2009 Nov 27 - Black Friday Brunch

2009 Nov 27 - Black Friday Brunch (Lil Doc, Manjo and Sherm)

{Click on any photo to view the full size image}

Our Black Friday Brunch was suppose to be at Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, but the waiting time at Bette's was from one to one and a half hours. So we ventured the quarter of a mile to Brennan's. Brennan's is located under the University Avenue railroad overpass.

While I was waiting in front of Bette's to redirect people to Brennan's I happened to see something for our friend Jest.
Jest had actually started his ride to the Brunch, BUT...

damn weatherman!

been gorgeous all week, sunny, moderate....had been looking forward to a nice ride over to meet manjo, see don and howard et al.....the one day i don't read the morning paper, it calls for rain and wind....bike cleaned, gassed, check...daughter to friends house, check...(wife and son had plans).....back out the bike, its nice out, a little overcast, but calm and
a good 50 degrees....check....figure with everyone at the malls and departure time, it'll be a great little ride an hour up the road to berkeley, see friends old friends and new over some good grub....

dressed warm, but rain never even crossed my mind.....get onto 17, and 10 minutes later the freeway is crawling, even stop and go in spots....raining like hell....i was dressed for comfort, not to be a sponge for a day...within 10 minutes, i'm soaked to the bone....i figure, ok, i can handle this, probably just a burst that'll clear up any minute....traffic crawls past a few malls, the airport....make it over to the the east bay, still pouring...look ahead, the sky was dark...either an eclipse, or its a
deluge...

gave it some more time, passing through milpitas....thinkin to myself, had i worn some raingear, this would still be a drag, but doable....picked the wrong day to wear an open mask...:)...

as water ran down my crack, i said screw this........

hope the rest of ya made out all right,
....sure hate missing a vroc chow down...:)

rick/jest

Here is where we were. Brennan's now occupies the old Southern Pacific Railroad Station. The only Amtrak train that stops next to it now is the Capitol Corridor, which runs from San Jose to Colfax. More trains use the tracks including the California Zephyr. They just don't stop at Berkeley.

The entrance to Brennan's

Irish Coffee what else would you expect at a place named Brennan's

Brennan's moved to this refurbished train station in 2008. Before they were located right across the parking lot road in what looked like an old warehouse. The old place had a lot of ambience reminded you of somewhere that you would find the Maltese Falcon. The food line is cafeteria style and the food is traditional Hof Brau and plenty of it.
Big turkey, roast beef and sausages

Uwe was the first in line as usual. :-) He and his wife Rad had ridden their bikes from Pacifica to join in on the Brunch.

Here's Uwe's order {actually he and Rad split this} Pastrami Sandwich, fries, coleslaw and a piece of cheesecake.

Here is Nite Lite's pastrami dip with smashed taters and a piece of pie.

Now Sherm's brother-in-law Richard does not look like a big eater, but he had the ham plate with potatoes smothered in gravy and a few veggies.

Manjo ordered a more sensible fish and chips.

My dipped brisket sandwich. There are more layers of meat that do not show up in the photo.

I took this of the guy behind me who had the dipped roast beef.

We had already staked out a long table for 10 {there were 9 of us}. So everyone carried their stuff over to the table and began eating. The one hour plus wait at Bette's would have given us a bit too much time to visit. Plus Sherm was hungry. :-)
Lil Doc had two Shrimp side salads and Manjo's fish again. Manjo insisted on buying my lunch.

Sherm was busy taking photos, since there was a possibility that they would show up in a magazine article.
Rad on the left, Makini with the yellow hat who rode his Nomad from Vacaville and Richard chowing down.

Rad, Uwe, Sherm, Nite Lite, Lil Doc {hidden}, Manjo and Makini.

Lil Doc, Manjo and Makini.

The whole table.

We sat around and shot the stuff for quite awhile then headed off in every which direction.
It was a fun get together and not often that we have VROCers from across the country in our neighborhood in the late Fall.

I "stole" the next two pictures of everyone from Sherm.


Those who made it:
Manjo and Lil Doc from MA.
Sherm from Yuma
Richard from Santa Rosa
Nite Lite from Petaluma
Makini from Vacaville
Uwe and Rad from Pacifica
Don "vsp" from Stockton

~end
.