Anyone remember the Forum on Tele? How about UC Corner for great hamburgers. I think in the end it was owned by Craig Morton. I think there was an Orange Julius within it? On Northside, LaVal's. Everyone went there. South - The Rat once in a while or Blake's. My uncle used to take me to Spenger's when he came to town. Great food back then.

The new Mezzo

NYCGOBEARS;842853777 said:

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This makes me think of Mills College.

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There is hope for you in that area NYC... Word this week is that they investigated co-Ed enrollment again in light of their financial struggles. Don't lick your fingers yet!

Cafe Intermezzo, Kips, Steve's BBQ. Now my favorite place is Gypsy's. I go there everytime I goto Berkeley.

petalumabear;842853814 said:

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There is hope for you in that area NYC... Word this week is that they investigated co-Ed enrollment again in light of their financial struggles. Don't lick your fingers yet!

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They wouldn't be interested in him

KoreAmBear;842853431 said:

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Besides the traditional stuff that will be posted in this thread, I remember this Musashi cart that was at Bancroft and Telegraph at the entrance to the campus. I used to get a $3 chicken donburi for lunch like every other day. Anyone remember that one?

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Musashi no longer have the cart but have have opened a small restaurant at 2126 Dwight Way with the same name. The owner's son was a good friend with my son back in grade school. I still order party trays from them occasionally. https://www.yelp.com/biz/musashi-berkeley?osq=Sushi+Bars

OBear073akaSMFan;842853828 said:

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Musashi no longer have the cart but have have opened a small restaurant at 2126 Dwight Way with the same name. The owner's son was a good friend with my son back in grade school. I still order party trays from them occasionally. https://www.yelp.com/biz/musashi-berkeley?osq=Sushi+Bars

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Looks pretty good!

NYCGOBEARS;842853777 said:

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This makes me think of Mills College.

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It scares me very much that you and I think alike and that I was also going hit that softball out of the park too. I just couldn't do it to a fellow BOD Dragon. One of my buddies used to swear that Flint's BBQ sauce would ooze out of your pores the next morning.....although maybe that was also Mills College related.

bearister;842853868 said:

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It scares me very much that you and I think alike and that I was also going hit that softball out of the park too. I just couldn't do it to a fellow BOD Dragon. One of my buddies used to swear that Flint's BBQ sauce would ooze out of your pores the next morning.....although maybe that was also Mills College related.

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Thanks Bearister but my thoughts on the Mills v Flints comparison is that the BBQ sauce is a much nicer memory the morning after based solely on some of the Mills gals I recall meeting back in the day...

I used to love that place until I got a severe food poisoning from a chicken enchilada, in about 1981. It was so bad, it took me years to even go back to the food court.

egbear82;842853632 said:

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I loved Manuel's Burritos- sitting on beer kegs with a pitcher and chips and beans for 99 cents! Bertolas, Flints, and Blondies worked too😀

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petalumabear;842853870 said:

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Thanks Bearister but my thoughts on the Mills v Flints comparison is that the BBQ sauce is a much nicer memory the morning after based solely on some of the Mills gals I recall meeting back in the day...

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Mills was look'in for love in all the wrong places. You gotta respect that.

bearister;842853868 said:

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It scares me very much that you and I think alike and that I was also going hit that softball out of the park too. I just couldn't do it to a fellow BOD Dragon. One of my buddies used to swear that Flint's BBQ sauce would ooze out of your pores the next morning.....although maybe that was also Mills College related.

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Don't be scared. True degenerates are hard to find.

bonsallbear;842853680 said:

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Northsider here . Midnight study breaks > down to Giant Burger. LaVals for pizza and beer and downstairs was always crowded.

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Lived on Northside for three years in the late '70s:

LaVals a lot, after I turned 21. Before that, it was Giant Hamburger and Colonial Doughnuts (they started making fresh ones at about 2 AM!). There was this place across the courtyard from LaVals called Cheshire Cat. Wednesday nights they would have pitchers of Pabst for 99 cents, which they could afford to do by keeping the lights low and never cleaning out the bathrooms. The pee trough in the men's room was really gross, I mean, I THINK it was... it smelled gross, but it was so dark in there that you couldn't really see anything. It took most of the walk home before the soles of my shoes weren't sticky anymore from the floors.

