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Letters

Disappointed Reader

    I am a longtime Oakland resident who was looking forward to your Best Of issue [May/June 2009] to see if maybe there was something I had missed or maybe something new to discover about my home town. Not only is Oakland a physically beautiful city, but it has so many fascinating nooks and crannies, so many wonderful restaurants, and so much to do. As a city, it has many great things to offer.
    You really did Oakland a disservice. Not only were there factual errors, but a few of the categories were not even Oakland-centric!  What were you thinking???!!!!
To point out a few:
The Claremont Hotel/Jordans Spa is in Oakland — You listed it as Berkeley — and then had the gall to list it as Best Of in not one, but two of your categories.
Chef — With so many great chefs in Oakland, say those at Baywolf, Oliveto, Soizic, Marzano and others, why did you chose Alice Waters of Berkeley’s Chez Panisse?
Breakfast – How can you choose Rick and Ann’s in Berkeley and bypass Mama’s Royal Cafe, the Full House or Aunt Mary’s, all of which are actually in Oakland?
Caterer – Aren’t there any good ones in Oakland? Why choose a San Leandro-based one?
Sushi — How can you miss Uzen on College Avenue, one of the best Sushi restaurants in the East Bay?
Picnic Spots — Why chose Tilden in Berkeley for an Oakland issue? What about Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline or Redwood or Roberts?
And perhaps most egregious, why mention Deep Roots Urban Teahouse, which actually was in Oakland, but has been out of business for about two years?!
    Please, please, please, if you are going to do an issue about a city, especially a Best Of issue, you need to highlight that city and all of its wonderful places, especially a city as unique as Oakland. And get you facts right.

Thanks for trying, but I hope you do a lot better next year,
Pamela Magnuson-Peddle, Oakland

Editor’s Note: We did get some facts wrong: Our Best of Oakland 2009 coverage [“Our Multiculti Metropolitan Mashup,” May/June 2009] contained some errors. The correct spelling of the TV Personality (Female) category winner is Julie Haener of KTVU-TV, Channel 2. The correct address for Best Chiropractor winner Greg Vrankovich of HealthFit Chiropractic Center is 311 Oak St., Suite 115. Brown Sugar Kitchen, the Soul Food category winner, is a breakfast and lunch joint so doesn’t serve dinner as we reported. And, no, Bay Wolf Restaurant hasn’t moved—the correct address is 3853 Piedmont Ave. And a reference to Deep Roots Urban Teahouse implied it’s open when it’s closed.
    The Claremont, for the record, however, is on the Oakland-Berkeley border and uses a Berkeley address.
    As for the categories the letter writer mentions, all were chose by readers who completed Best Of ballots for the Readers’ Choice component of our coverage. The editors wish readers would be Oakland-centric, too, in their choices, but we feel duty bound to report what they say are the best. We rounded out our coverage with Editors’ Picks that were indeed Oakland-centric.