in to deliver exports and rumbling out to distribute imports. (Jack London Square also sits across from the Amtrak station where you can travel all the way to the East Coast should you desire to get out of town and a great way to commute to Sac as I used to do.)

This waterfront neighborhood, just across the isthmus from Alameda (this is the spots where the Webster and Harrison Street tubes are located), is also home to one of Oakland’s most renowned live jazz venues, Yoshi’s. It not only has great headlining jazz and blues groups, but it also has great sushi; now, that is what I call a great date spot.

If you love a good saloon style dive bar, you could do worse than Heinhold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, a place designed to make you feel as if you jumped back 150 years to when Oakland was just a little western backwater—or at least you would be transported there if weren’t for the fact that Heinhold’s sits under the shadow of the freeway and one of Oakland’s Downtown skyscrapers on one side and the towering harbor cranes on the other. Other similar local establishments include Beer Revolution, Warehouse, and Merchant’s Saloon, both worth a stop if you are bar hopping with a drinking buddy. Encuentra, a vegetarian winebar, is especially worth mention.

There are also great eateries here, as you would expect given its convenient location. Notable are Kincaids and Miss Pearl’s (a barbecue place).

In other words, this is a great place to come for movies, comedy clubs, bars and restaurants, even if you will have to brave the flocks of tourists.