Two places on Southside I haven't seen mentioned yet were Carolina's Pizza (good when we "had the munchies") and then, the amazing Anar Khali's Pizza and Indian Food (which had been Pizza Haven prior to that). "Anar's" was great after Cal basketball games, as it was basically across the street from Harmon. Some of the players used to even go there. What was amazing about it was that, when you ordered a pitcher and they asked to see your driver's license, they apparently thought that you HAVING A LICENSE entitled you to buy beer there (which is probably why the freshmen and sophomores on the team liked it). They were in business 2-3 yrs before they were shut down... 2-3 GOOD years.

everett & jones > flints

Big C_Cal;842853925 said:

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There was this place across the courtyard from LaVals called Cheshire Cat. Wednesday nights they would have pitchers of Pabst for 99 cents, which they could afford to do by keeping the lights low and never cleaning out the bathrooms. The pee trough in the men's room was really gross, I mean, I THINK it was... it smelled gross, but it was so dark in there that you couldn't really see anything. It took most of the walk home before the soles of my shoes weren't sticky anymore from the floors.

Two places on Southside I haven't seen mentioned yet were Carolina's Pizza (good when we "had the munchies")...

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Cheshire Cat was an awesome spot. Pitchers outdoors at picnic tables on a nice day was always great and Bear's Lair was the only competition. Bathroom was pretty rough. There was a Yankees hat in the trough one time which sparked a sword fight feeding frenzy. Manuel's was still the undefeated and undisputed King of Slumdog Millionaire Berkeley bathrooms.

Carolina's wasn't great, better than Hunger Pang egg rolls, but well behind Fat Slice and Blondie's. If there had been a steel cage match of late night drunk food, the skinny Top Dog guy would've easily beaten the crap of all the wannabes with his straw hat. Almost as big a bad ass as Oski.

Monkey Inn on Thursday nights
Cheap beer and free peanuts!! Drank and ate enough to last me through the weekend

HoopDreams;842853943 said:

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everett & jones > flints

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I vehemently disagree. But it's everyone's personal opinion so enjoy away. And Flints no longer exists so there's that aspect too.

Big C_Cal;842853925 said:

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Lived on Northside for three years in the late '70s:

LaVals a lot, after I turned 21. Before that, it was Giant Hamburger and Colonial Doughnuts (they started making fresh ones at about 2 AM!). There was this place across the courtyard from LaVals called Cheshire Cat. Wednesday nights they would have pitchers of Pabst for 99 cents, which they could afford to do by keeping the lights low and never cleaning out the bathrooms. The pee trough in the men's room was really gross, I mean, I THINK it was... it smelled gross, but it was so dark in there that you couldn't really see anything. It took most of the walk home before the soles of my shoes weren't sticky anymore from the floors.

Two places on Southside I haven't seen mentioned yet were Carolina's Pizza (good when we "had the munchies") and then, the amazing Anar Khali's Pizza and Indian Food (which had been Pizza Haven prior to that). "Anar's" was great after Cal basketball games, as it was basically across the street from Harmon. Some of the players used to even go there. What was amazing about it was that, when you ordered a pitcher and they asked to see your driver's license, they apparently thought that you HAVING A LICENSE entitled you to buy beer there (which is probably why the freshmen and sophomores on the team liked it). They were in business 2-3 yrs before they were shut down... 2-3 GOOD years.

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More than once saw dudes whizzing in the sink at the Cheshire Cat bathroom when there was a line up at the urinal. The smell of **** was strong indeed there.

I grew up nearby so I was already familiar with the choices before I went to Cal.

I guess Fat Slice was my standby starting from the 80s. Back then I think a cheese slice was maybe $1. Might have even been 75 cents. The other odd thing was that I saw an expensive car (Mercedes 560SL) tooling around Arlington Ave with the license plate "FT SLICE".

I certainly had variety, including Kip's, Blondie's, Zona Rosa, Yogurt Park, Top Dog (both campus locations at the time), Bongo Burger, LaVals, etc. As an engineering major I spent a lot of time on the north side. I remember when there were a series of pizza places with the LaVals name. I don't know how related they were - if maybe they were franchised. There was one in El Cerrito and another at Gilman near REI.

Right now I like Taco Bell Cantina. It's actually more expensive than most Taco Bells, but it's the only chain fast food that close to campus. It's a little bit more, but can be filling for less than other places around campus. Maybe the McDonald's on University and Shattuck, but that's always been kind of depressing with all the homeless hanging out there.

