food: Boot and Shoe Service

Boot and Shoe Service

Last weekend we celebrated K's birthday. We started with breakfast on Friday at Brown Sugar Kitchen. We did a variety of activities over the next couple days, and finished things off by trying a new-to-us restaurant, Boot and Shoe Service. I know we're slow -- I first read about B&SS on City Homestead a year ago. In our defense, we generally don't eat out that often, and there are a lot of great restaurants still for us to try in Oakland.

On to Boot and Shoe Service. It's the sister restaurant of Pizzaiolo in Temescal, with a very similar menu. Presumably they have the same food ethos: buy local and organic as much as possible. It's a smaller space, so they don't accept reservations. The front is a high-roomed dining space, which can get quite loud. The back is a bar, with a selection of beers, wines and cocktails. We hung out there for 5 minutes or so while they prepped a table for us.

The food is great. We started with a salad, then moved onto a nettle and ricotta pizza, both accompanied by a tasty wine. Yes, nettles as food. On pizza. Strange as it sounds, it works. The nettle leaves are marinated in olive oil and lemon juice, and provide a unique, slightly salty flavor.

We finished with an amazingly yummy chocolate mousse type dessert. Except for being a bit loud for talking, we loved it all. The waitress even had a tattoo of one of my favorite Oakland buildings, the Tribune Tower. What's not to like?