Fun Food By Bus

Today's SF Chronicle Food Page reviews an Afghan cafe in the Emery Bay Public Market food court. Bargain Bite: Pamir Afghan Cuisine.
The food court itself is a wonder - no chain fast food at all, but every ethnic food you can imagine, including a German hofbrau with roasted meats, as well as Asian, Middle Eastern and South American foods. During the 90s all the high tech guys ate lunch there, including my fiance, later husband.

Check out the Google map showing the direct bus from my neighborhood to the Public Market. We usually drive to Emeryville but the bus gets you there, too!

View Larger Map

If you were so lucky as to land a job at Pixar Studios, you could also ride the 57 bus to work.

Emeryville is a former steel and manufacturing town, controlled by a small cadre of corporations; it decided to remake itself in the 70s, brought in artists to colonize the empty warehouses and put up sculptures; the town then expanded into high tech, "big box" stores, bio-tech and now Pixar. The artists were like the cover crop, providing early hipster nutrients to the former factories and working-class homes.

People sneer at Emeryville for being too development and business-oriented, but we all end up shopping there: Ikea, Williams-Sonoma, discount carpet stores, Home Depot. I bought my first wig at Beauty Pie on San Pablo...

Emeryville has also built vast numbers of "loft" condos and apartments, turning gritty stretches of boulevard into yuppie havens. They haven't filled all their office space or sold all their residential real estate, but they have created a new world out of a funky, post-industrial mess. It's not perfect but it's prosperous and somewhat interesting. Arizmendi, the workers' bakery co-operative and offshoot of Berkeley's Cheese Board, has a branch right behind Pixar. Yummy bread and pizza, fresh coffee, and of course wi-fi. You can't open a barber shop in Emeryville without providing wi-fi.

Comments

[Peter]

I used to eat at the public market all the time when I worked in Emeryville. Pamir has been there at least 10 years. I also really liked the Korean BBQ place, Sorabol. The kids also really like the public market--everybody gets just what they want, but mom & dad don't have to eat hamburgers.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

We really should consider it more often for family dinners. It's just that hubby and I are selfish and always want to go to House of Curries, where the kids make do with de-spiced tandoori chicken, rice, naan, and tomato slices. One will drink a lassi, the other won't.

House of Curries is tastier than Pamir, IMHO, but then again if we went to the Public Market, the kids might get something a little more ... interesting to eat than rice and naan.

[Alison Chaiken]

Emeryville's other forward-looking decision was to charge for public parking. There's another good reason to take the bus!

[Leila Abu-Saba]

Alison - as usual you see a positive where I'd only seen fit to grinch. I thought it was ridiculous that the new mall (whose name is so similar to Emeryville Public Market that I can't remember it) charges for parking. AND you can't really get to the new place by bus. You'd have to walk on unsafe roads from the bus stop I believe. But I suppose it is a disincentive to drive. However they have not planned for transit that I can see. Maybe the private Emeryville shuttle that runs from BART goes by there? I will have to research.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

The new place that charges for parking is called Bay Street Emeryville. It's full of Williams-Sonoma, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Pottery Barn, and chain food places I don't frequent. We hardly ever go there.... but it is easier to take the kids there than to downtown Berkeley, for instance.

The parking, the all-in-one-place food and movies. However, I just hate, hate hate going to a faux "Main Street" with the same old chain retail that you can find anywhere. But Bay Street is popular, or was the last time I went there, well over a year ago. *Somebody* likes it. It ain't my kinda place.

[Leila Abu-Saba]

I would update the main article but the Google map imbed is hanging up my Typepad editor. Here's more info on public transit in Emeryville:

Free bus shuttle from MacArthur BART station on the Emery Go-Round:

http://www.emerygoround.com/

They even have live satellite tracking so you can look up where the bus is at the moment.

The Emery-go-Round serves all the hot spots in town and is free and open to anyone. Of course it shuts down a little after 9 pm so it isn't for partying at the local nightspots, then stumbling home.

I know quite a few people who would not ride a public city bus but would ride one of those shuttles. Go figure.