Another Cal student hangout for people with cars seems to be the El Cerrito Nations. I've found myself there late at night and quite a few Cal students seem to be studying late night there. I know there's a closer Nations, but this one seems to have more space.

petalumabear;842853993 said:

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I vehemently disagree. But it's everyone's personal opinion so enjoy away. And Flints no longer exists so there's that aspect too.

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I understand the pov but i would say its a lot closer call than i thought it could be having been a die hard Flints fan myself.

You know what I miss? The $1 Chinese place on Shattuck, half a block down from McDonald's.

It was taken over by Phil's Sliders, which recently closed, and which will soon become part of Comal's.

I miss $1 Chinese places in general. No, of course restaurants don't really offer $1 food anymore (inflation!). But it seems that mom-and-pop Chinese restaurants where you order food that's already prepared and behind a glass are slowly disappearing.

I remember there was one across from Unit 3 near Haste-Channing/Beverly Cleary dorm.

There also was one in Temescal. It was around for years. Then the space got taken over by a "gentrified" Chinese place.

BearClause;842854034 said:

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I grew up nearby so I was already familiar with the choices before I went to Cal.

I guess Fat Slice was my standby starting from the 80s. Back then I think a cheese slice was maybe $1. Might have even been 75 cents. The other odd thing was that I saw an expensive car (Mercedes 560SL) tooling around Arlington Ave with the license plate "FT SLICE".

I certainly had variety, including Kip's, Blondie's, Zona Rosa, Yogurt Park, Top Dog (both campus locations at the time), Bongo Burger, LaVals, etc. As an engineering major I spent a lot of time on the north side. I remember when there were a series of pizza places with the LaVals name. I don't know how related they were - if maybe they were franchised. There was one in El Cerrito and another at Gilman near REI.

Right now I like Taco Bell Cantina. It's actually more expensive than most Taco Bells, but it's the only chain fast food that close to campus. It's a little bit more, but can be filling for less than other places around campus. Maybe the McDonald's on University and Shattuck, but that's always been kind of depressing with all the homeless hanging out there.

Another Cal student hangout for people with cars seems to be the El Cerrito Nations. I've found myself there late at night and quite a few Cal students seem to be studying late night there. I know there's a closer Nations, but this one seems to have more space.

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Because of the late 90s housing crisis, I ended up living a few blocks from the El Cerrito Nation's during my latter Cal years. I would frequent there at 3 am. Geez, I dropped a lot of money there.

Is McDonald's on Shattuck still depressing after the remodel?

[video=youtube;2uhSSbyRUSw][/video]

Anybody happen to know for sure the year Blondies first opened? I wanna say 1979 or 1980, because I used to go to Carolina's Pizza for a slice in 78-79, but I probably would've gone to Blondies instead, had it been there (or had I known about it).

I don't know WTF happened to Blondies about 5-10 yrs ago, but they had really lost their previous appeal, which was... Always a line, but a FAST-MOVING one, where you could get a giant slice of cheese pizza that didn't suck and would fill you up, plus a Coke, for an amazingly cheap price.

Though not a big cheeseburger fan usually, I used to LOVE the one's at Kip's, with the mound of grated cheddar melted on top and the Worcestershire (sp?) sauce from the condiments bar (which I never would've thought of trying, until I saw somebody do it and then got hooked). We went through quite a number of pitchers at Kips in the early 80s. And it wasn't uncommon to have a waitress there that was fairly attractive, in a Berkeley sort of way... Speaking of raunchiest bathrooms (different post), Kip's (upstairs) definitely made the list, what with the big trough and usually some sort of plumbing problem.

I miss the troughs, though, for efficiency's sake. Why can't they have a trough anymore? Okay, so the old CMS didn't have enough bathrooms, but at least the ones they did processed through a maximum number of people. All the bathrooms at the new Stanfurd Stadium, but the one I went into a year and a half ago only had four urinals, spaced a good three feet from each other. In that same space, a trough would accommodate ten pissers! LOL, so I'm waiting in line to use one of the four "privacy urinals" -- missing the game -- and I yell how the stadium effing sucks. Two people at the urinal then finish and turn around and darned if it isn't my next-door-neighbor, which would've been fine, except for he had his 10 yr old son with him.

KoreAmBear;842853431 said:

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Besides the traditional stuff that will be posted in this thread, I remember this Musashi cart that was at Bancroft and Telegraph at the entrance to the campus. I used to get a $3 chicken donburi for lunch like every other day. Anyone remember that one?

