One of the Oakland hills’ hottest tickets is filling a void left by last month’s successful Oakland Restaurant Week. The Montclair Village Restaurant Walk offers a $50 passport ($20 for those younger than 15) for foodies to try tasty bites and libations at the best local restaurants.
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This year’s dine-around is from 5 to 8 p.m. April 23. For the first time, there’ll be live music and seating in the Village Plaza on Antioch Court (for full event details online, visit bit.ly/49hsNH2).
Local concert producer Winter Williams (winterwilliamspresents.com) is collaborating with Bob Jacobs and his nonprofit Jazz Education Ensemble to play two sets to kick-start the 2024 Montclair Village Restaurant Walk. The ensemble recruits professional musicians to play performances alongside student musicians who also get one-on-one instruction (jazzeducationensemble.org).
Yellow balloons will mark the growing number of participants for the Tuesday evening event, which will include 5 Spiced Kitchen, Cafe 15, Colonial Donuts, Crogan’s, Daughter Thai Kitchen, Drake’s Brewing, El Agavero, Farmstead Cheeses & Wines, Italian Colors, Mountain Mike’s Pizza, Sliver Pizzeria, Taqueria Las Comadres, Taps & Takeout and Yellow Door Café.
Several shops will also be open, offering discounts and more. The Montclair Village Association will also have a booth in the Village Plaza, promoting its more than 75 years as a business improvement district. Tickets are available at montclairvillage.com, but you may want to get them early — last year the event sold out at 400 tickets.
Crime blotter: Oakland is a study in contrast. Brilliant beds of tulips ushered in spring at Mountain View Cemetery, just blocks from a vandalized vehicle on Piedmont Avenue — its windows shattered and wheels stripped. In the same 24-hour period, cars parked street-side on Manzanita Drive were ransacked, leaving a trail of blue/green glass glinting in the sun.
The backlash to Oakland’s crime problem is growing. Petitions are circulating to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and amend Proposition 41, the so-called Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act. Signature gatherers have been active outside grocery stores, especially in Montclair Village, and the Prop. 47 petition is close to the number of signatures required for inclusion on this November’s ballot.
Around town: A new fabric shop is growing its fan base on College Avenue near Claremont. Love Again Fabrics carries discontinued fabrics at bargain rates, along with sewing accessories, handmade goods and other sundries.
The store also hosts workshops and is running a beginner knitting class, making fingerless gloves, on April 10 and 17.
Growing happiness: The Hillside Gardeners of Montclair have seven glorious gardens on their upcoming Spring Garden Tour. The April 21 event is a popular Sunday fundraiser for the 77-year-old garden club — and sprouts ideas for everything from landscape design and garden art to irrigation and composting.
For tickets and full details online, visit hillsidegardeners.com.
Ginny Prior can be followed on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, Facebook and at ginnyprior.com. Email her at ginnyprior@hotmail.com.