Berkeley

Chez Panisse Demolition Will Be Significant, No Opening Date Yet

No one was hurt when a fire hit Berkeley's Chez Panisse on March 8, but the restaurant's structure was damaged. Early reports suggested the café and restaurant would be closed for only a few weeks of construction, but Alice Waters has posted an update on the restaurant's site with more details, exp ... More >>

A Fire Hit Berkeley's Chez Panisse Last Night

A fire was reported at 3:04 a.m. this morning on the grounds of Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse. No one has been injured, but the restaurant's front dining area sustained serious damages. "At this point, it appears to be an exterior fire that worked its way to the interior," Fire De ... More >>

Beauty Is Embarrassing

Turns Out, Yelp Ratings Really Matter to Customers

Believe it or not, but those Yelp ratings have a really strong influence on whether a restaurant succeeds. According to Techcrunch, two Berkeley economists found that a half-star improvement on Yelp's five-star rating makes it 30 to 49 percent more likely that a restaurant will sell out its evenin ... More >>

Jonathan Waxman's Barbuto: A Revisit

Barbuto's legendary wood-roasted chicken Named after a beloved dog, whose image appears in line drawing on the shirts of the waiters, Barbuto was a project of chef Jonathan Waxman that occurred in a somewhat fallow period of his career. When it opened in 2004, it was decidedly off the beaten path, ... More >>

What's Jonathan Waxman Up To at Rosa Mexicano?

Enchiladas de mole blanco at Rosa Mexicano The multi-credentialed Jonathan Waxman -- whose career extends from Chez Panisse (Berkeley, 1970s) to Michael's (Santa Monica, 1980s) to Jams (New York, 1980s) to Barbuto (New York, 2000s) -- is often credited with introducing California cuisine to New Yo ... More >>

Qi Bangkok Eatery: The Thais That Bind

Pichet Ong looks homeward with his latest restaurant

Now That The Food Pyramid's Gone, Maybe the Food Label Will Follow

Renee Walker​Earlier this summer, the USDA retired its food pyramid, which was getting a little long in the tooth, in favor of a food plate. And while it's been praised for its relative clarity and lack of crudely drawn livestock, the food nutrition label has continued to confuse people. But n ... More >>

When Scientology Was Hip: E-Meters in the Village

Drop out, tune in, and turn on the e-meter​Last week, we started a new feature on Tuesdays. We've asked freelancer Antoine Oman* to write us stories that look at things from Scientology's perspective. This week, he takes a look at Scientology in the 1960s -- ed. I had the distinct pleasure la ... More >>

Religious Loonies Invade the Union Square Greenmarket, Auguring the End of the World in 10 Days

​Followers of Harold Camping predicting the end of the world at Union Square. Preceded by a loudspeaker-equipped car that trolled slowly along 14th Street shouting admonitions to heed the end of the world, approximately three dozen religious fanatics fanned out across the Union Square Greenm ... More >>

Portishead And Jeff Mangum Are Headlining All Tomorrow's Parties In Asbury Park, NJ

​Good lord. All Tomorrow's Parties is bringing their boutique full-immersion indie-rock weekend blowout to a new spot this year: Asbury Park, NJ. ATP's three-day I'll Be Your Mirror fest will be partially curated by Portishead (!) and headlined by none other than fuckin' Jeff Mangum (!!!!), la ... More >>

For-Profit Blues

The explosion of for-profit 'proprietary' colleges, some NYC teachers charge, is leaving too many low-income students without degrees—and with a pile of debt

Wavy Gravy Portrait Keeps Up the Clown's Disguise

In the Wake of Altamont: Who Hired the Hell's Angels?

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. December 18, 1969, Vol. XIV, No. 62 Viewing the Remains of a Mean Saturday by Grover Lewis SAN FRANCISCO -- On the morning of December 10, a scattering of friends and kin gathered in a foggy cemetery in the bedroom commuter community o ... More >>

"You Know Who I Feel Like? I Feel Like I'm Motherfucking Mel Gibson!": The Ten Greatest Things Lil B Said Saturday Night at Santos Party House

​Lil B and Das Racist Santos Party House Saturday, July 24 Look, with apologies to Noz, we're not even going to pretend to fully understand the Lil B phenomenon. We like it. We just, while standing in a sold-out Santos Party House on a Saturday night, surrounded by hordes of incredibly enthus ... More >>