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Late to this thread, but I remember that cart well. With the exception of Top Dog, I went there more often than any other place due to my limited student budget (even with working 20 hours/week and a full class load). I also remember going to Bongo Burger once monthly (payday) when I had money to "splurge."

Blondie's was started by the guy who owned Rasputin Records. I think the space had been Odyssey Records - where they sold classics. The first few weeks of Blondie's were an exploration. The sizes, recipes and prices varied nearly every day. I would chat with the main person making the pizzas and, at first, he felt like he had freedom to craft the pizzas, but that freedom gradually disappeared. I think Blondie's did start in 1979.

My primary go to places in late 70s - Hunger Pang, Manuel's (which also changed sizes,recipes and prices frequently) - Top Dog (still there). There was a pizza place in Durant Plaza - I don't recall the name. My late night go to was Kip's unless it was real late, and then it was Giant Hamburger. (I spent way too much time on Durant). Sandwiches A Go Go - I thnk was two sandwiches for under a dollar? (Turkey&Avocado and a Chicken Salad were my usual orders). For extravagance, it was sandwiches at Cheese & Stuff, and then Togo's. Bertolo's for cheap everything - including alcohol (with posted prices for singles, doubles and triples). Pirro's was a reliable spot on Shattuck with, at the time, to me was pretty good minestrone soup. And when I walked up Durant towards KALX at Lawrence Hall of Science early in the morning (for my 6-10 AM shift), I would get some fresh donuts at Kingpin - sometime around 5 a.m.

ncbears;842854089 said:

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Blondie's was started by the guy who owned Rasputin Records. I think the space had been Odyssey Records - where they sold classics. The first few weeks of Blondie's were an exploration. The sizes, recipes and prices varied nearly every day. I would chat with the main person making the pizzas and, at first, he felt like he had freedom to craft the pizzas, but that freedom gradually disappeared. I think Blondie's did start in 1979.

My primary go to places in late 70s - Hunger Pang, Manuel's (which also changed sizes,recipes and prices frequently) - Top Dog (still there). There was a pizza place in Durant Plaza - I don't recall the name. My late night go to was Kip's unless it was real late, and then it was Giant Hamburger. (I spent way too much time on Durant). Sandwiches A Go Go - I thnk was two sandwiches for under a dollar? (Turkey&Avocado and a Chicken Salad were my usual orders). For extravagance, it was sandwiches at Cheese & Stuff, and then Togo's. Bertolo's for cheap everything - including alcohol (with posted prices for singles, doubles and triples). Pirro's was a reliable spot on Shattuck with, at the time, to me was pretty good minestrone soup. And when I walked up Durant towards KALX at Lawrence Hall of Science early in the morning (for my 6-10 AM shift), I would get some fresh donuts at Kingpin - sometime around 5 a.m.

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You walked up Durant to the Lawrence Hall of Science for a 6 a.m. shift??? Was LHS in the same place it is today?

MarylandBear;842854074 said:

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Late to this thread, but I remember that cart well. With the exception of Top Dog, I went there more often than any other place due to my limited student budget (even with working 20 hours/week and a full class load). I also remember going to Bongo Burger once monthly (payday) when I had money to "splurge."

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LOL I can relate to this. Food was a function of a very limited budget.

Speaking of troughs the ones I truly miss were in the old Men's bathroom up top on the West side of Memorial. Remember those as a kid in the 60's, as a student in the late 70's and as a Young Alum until they were taken out I believe during the Gilbey debacle when Witter Fileld was redone. A million times better than the Porta-potties that replaced them. Those were particularly noxious on a hot fall day.

Greatest Cal troughs in memory!!

panoramicknob;842854169 said:

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You walked up Durant to the Lawrence Hall of Science for a 6 a.m. shift??? Was LHS in the same place it is today?

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Yes. I actually did. And LHS was at the top of the hill looking as good as it did in Forbin: The Colossus Project.
I actually started at Durant and Milvia. A bag of record albums under my arm. I'd leave before 5 a.m. Stop for donuts, hike halfway up the hill. There was bench there where I would sit for a few minutes to rest - eat a donut - and then struggle back up. I'd take the shuttle bus back down. I was younger in those days.....

The facilities in the basement of old Wheeler Hall were rather nice. A room with the exterior bay window wall and two walls lined with sarcophagi.

