Posted Date: July 11, 2010July 12, 2010author:LDCategories:Mostly a pictureWeekend bonus shotWeekend bonus shot, 07.11.10 Brunch goer, Mama’s Royal Café, Oakland, CA.
Pretty understanding cafe owners with all that writing on the wall. Sort of adds the to atmosphere though! I must put that on my list of places to go when I finally get to exploring California.
Oh, baby. Mama’s Royal Cafe is THE ni plus ultra in tasty East Bay groovy scene brunching. In my humble opinion. It’s been so tasty so long that the “sceneyness” (not a word!) doesn’t feel at all contrived to me, and it’s not exclusionary. That’s the point of East Bay stuff (as vs. SF, I’d say). DIfferent ego. Not nonexistent, but different. Lots of different sorts of people, cheeck by jowl, munchin’ the hella good eats.
And yes, the booths are pretty much carpet-bombed with etched-in graffiti. Some are quite fancy sketches (a venerable art school is up the street a number of blocks). They have a napkin art contest annually, whose winning entries (on display in the restaurant) are nearly (but not quite!) as stupendous as the food.
I recognized the locale before I scrolled down and saw the caption! I haven’t been there in a long while. Good homemade salsa.
The best! And precisely what I slathered all over my omelette.
Wow, thanks for the heads up. I’ve been trawling the napkin gallery and bookmarked the page so when march comes around I’ll send off my own entries. It’s the perfect kind of competition for an illustration student such as myself to get some exposure. Thanks again!