Issue 8, April 2014
What We’re Thinking About
Neighborhood News, Round and About
Neighborhood Forum
The Cultural Corner
BNC selects a Berkeley cultural treasure to feature in each eNEWS issue. The business or activity nominated must be located in the City of Berkeley, and nominated by a Berkeley resident who has no connection, other than that of an ordinary patron of, or a participant in what he/she is nominating. If the business or activity nominated is advised of the nomination prior to publication, it must be made clear to the nominee that nomination does not automatically mean selection. The Newsletter Committee determines selections and in the majority of cases, the descriptions/comments about the selection will be published anonymously. Submissions may be sent to newsletter@berkeleyneighborhoodscouncil.com. BNC will notify the selected treasure.
Again, the posting for this issue is in keeping with BNC’s focus on neighborhoods. We didn’t have a problem with our selection for this issue, but we weren’t exactly sure which section of the eNEWS it should be put into. Finally, we settled on The Cultural Corner because it’s a rare and distinct Berkeley tradition. However, because it’s also a food and drink place, we understand if you think it should have been in The Neighborhood Food Prowl. We recommend putting that question aside, taking a trip to check out our choice, settling back, and enjoying.
Our April selection is The Albatross (also known as “The Bird”), Berkeley’s oldest pub that is currently celebrating its 50th birthday. The festivities will begin on April 20th and run for 50 days with drink specials, retro cocktails like manhattans and grasshoppers, and a 1960s band on June 6th. As one local newspaper put it when writing about the event, “it sure is looking good for its age.”
Zagat once called it a “cozy, woody, British style pub” and that’s exactly right. Another reviewer put it this way: “Albatross pub goers are a diverse microcosm of the Berkeley community itself. On any given evening you’ll find university students, writers, soccer teams, a hang glider club, local business people and lots of foreign accents.” Yet another, “you feel you’re part of a community when you’re here.” It’s a living, breathing, real neighborhood pub.
So, what makes this place so special that it’s been written up in Sunset and San Francisco Magazine? Well, first and foremost is that while it’s a bar (14 different beers on tap, over 40 in bottles, and offers premium spirits), it’s intentionally (on the owner’s part) not a place to get drunk. It’s cozy with a fireplace that creates an atmosphere like a living room with people sitting at wooden tables, playing board games and eating popcorn. It’s a place to be sociable and where you can actually talk and hear what the other person is saying. The bar doesn’t even make blender drinks because that sound is loud and harsh.
Dogs on leash are allowed up to 8:00 PM and you can even bring some of your own food. You can buy a bottomless bowl of fresh hot popcorn for only $1 dispensed from an old-fashioned telephone booth.
Games are big here. They offer: Pool (in a separate room), Darts with 6 pro lanes (there’s a tournament anyone can enter for a $5 fee on Tuesdays, otherwise you can play all night for $1), all kinds of Board Games like chess, cribbage, dominos, and Scrabble to name a few, and on Sundays at 8:30 PM (sign up at 8:15 PM) you can bring your own team of no more than 5 and play or just watch 6 rounds of Brainstormer Trivia Pub Quiz. The Bird was named “Best Place to Play Board Games” by the East Bay Express, 4 years in a row, 2010 through 2013.
But that’s not all! There’s FREE live music at 9:00 PM:
- Wednesdays, April 2 and 16, and May 7 and 21, Old Time and Bluegrass performed by the Whiskey Brothers.
- On Saturdays from 9:30 PM to 12:30 am, there is a $3 cover
- April 12, a jazz quintet, RM Jazz
- April 26 it’s BeBop and Blues, done by Citizen’s JaZZ
- May 10, Latin Jazz performed by Danilo y Orquesta Universal
- May 24, New World Café Music, done by the pickPocket ensemble
And, that’s still not all!!! There’s an Original Art Gallery. From February through July, you can see the works of Lisa Sindori. Quoting from the Albatross website, the artist hikes around the Bay Area and chooses the most iconic animals, plants, and scenery and then uses an all-digital creation process to produce images with a stylized, screen-printed look reminiscent of vintage travel posters. The simplified shapes and colors allow viewers to fill in the detail with their own memories of the landscape.
The sample shown on the website is lovely — simple with vibrant color depicting a dog on a hillside or shoreline with the Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
The Albatross Pub opened at the time of the Free Speech Movement at UC and since then has had a total of 3 owners. The most recent are 2 women, Wendy Halambeck and Linda Zsilavetz, who have owned it since 1997. They have worked to make it a place for all ages to enjoy, coming by yourself or in a group — a place that is clean and comfortable, with reasonable prices.
The Albatross Pub
1822 San Pablo Avenue
Berkeley, CA
(510) 843-2470
Sunday — Tuesday, 6 PM to 2 AM
Wednesday — Saturday, 4:30 PM to 2 AM
21 years and older
wheelchair accessible