Do any of the old timers remember a bar called Oleg's off University Avenue where you sat on couches and the like or BELLINI'S RESTAURANT & BEPPO'S COCKTAIL LOUNGE OAKLAND CALIF. on Telegraph. An old mom and pop owned a bar down by the Smokehouse called The Fern and it had shuffle board. I think mom and pop drank a bit because you would slide them a $5 bill for a beer and they would give you change for a $20. I always brought that error to their attention.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/41606952@N07/5057560419

All there was on top of the WEST SIDE of CMS was the press box, there were trough urinals along the road way under the stands and better bathrooms in the press box. Now East is east and West is West, but are you sure you weren't remembering the East Side of CMS? Built on dirt/ground like the Greek? so the bathrooms were up top by Rimway?

NVBear78;842854180 said:

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Speaking of troughs the ones I truly miss were in the old Men's bathroom up top on the West side of Memorial. Remember those as a kid in the 60's, as a student in the late 70's and as a Young Alum until they were taken out I believe during the Gilbey debacle when Witter Fileld was redone. A million times better than the Porta-potties that replaced them. Those were particularly noxious on a hot fall day.

Greatest Cal troughs in memory!!

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Yeah - I need to revisit LaVal's. I enjoyed it on Southside. Watched Cal beat Duke there and was interviewed albeit briefly at half-time on KTVU. Never saw the clip but my friends gave me a heads up.

Big C_Cal;842854062 said:

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...I miss the troughs, though, for efficiency's sake. Why can't they have a trough anymore?....

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A little over 20 years ago I went to a jazz festival at the Concord Pavilion to see Tony Bennett. We were a little late and both my wife and I had to go to the bathroom. I went into the men's room and was the only one in there. The first thing I see is a trough running the length of the wall, just like the old troughs at Memorial. I do my bidness, looked around to wash my hands, couldn't find a sink so I gave up and walked out. Some guy who had been in the restroom down a wing I never saw came out and put his arm around my shoulder. He said "I got some bad news for you. You just took a p#ss in the sink." I guess I was preoccupied thinking about work and just saw a Memorial-like trough and didn't see any hand washing nozzles on top and muscle memory kicked in. I had never seen a hand washing trough before. I went back into the bathroom and saw that at a hard right angle from the entrance were conventional urinals, which I never saw. The sad part was I wasn't drunk or stoned. The only thing that made me feel better was that when I told my wife she said she thought she was in the Men's Room when she first walked into the Women's Room because she had never seen a hand washing trough before either. I'm just glad one of my clients wasn't in there seeing me pee in the sink. Tony Bennett was great.

I remembered them from the plants where my father worked. The Navy had them in their industrial shops and the Marine Corps even had them in their BOQ where they had one shared bathroom for the wing. Even after seeing them for 30 years, they still looked more like a urinal than a community wash basin (Correction, Commercial wash fountain). Did appreciate the metal step to start the water flowing when your hands were occupied...

bearister;842854316 said:

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A little over 20 years ago I went to a jazz festival at the Concord Pavilion to see Tony Bennett. We were a little late and both my wife and I had to go to the bathroom. I went into the men's room and was the only one in there. The first thing I see is a trough running the length of the wall, just like the old troughs at Memorial. I do my bidness, looked around to wash my hands, couldn't find a sink so I gave up and walked out. Some guy who had been in the restroom down a wing I never saw came out and put his arm around my shoulder. He said "I got some bad news for you. You just took a p#ss in the sink." I guess I was preoccupied thinking about work and just saw a Memorial-like trough and didn't see any hand washing nozzles on top and muscle memory kicked in. I had never seen a hand washing trough before. I went back into the bathroom and saw that at a hard right angle from the entrance were conventional urinals, which I never saw. The sad part was I wasn't drunk or stoned. The only thing that made me feel better was that when I told my wife she said she thought she was in the Men's Room when she first walked into the Women's Room because she had never seen a hand washing trough before either. I'm just glad one of my clients wasn't in there seeing me pee in the sink. Tony Bennett was great.

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Cal Junkie;842854314 said:

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Yeah - I need to revisit LaVal's. I enjoyed it on Southside. Watched Cal beat Duke there and was interviewed albeit briefly at half-time on KTVU. Never saw the clip but my friends gave me a heads up.

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The one on Northside has always been pretty decent.