https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/10/24/after-128-years-spengers-abruptly-closes-its-doors-in-berkeley/

That's really a bummer. My dad and my uncle used to take me there for dinner when they visited Berkeley. It was great to have a "real meal" at Spenger's.

Bear8 said:

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That's really a bummer. My dad and my uncle used to take me there for dinner when they visited Berkeley. It was great to have a "real meal" at Spenger's.

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It's been dying by inches for years. I drank more than a few cocktails there and at the recently deceased Brennan's in my Berkeley days.

Good Lord, the recent Yelp/Google reviews for this place are grim.

Just goes to show what a restaurant-biz friend of mine said...."In this country in 2018, the hard truth is that half of our restaurants that are 100 yrs old or more will be run by people who care about maintaining standards and paying respect to tradition. The other half will be run by people who think that history means they can make $$$ by just phoning it in. These are the times we live in."

Well that sucks. My best memory of that place is that I took my sophomore year girlfriend there, which, based on my finances at the time, basically meant I would be eating $1.25 rice with teriyaki from the Asian food ghetto for 3 meals a day for the rest of the month. Anyway, I gave her a necklace that I had purchased at a store on telegraph that is no longer there. She teared up a little and people at other tables must have thought I was proposing because it became a little bit of a spectacle, but we tried to ignore it. Anyway, she seemed very appreciative later that night so I always remember Spenger's fondly.

The end of an era and a Berkeley institution. Used to love to go there after Cal games.

That's too bad but yeah, it's been in decline for a while. It use to be good but then everything else wasn't great and fewer choices. Back in the day lots of graduation meals. I went there with my family for grad lunch. My Dad went as a Cal student, so it was a natural choice.

I ended up there to watch the BYU game with a buddy, because Brennan's was closing...and it was packed with farewell diners, so we walked over and sat the bar. Let's just say, the food was on par with Denny's. I figured the fish and chips would be safe...nope. I figured that would be the last time, maybe.

i wonder what will happen to the building. Nice artifact from the past but I don't think historic. Funny, after going there for the BYU game, had a conversation about if/when hipster would take it over and use the nice nautical themed interior, which I think some was from a old ship.

Oh well, life marches on. Another sign of generational change.

Calcoholic said:

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Well that sucks. My best memory of that place is that I took my sophomore year girlfriend there, which, based on my finances at the time, basically meant I would be eating $1.25 rice with teriyaki from the Asian food ghetto for 3 meals a day for the rest of the month. Anyway, I gave her a necklace that I had purchased at a store on telegraph that is no longer there. She teared up a little and people at other tables must have thought I was proposing because it became a little bit of a spectacle, but we tried to ignore it. Anyway, she seemed very appreciative later that night so I always remember Spenger's fondly.

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A gentleman never kisses and tells.

bearister said:

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Calcoholic said:

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Well that sucks. My best memory of that place is that I took my sophomore year girlfriend there, which, based on my finances at the time, basically meant I would be eating $1.25 rice with teriyaki from the Asian food ghetto for 3 meals a day for the rest of the month. Anyway, I gave her a necklace that I had purchased at a store on telegraph that is no longer there. She teared up a little and people at other tables must have thought I was proposing because it became a little bit of a spectacle, but we tried to ignore it. Anyway, she seemed very appreciative later that night so I always remember Spenger's fondly.

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A gentleman never kisses and tells.

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Was that Appreciative Annie?

Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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TopDog
Blondie's
Fat Slice
La Burrita
Kips

(first)

510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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Chez Panisse...call it new school old school.

510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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HS Lordships went t*ts up last summer. When McNally's closes I will know I am a 50 cent Uber drive from being Soylent Green.

I went to Spenger's a few times in the last couple of years and I thought it was decent. Much lower priced than I expected. But not at all like it was long ago. A much abbreviated menu. Oh well.... wonder what they are gonna put in its place. Its so big they could put three restaurants there....

510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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I still love Bongo Burger.

Intermezzo is old and now new school.

Is Steve's BBQ still there?

Is Yogurt Park gone?

