.Peripatetic Pies and a Friday-Night Food Pod in Oakland

Plus the grand opening of Hawker Fare.

As Oakland continues to work out its policy toward food trucks, longtime events producer Karen Hester and established food truckster Elizabeth August of Guerilla Grub have set up a weekly “food pod” called Bites on Broadway in the area outside Oakland Technical High School (4351 Broadway). The event, which is set to run every Friday night from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. starting June 10, seeks to expand local food-truck culture and create a neighborhood-y “block party vibe,” according to Hester. “Everywhere in Europe, there’s a town plaza,” she said, “and we’re trying to recreate that in an urban setting and between three neighborhoods — Temescal, Rockridge, and the Piedmont Avenue area.” Bites on Broadway will feature a rotating group of five or so trucks, including Fist of Flour and Go Streatery, plus live music, lots of grassy space, and bike racks aplenty.

The End of SadieDey’s and Something New

We’ve got some good news/bad news action in Lower Temescal: After five-plus years, much-loved kids’ “play cafe” SadieDey’s (4210 Telegraph Ave., Oakland) will shut its doors on Friday, May 20, so that owner Sue Older-Mondeel can devote more energy to her new mobile pie business, Sue’s Sassy Pies.

According to Older-Mondeel, the new business is a natural outgrowth of the food she was making at SadieDey’s — small pies, in both sweet and savory flavors, designed to be consumed one-handed so her customers, most of which were mothers, could watch their kids and eat at the same time. The pies were so popular that she and two co-workers decided to ditch the brick-and-mortar business altogether and begin selling the pies — which have fillings like chicken-gorgonzola and yam-feta, all made from locally sourced ingredients — full-time, along with shave ice and other sweets, from Older-Mondeel’s adorably named “piecycle.” Sue’s Sassy Pies is currently operating primarily as a Temescal-area delivery operation, but the piecycle had its first-ever night out at last Friday’s Oakland Indie Awards, which Older-Mondeel said was “amazing.” The SadieDey’s space, meanwhile, is set to become an “upscale neighborhood bar” sometime next month, according to Older-Mondeel.

Table Scraps

Hawker Fare, the hotter-than-hotly anticipated Asian street food outfit from Commis chef James Syhabout, finally opened for lunch at 2300 Webster Street in Oakland on Tuesday, May 17, and is set to open for dinner before the end of the month. … Construction is well underway at the new location of Awaken Cafe, which was pushed out of its old space on 14th Street and forced to move around the corner in Frank Ogawa Plaza. According to the cafe’s web site, it’s set to open sometime this summer. … And, finally, the Downtown Berkeley space formerly occupied by Amanda’s (2122 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) has a liquor license application up and appears to be on its way to becoming a taqueria of some kind.

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