Allen Ginsberg Explains Timothy Leary

​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. December 12, 1968, Vol. XIV, No. 9 Remarks on Leary's Politics of Ecstasy by Allen Ginsberg By the late '40s of this memory Century the people I knew best and loved the most had already broken through the crust of old Reason & were dow ... More >>

Battle of the Dishes: Vegan Burritos From Papacitos and Bliss Café

A cross-section of Papacitos' burrito.​Sometimes, Battle of the Dishes don't go as planned. Especially when food trucks with unpredictable hours and pre-recorded phone messages are involved. The original mission: compare the relative virtues of seitan tacos from the Endless Summer Taco Truck a ... More >>

Edward Kienholz's Roxys; The Studio Museum's 'Collected'; Richard Diebenkorn at Greenberg Van Doren

On Green Day's Vivid, Lurid, Somewhat Vapid American Idiot Musical

General Elektriks

Kids Working in Endowed, Spiffy Garden Controversial for Some Reason

​Letting schoolkids grow things in gardens has become controversial, the Times informs us today. Alice Waters, who runs Chez Panisse in Berkeley, has a foundation that endows programs in which children raise gardens at school. One of the "Edible Schoolyard" projects is starting in Gravesend, g ... More >>

Gravesend's P.S. 216 Will Become Home to New York's First Edible Schoolyard

The Edible Schoolyard will soon be sprouting in Gravesend.​ Fifteen years after Alice Waters built the original Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, Ca., the program's first New York affiliate is set to bloom in Brooklyn.

Youth in Revolt, with Michael Cera as Every Role Michael Cera's Ever Had

Cult novel must continue its search for a worthy film adaptation

Big Food Cuts Salt & Sugar; Jonathan Safran Foer's Top Meat-Free Picks

​14 must-haves for your holiday spread include Murray's Cheese's artisanal charcuterie and cheese board, Steve's Meat Market's smoked ham, Sahadi's olives, nuts, and dried fruit; and Moishe's Bake Shop's jelly doughnuts, mixed rugelach, babka, and Hanukkah cookies. [NY Daily News] Hotel Grif ... More >>

No Bull: Dos Toros Will Bring Burritos to Union Square

The Dos Toros mascot.​Leo and Oliver Kremer moved to New York from Berkeley one year ago. Their reason for moving? "We want to change the burrito landscape," Leo says simply. The brothers (whose last name is pronounced "Kray-mer") soon found themselves exploring the commercial landscape of Fou ... More >>

Free Will Astrology: October 14 through 20

DORK OUT

Punk Frank Portman launches his new book

Doing Laundry with Deradoorian a/k/a Angel from Dirty Projectors

"Kids in elementary school would call me 'DeraDorito.'" When you're in a critically acclaimed band like the Dirty Projectors, finding time to do those mundane things like laundry or talk to writers becomes a bit precarious. Such rings true for bassist Angel Deradoorian, who has more than a few th ... More >>

GROWING PAINS

A playwright recalls her radical upbringing

Chain Reaction

Do bookstores have a future?

Marching to Montgomery: The Cradle Did Rock

'We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen'

Dance

A Radical Queer With an Eleven O'Clock Number in His Heart

Elephant Occupies Apple

We come to your town, we lock it down

The Brains of the Outfit

Alpha choreographer and a clutch of improvisers commit themselves to the printed page

Different for Girls

Chick flicks flip the script: Julia does a Robin and Yorkshire's finest go the full mumsy

TV Funhouse

Rooming With Dawson, Screech, and the 90210 Crowd

Old Tales Retangled

'Fifth' Still Has Kick, but 'Kimberly' Is All Akimbo

The Hole Truth

••• Vine-Swinging Scholar Meets Lovecraft, Ponders Puppets

Music

Horoscope

Tales of the Kefir Furnaceman

• • • A Roving Ethnographer’s View From the Factory Floor

Two-Room Apartment in Nine-Unit Building Over Copy Shop

Morning Sedition

WBAI Fights Management’s Move to Turn the Station into NPR Lite

Fish Rots From the Head

Pacifica Falls Into Corporate Hands

The New Math on Race

The Fight to End Campus Affirmative Action

Athletes in Action

Building Toward a Political Sports Movement

Hot Tuner

Benjamin Treuhaft Floats Pianos to Cuba

Short Notice