this report is way late…
we went to pizzaiolo over three weeks ago, the night before jp’s water broke. i’d been wanting to go since they opened (2 years ago?); learning of their cocktail service was the push i needed.
everything was great, food (pizza, meatballs, sauteed greens) and drinks both. cate whalen (subject of the above article) was kind enough to put together some off-menu drinks for me, as i asked specifically for cocktails that showcased house-made syrups or bitters or whatever.
drink 1: (house-made) apricot brandy, lime (?), some base spirit i cant remember
drink 2: gin, agricole rhum, bergamot syrup, lemon (?), parsley (!), rosemary
drink 3: rye, lemon, (house-made) grenadine
all were delicious, probably #1 was my favorite as the apricot brandy was really special. the other two were crisp and well-balanced, the parsley was not detectable except maybe as background brightness and clarity.
so this is probably my favorite place in the east bay for cocktails. other places whose cocktails i really like: flora, camino, cesar in oakland. places whose cocktails i wish were better: all the restaurants in the lalimes group, corso, cesar berkeley, nizza la bella, wood tavern, downtown, a cote, eccolo, cafe rouge.
also touching my heart is the $9 tag, which is the same as or less than pretty much everywhere else around.
edit: too much spam, closing comments
