Shopping While Living

For a long time, I have been wanting to publish an article about shopping– how to keep it local,  how to benefit the community and how to keep it painless.  My last post sort of flowed from that idea– I dearly love taking my children to the Fire on the Mountain craft shows in Auburn and Sonora.  But there are some great small businesses in O akland, and I have made it my habit to shop as locally as possible.  So, here goes– I’m going to start publishing local  shopping recommendations.  Potpourri got us started– here are a couple more for your consideration:

 Some places have an unexpected array of merchandise.  For example, if you go downtown to old Oakland, a couple doors down from Ratto’s Italian grocery store, you find Legogo– it’s a small shop, unassuming on the outside, but on the inside, you can find a few surprises.  They carry Kirkland brand cashmere sweaters; cotton pajamas; undies; Prada handbags;  Waterford crystal goblets; Coach bags; Lalique perfume bottles; Levi’s jeans.  Huge bags of dog food.  Tables; chairs; desks and garden statuary.  Dishes.  Cooking ware.  Sometimes, a washer/dryer combo will show up at a bargain price.  It isn’t Macy’s– lord, it isn’t even Costco, but you can get some fancy stuff without having to brave BART or the downtown SF pickpocket brigades.  Then, you can sit down in Cafe 817 for some refreshment.  You may even sit in the same chair where I saw Bono sitting one morning. (I thought– that guy is sure handsome.  Why does he look so familiar?  He’s smiling at me!  No wait, he’s smiling at everybody.) I was halfway back to the office before I realized who he was.  He was probably waiting for Jerry Brown.  Anyway–

After coffee at 817, you can go next door to Ratto’s and put together gift baskets.  They have a nice little selection of things from Morocco– you can make a boudoir basket of slippers, a leather pouf, and tea glasses on a silver plated tray.  Or the standard pasta, wine cheese and sauce gift basket.  They have spices in bulk, so you can put together glass jars layered with peppercorns and rosebuds, or your own special spice blends.  Or a ravioli making kit.  You can stock up your supply of pesto and pasta sauce- you know it’s as good as you can make at home!  The point is, you can shop for everyone who likes food, and give them something special and unique from a little, woman-owned, family business in downtown Oakland.  And yes, Elena is the great- grand-daughter of the man who founded the store.  Hurray for her, for keeping such a wonderful family business alive.  If you get hungry, I highly recommend the Jenny sandwich– fresh mozzarella, tomato, pesto and onion on crunchy fresh french bread.  Yum.

I’ll give you some more shopping recommendations next time– Lakeshore and Grand Avenue await!

Shalom to us all.