It's been there a while but I didn't really like Skate's, except that it had the best views of the Bay.

AunBear89 said:

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510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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TopDog
Blondie's
Fat Slice
La Burrita
Kips

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Add Brennan's to the now closed list, and Rick and Anne's no longer does dinner. The times they are a changing. But yes, Rivoli and Chez Panisse have become the new standbys.

KoreAmBear said:

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510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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I still love Bongo Burger.

Intermezzo is old and now new school.

Is Steve's BBQ still there?

Is Yogurt Park gone?

It's been there a while but I didn't really like Skate's, except that it had the best views of the Bay.

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All still there I'm pretty sure.

KoreAmBear said:

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510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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I still love Bongo Burger.

Intermezzo is old and now new school.

Is Steve's BBQ still there?

Is Yogurt Park gone?

It's been there a while but I didn't really like Skate's, except that it had the best views of the Bay.

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The next building up the street from Bongo Burger (across the alley way) had a restaurant on the ground floor when I attended Cal called the Hanoi Dining Room. Two of my buddies lived in the apartment building on top of it right over People's Park. Our name for the apartment building? The Hanoi Hilton, naturally.

The last time I was at Spengers, about 10 years ago, we waited 40 minutes for a table; once seated we waited 20 minutes for a server to show up; waited another 20 minutes for our drinks to be served; then the drink order was all screwed up. We walked out, leaving the drinks with an incompetent server.

Rivoli is outstanding

Don't live in the area now so visits to Spengers could probably be counted on one hand. But I know a long time ago, presumably in its prime, I got the impression that they really wanted to get you in and out fast so they could turn over the seats. When the last morsel was off the plate it was snatched up and the body language was pretty obvious - you're done, bye bye. The food was okay, though.

Spenger's takes up a huge amount of increasingly valuable real estate on 4th street (especially including the parking lot). I think a real estate developer would like to build high, with underground parking, ground floor retail and upper floor condos with SF Bay, SF, Golden Gate Bridge and Berkeley Marina views, easy freeway access and 4th street retail and dinning options.

A downsized Spenger's, with a lot of the memorabilia, fresh fish and sourdough and good cocktail bar would be a great anchor tenant.

Is the Kingfisher still around? Maybe more Oakland. I know they moved it from its original location.

CALiforniALUM said:

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Is the Kingfisher still around? Maybe more Oakland. I know they moved it from its original location.

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Yep. They moved the old girl lock, stock and barrel down to Telegraph Avenue.

I add my condolences; hard to imagine the foot of University w/o Spenger's and Brennan's. So many good times; and Celia's, I assume that's long gone too? GM there was a good friend, great fun.

Celia's near Brennan's closed and moved to Euclid on Northside, across from LaVal's. I was there about 5 years ago. It wasn't good but it has a fair number of guests.

AunBear89 said:

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510 Bear said:

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Interesting question: with Spenger's gone, what would you say are the remaining "old-school" restaurants in Berkeley worth visiting (or not worth visiting)?

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TopDog
Blondie's
Fat Slice
La Burrita
Kips

(first)

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Skate's
Spat's?
Bongo Burger!!!

Isn't Blondies also dead?

The new Spenger's sucked, been over a decade of suckage there with lots of real estate. Bigger restaurants are folding up. Happened all over Oakland too.

I went to Spengers on a double date my sophomore year. I thought I'd be suave and sneak in some champagne (you know - to avoid getting carded). Well I went to open it under the table and as the wire came unwound the cork shot out like a cannon, hitting the bottom of the table, smacking my date in the lap, and then bounding across the floor. Didn't notice that last part too much since Old Faithful was coming up out of my lap. I foolishlyl tried to use my thumb to cork the bottle and basically hosed everyone at our table. The room went absolutely quiet - you could hear the dripping as the rest of the patrons stared. Staff came marching over and I was expecting to be asked to leave. The waiter held out his hand and I sheepishly put the half empty bottle in it. Another waiter showed up with a bucket of ice. The 1st waiter said "normally we charge a corkage fee but we are going to forego it this time..."

