"You may know Albany as a little East Bay suburb in Berkeley's shadow, home to a defunct horse racing track and a former landfill. But take a stroll down the city of 20,000's bustling Solano Avenue and you'll find some of the Bay Area's best French pastries, elegant sushi handrolls, and a natural wine bar so hip you'll swear you're in San Francisco."
"It's a Friday morning on San Pablo Avenue, and the air smells like warm, toasty bagels. At Hella Bagels, customers line up to place their orders: toasted sesame bagel with scallion schmear; bacon, egg and cheese on an everything bagel. Others work on laptops by the cozy fireplace, or enjoy their bagels on the sunny patio. An ecstatic baby smears cream cheese all over their face."
Albany, a 20,000-person East Bay suburb near Berkeley, has transformed Solano Avenue into a bustling culinary corridor. Longstanding establishments such as Sam's Log Cabin and Schmidt's Pub coexist with a recent wave of destination-worthy restaurant openings that began around 2017. New arrivals in 2024 included wine bar Best Friends, Latin Californian Brezo, and Palestinian-inspired Lulu, which is reformatting into Lulu's Little Kitchen. Growth continued into 2025 with Kitava, a Yonsei Handrolls outpost, and Starter Bakery specializing in kouign-amann. The neighborhood now offers enough variety for daylong exploration, and local businesses are thriving within a communal spirit. Hella Bagels anchors breakfast service with items like the 'City Nights' bagel.
Read at SFGATE
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