The Best Falafel You’ve Ever Had!

After we left the School for the Arts near the downtown of Uptown, we headed back up Telegraph to make our way to some of the cool mixed-use warehouse spaces on 26th Street.  A bit off the beaten path, both literally and figuratively, spaces like Uptown Body & Fender (not just your typical auto body shop), Studio Quercus, and Warehouse 416 offer up more of the Oakland that I came for years ago… large, affordable spaces for artists to be creative & funky.

We’ll get to a couple of these later in the week, but first we decided to grab a quick dinner at the Liba Falafel truck parked on 26th. We weren’t the only ones…

oakland art murmur, liba falafel truck, 26th street oakland

liba falafel, falafel truck oakland, art murmur falafel truck

After waiting in line and shelling out a full 10 bucks for a falafel sweet potato fry combo (which at the time – meaning, before eating – seemed a bit steep), we received our falafel packets… fantastically crispy falafels tucked into whole wheat pitas perfectly toasted, loaded with either spicy carrot ribbons (my choice… delicious) or red cabbage with black sesame dressing (friends chose this and quite liked it too) and topped with an optional spicy sauce that the truck’s proprietor (Gail Lillian) highly recommended, I can easily say this was the best falafel pita sandwich I have ever had. But wait… it gets better.

After you’ve had a few bites of your falafel, they call your name again, and hand you a warm bag of sweet potato fries… slightly crisp, slightly soft, and perfectly seasoned. The combo was out of this world and well worth the $10 I had previously been reluctant to part with. The ingredients used by Liba are nearly all organic; the falafel, salads, and condiments are made from scratch daily; and all her take-away products are compostable. Even the cooking oil is ultimately turned into bio-fuel.

Do you feel the love? I know I did.
(Liba means love or romance in several languages.)

More reading…
Liba in East Bay Express
Liba on Yelp
Liba on SF Weekly

OSA Visual Arts Spring Exhibition

Last Friday was another First Friday here in Oaktown with Art Murmur in full spring swing. It’s become a real challenge these days to figure out what stops to make because the options are really expanding… lots of new galleries and funky mixed-use warehouse spaces filling in the gaps.

Next few posts will follow our Art Murmur escapades. First stop was the Oakland School for the Arts Spring Exhibition. I was eager to take friends after attending their stellar Holiday Small Works Show in December…

OSA is housed in the ground floor commercial spaces of the Fox Theater, once occupied by malt shops and the like.  Now 40,000 square feet of renovated and expanded commercial space comprise classrooms, administrative offices, and student services, as well as music, dance, drama, and art studios.

What I loved about their holiday show, equally evident at the Spring Exhibition, is the incredible art available for truly affordable prices.  Because these kids are, well… kids, the prices are quite a bit more budget minded than those found at many of the professional gallery spaces on the Art Murmur tour.  Not that you shouldn’t support your local professional artists.  It’s just that these shows offer the opportunity to support budding young artists without putting a serious dent in your wallet.

oakland school for the arts, OSA, spring exhibition

osa, oakland school for the arts

The show included all kinds of drawn, printed, and painted pieces, both framed and sleeved in bins, and other media including sculpture, jewelry, and an amazing film screening of works from OSA’s Digital Media emphasis.  Friends and I stood mesmerized by the arty black and white silent film projected on the wall… a woman’s legs clad in black spiky pumps approach the camera, hands in silhouette flutter like birds into frame, peacock feathers dance and weave in front of a beautiful woman’s eyes… Hard to believe this piece was put together by high school students, but it’s simply a testament to the quality of work this school and its talented students are producing.

Also impressive was the live musical performance by OSA Instrumentalists.  My favorite was their final piece of the night, a composition by Bach, but here is a snippet of a more recognizable song, and a real crowd-pleaser…

Bank of Vladi

Saw this last night while walking down Broadway…

who is vladi, april fools, april fools prank

Posted on a now defunct credit union branch, must have been an April Fool’s joke. Pretty hilarious.

But I still find myself wondering… who is Vladi?

PS – First Friday Art Murmur TONITE!!! Come out and see some art…

Sea Turtle Swims on 880

oakland mural art, emergent sea, sea turtle on 880, giant sea turtle mural

One of three murals commissioned through the Coliseum redevelopment area’s Tough on Blight program… “Emergent Sea” by Dan Fontes, painted with Caroline Stern and James Swinson.