One of my favorite jobs as a journalist is trying out bars and restaurants in order to write our Beer Passports. This past year nearly every weekend I explored 2-3 new drinkin’ patios in the Bay Area, while asking friends and patrons where their favorite spots to drink were. Oakland

Ah Temescal, arguably the best neighborhood in Oakland to eat and drink in for well over a hundred years.  From the 1890’s to the 1960’s Temescal was known as the East Bay’s Little Italy.  Italian delis, gardens, restaurants, and even an opera house once dominated 51st St.  In the 1940’s a