.Food & Drink

The kids in Stranger Things wouldn’t feel out of place if they traveled forward in time to eat at Delirama. Advancing beyond retro chic into a warm embrace of kitsch, the interior doesn’t look like it has been touched since 1979. For a brand new restaurant, this seems like an extraordinary approach. On one hand, Delirama looks like it has been in business for decades, which provides a sense of easy informality and homey déjà vu. You think to yourself, “Have I already eaten here, or just other places exactly like this?”

Hearing the buzz of the 2022 holiday season picking up, and with COVID-19 on the wane or rendered less severe due to vaccines and boosters, party and event catering companies welcome the return to something resembling pre-pandemic normal.

In last year’s fact-packed documentary, Julia, viewers learn every last darn thing about the celebrated television chef, Julia Child. Her life turns out to be an open book. The new HBO series, also called Julia, imagines her...

We don’t drink boba milk tea to lessen our sugar intake. It’s popular because the texture is creamy and the taste is sweet. Add in a handful of tapioca balls and we’ve got our dessert in a...

Maxwell’s first act—at least in terms of one of her professional pursuits—included co-creating the PowerBar in Berkeley, a product that launched the energy bar market in the mid-80s. After growing the company to wild success over 14 years, the venture was sold to consumer packaged goods juggernaut Nestlé. End of act one. Now, Maxwell is back in the limelight with her new organic, artisanal energy bar, JAMBAR, which she makes in a newly built, state-of-the-art facility just over the Richmond Bridge in Marin County.

On a hilly street in Oakland, Rachel Caygill’s bakery is in the middle of a suburban block. She runs Green House Bakery out of her, you guessed it, green house. Under California’s cottage food law, her licensed pop-up kitchen operates out of a built-out basement. Having tasted one bite of her strawberry buttermilk layer cake, any doubts about trying a home cook’s baking skills are immediately quashed. After a particularly bad day, Caygill’s layer cake turned my blue mood into a cheerful strawberry pink one.  

People curious about innovative plant-based foods arrive at the doorstep of vegan food crafters for a variety of reasons and find themselves richly rewarded right here in the Bay Area.