There is indeed a new Italian restaurant taking over for downtown Danville’s Isola Osteria at 100 Railroad Avenue. Owner Angelo D’Alo shuttered the follow-up to his flagship Agrodolce in Berkeley earlier this year, and it turns out the new buyers are a trio of native Italians with long-standing ties to the local restaurant scene. Valerio Piscopo, Giovanni Della Peruta, and Rosario Mazzocchi were all born and raised in the Naples/Amalfi Coast region and have worked together for years at Locanda Ravello in Danville and other branches of the local chain of Italian restaurants. They’re now branching off on their own with Taverna Sorrentina, which they hope to debut before the end of the year.
According to Piscopo, the restaurant will focus on traditional cuisine from the Italian coastal city of Sorrento executed with a bit of modern flair. The menu should include plenty of seafood—fresh oysters, clams, shrimp, swordfish carpaccio, tuna tartare, calamari—as well as steaks (filet mignon, rib eye) and pastas, the showpiece of which will be cacio e pepe prepared table side inside a wheel of pecorino Romano cheese. It won’t be the only theatrical table side presentation at Sorrentina, which Piscopo says may also include flame-finished steaks and a tiramisu made from scratch in front of guests.
“We want to give people a little bit of a show,” he says, “take something traditional and give it a contemporary twist.”
Notwithstanding the presentation, Piscopo shies away from a fine dining label, maintaining the restaurant’s emphasis will be on providing generous portions at an affordable price point. The wine list will be divided between Italian and northern California labels, while co-owner and longtime mixologist Della Peruta will take the lead on what should be a fun, flashy cocktail program.
As for an opening date? Piscopo says they are aiming for mid-November. The lead chef for the restaurant is arriving this week from the Sorrento coast to begin fine-tuning the menu. In the meantime, the industry vets and decade-long friends are working overtime to turn their first solo restaurant dream into a reality—in a city where they are thrilled to be.
“We’ve spent the last 10 years working in the Danville community, but we’d been looking for places in Walnut Creek and Alamo because we didn’t think Danville was in our budget,” says Piscopo, who credits D’Alo for giving them the opportunity to take over Isola. “We’re so excited: For us, it’s like winning the lottery. A lot of people believe winning the lottery is just about money, but we believe it’s being able to do what you love. And for us, the best place to do that was Danville, where we know so many people. We can’t ask for much more than that.”
will debut just its second brick-and-mortar location in Albany later this month. The acclaimed 15-year-old East Bay wholesale bakery and farmers market favorite founded by Brian Wood debuted its first “bakery café” in Oakland’s Rockridge in 2023 and will open its doors this Saturday, October 25, inside a former dentist’s office (irony!) at 1183 Solano Avenue. There, Starter will be offering its acclaimed kouign-amanns—the sweet, buttery croissant-ish Breton pastry that Starter is credited with popularizing in the United States—in addition to a variety of other viennoiseries, hearth breads, pies, cookies, quiche, grilled sandwiches, salads, and espresso drinks all made on-site—and new and exclusive to Albany, a line of beignet doughnuts dusted with sugar and available in a few flavors, including plain and with chocolate ganache and passionfruit cream fillings. Dish was fortunate to attend a media preview, and we’re happy to report that the beignets are excellent, with the passionfruit particularly good. Wood said they went through around a dozen different dough recipes before settling on a more traditional version that’s big enough to satisfy but not so large as to leave you napping afterwards. Fillings and toppings for kouign-amanns, beignets, and other pastries will be rotated seasonally, and Wood hopes to soon roll out some new sandwich options—including a tuna melt and grilled cheese—courtesy of the location’s restaurant-legal griddle and hood. Starter Albany, which seats 22 indoors along with an outdoor patio, will be open 7 a.m.–4 p.m. from Wednesday through Sunday.
We heard from cofounder Michael Seitz, who said the San Francisco brewery’s new Walnut Creek taproom is indeed opening soon at 1375 S. California Boulevard. The goal is to launch next week, when visitors can expect a whopping 40 taps pouring a rotating selection of Barebottle award-winning beers, in addition to wine, cider, and kombucha. (Note: The brewery scored two gold medals from the recent Great American Beer Festival, the only one from California to do so.) As for food, Seitz said they would be serving Detroit-style pies from San Francisco’s Joyride Pizza, continuing a tradition of pizza in a space previously home to Pinky’s Pizza and Pub. Wings, tater tots, and salads will also be on the menu. The interior, meanwhile, has been totally transformed with a “brewery chic” aesthetic full of warm wood, stainless steel, and natural light plus a separate room for private events. This marks the fifth Bay Area location for Barebottle, which has built a reputation for creative beers using local ingredients, along with the occasional partnership with local home brewers.
Barebottle wasn’t the only brewery with East Bay ties to take home some hardware at the Great American Beer Fest, which was dominated by California beer makers. Other winners include Oakland’s Ghost Town Brewing (5 medals); Cellarmaker Brewing Company and Morgan Territory Brewing (2 medals each); and Richmond’s Armistice Brewing Company, Martinez’s Del Cielo Brewing Co., and Concord’s Epidemic Ales (1 medal each). Congrats!
Aaron Stewart provided an update on Craft and Fire, the Neapolitan pizza and craft beer bar he’s been working on in Lafayette. It’s been slow going, but the local restaurant industry vet says, “I think I can finally see the finish line.” He’s hoping to launch next to the Whole Foods off Mt. Diablo Boulevard around Thanksgiving with a rotating selection of 28 brews on tap curated for serious beer aficionados. And finally, ’s newest taproom on the UC Berkeley campus will celebrate its official Grand Opening with festivities on October 24 and 25. On October 24, the brewery will host a Cal versus Virginia Tech football watch party and give away free Cal-branded glasses with every pint of Headlands beer. The big grand opening party is happening the next day from 10 a.m. to noon with live music. This marks the fourth East Bay location for Headlands, which also runs popular beer gardens in Berkeley, Lafayette, and Walnut Creek.
A massive new dim sum restaurant has debuted in the East Bay. just launched a 28,000-square-foot location last week in Castro Valley, which the Bay Area Chinese operation claims makes it the largest Cantonese restaurant in the U.S. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, HL Peninsula Castro Valley can seat an incredible 846 diners across its sprawling main hall and nine private dining rooms (one of which sports a rare 30-seat round table). The new restaurant’s menu will be similar to its other four locations with an emphasis on barbecued meats, fresh seafood dishes utilizing live seafood on display in tanks, and handmade dim sum, including xiao long bao soup dumplings. There are also reportedly plans to eventually open a bakery-café in the front section of the restaurant.
Eve’s Waterfront makes a surprise comeback in Jack London Square after having been closed for years due to a fire.
Orinda’s Bangladeshi Atithi Restaurant is expanding into the space next door.
is also making a comeback after a two-year closure. The South Bay pop-up bakery is now operating on the Oakland-Emeryville border, where it will offer its signature guava chiffon cake and plenty of other creative sweets for weekend pickup.
Popular salad and sandwich chain Mendocino Farms closed its Oakland takeout operation in favor of a full restaurant in Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue, near the Cal campus.
One House Bakery debuted a 7-foot Labubu made out of bread outside of its Benicia storefront.
Alas, legendary East Bay hot dog standby looks like it will soon be down to one location: its original on Durant Avenue just off UC Berkeley.
A SF Chronicle food reviewer grappled with, and ultimately quite enjoyed, the massive doner kebab sandwich at Oakland’s German-inspired Black Forest Kitchen.
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