Priceless memory.

I'm sure it's been a good 8-10 years since I was there, but I remember Spengers fondly just for the old school ambience. We lose too many of those places now. Lefty O Doul's and the Fisherman's Grotto in San Francisco are two others I've been sad to see go.

As for my go-tos in Berkeley, I still enjoy LaVals and Giovanni's......if it's still there on Shattuck.

At the conclusion of the California Invitational High School Speech Tournament - we would have a very large group of people who had worked the tournament be treated to dinner at Spengers - anywhere from 20-45 people. Much lobster or crab thermidor was ordered.
I never found the food at Spengers to be particularly good - but not too expensive and food that I would order infrequently or just wasn't available elsewhere.
Sigh.

Bertola's; Tijuana Joe's, Fondue Fred's; "There's no there there"
As for long standing dining establishments:
Is Pirro's still around on Shattuck? or The Egg Shoppe (I think it was called?). The Smokehouse down on Telegraph (well, that was not a sitdown place).

Not surprising at all. Spenger's deteriorated pretty quickly after Buddy Spenger sold the restaurant to McCormick & Schmick in 1998. The last time I ate there was in 2007 for my brother's graduation and the seafood quality was absolutely terrible. I think that was also the last year I ate at Skates on the Bay, which had a really nice menu and chef for a while but then the quality also went downhill.

Egg Shop still in Montclair but they are just waiting for all the old hills people to die...once they stopped running the trains my kids stopped wanting to go there.

We went to Spengers a few times for the lobster bisque over the past few year - not because it was particularly good but because they are the only people around who still have it - or did have it. They had shut down most of the restaurant except for the room with the bar - the rest they only rented out for events. I think they own the parking lot across the street, so they are most likely doing a big build there. I am sure there will be a remodel on the Spengers side with a multitude of restaurants there and on the other side a bunch of new stores, apartments and pay parking.

Fondue Fred's is still there. Jupiter is the old school classic but more of a bar - I only really go there for lunch on the patio when the weather is nice. Pirro's pizza in Berkeley is gone (although the original location in the Sunset district of SF is still there on Taraval St.). A classic SF pizza place, along with another Sunset classic - Pasquale's Pizza. Giovanni's is now Gio's Pizza and Bocce - so that is a good or bad thing. Much more hipster.

Berkeley changed forever when Mario's La Fiesta went down...Tripe soup after a night out and the triple - burritos deep fried, corn tortilla's you would break your teeth on, and two flouta's...$4.45 and you would not have to eat for three days. And of course they would serve you - it would have been rude to ask for an ID at a sit down restaurant! The re-named Remy's - opened after the fire across the street - also has closed. I mean, when Edy's left for an Eddy Bauer I thought that was crazy - where else was I going to get Steak Fries with Gravy and a cup of coffee for under a buck served by a so bored and irritated Berkeley high drop-out who was super hot but knew she already made all the wrong choices in life by the time she was 20 so that I had to go back every night for a whole summer just for her to make snippy remarks at me waitress...At least the Eddy Bauer was replaced by Peet's instead of starbucks. And them Manuel's was shut down for one too many pitchers sold to 18 year olds (where after the 1986 big game I was dancing with Oski on the table and they kicked both of us out after I poured a pitcher down his pants which for some reason was really funny).

But at least King Pin is still there if you ever need a totally grease coated intestinal tract or an apple fritter to soak up all the booze.

There is still the San Pablo miracle mile - The Albatross, The Ivy Room, Club Mallard and the Hotsy- Totsy club still holding strong for a post-game bar hop trip. And if you are Oakland bound, of course stop by The Alley on Grand, although poor old Rod Dibble no longer tickles the ivories there after dying last year. But the music still goes on. Goodish food on Grand now. I met Steve Kerr there at the Boot and Shoe Service.

KoreAmBear said:

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Intermezzo is old and now new school.

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Mrs.Yogi and I checked out Intermezzo not that long ago. While the bread is still the same, the salad just isn't anywhere near as good as it was in our day.