Best Of Oakland and the East Bay
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Winners
2014 Lifestyle and Leisure
Best Bay Area Museum Show
Above and Below: Stories From Our Changing Bay
Aug. 31, 2013—Feb. 13, 2014
2014 Goods and Services
Best Independent Music Shop and More
Acme House of Music
Called “a mom-and-pop shop since 1969,” Acme House of Music—long a gem in the Laurel District—recently moved to a new, larger space near the top of Piedmont Avenue. It’s a retail, repair, and artistic space that defies easy categorization. The staff and teachers offer lessons and workshops, and they fix, rent, and sell vintage and new instruments as well as electronic equipment. In myriad, mellifluous ways, this funky, home-grown business promotes harmony and creativity in the community.
2014 Lifestyle and Leisure
Best Community-Building Bookstore
A Great Good Place for Books
Ten years ago, in the summer of 2004, book lover Kathleen Caldwell found herself out of work and at a crossroads in her career. She decided to persevere in the struggling book industry and consequently met the owner of A Great Good Place for Books in Montclair, who hired her, and they became fast friends. Tragically, the owner passed away from heart complications not long after that. She left the store to Caldwell, who redoubled her commitment to make this bookstore a success at a time when independent bookstores were dying due to online competition. Thanks to her efforts, A Great Good Place for Books is more than a bookstore—it’s a community hub, a place where passersby browse and get recommendations on what to read, and people gather to hear great authors discuss their works. Caldwell and her staff succeed not only because they build community, but also because they are voracious readers who offer spot-on suggestions of books to buy. Their love of books is infectious.
2014 Food and Drink
Most Eco-Friendly Brewery
Ale Industries
As much as Morgan Cox and Stephen Lopas love beer, they’re just as passionate about the environment. And the co-founders of Ale Industries have put their money where their mouths are at their new production brewery and tasting room, located in a beautifully renovated old warehouse space in Oakland’s Fruitvale district (where they moved from Concord earlier this year). They call it the Fruitvale Fermentation Factory. They deliver their product via a biodiesel truck, operate an electronic forklift to move kegs, and are now using a biofueled boiler that Cox ordered and rigged to use for brewing operations, one of the only such examples in the country. The goal is to eventually run a completely carbon-neutral brewery. “It’s nice to get to the point where I’m able to take my personal dreams and concepts and apply them to our business,"; Cox says.
