An occasional series urging SFoodie readers to get their butts out of the Mission. For a couple hours anyway.
The first thing you'll notice as you enter the tiny Oakland café is the smell of the pork adobo stewing in the kitchen. You can actually smell it a block away ― we kid you not. If this doesn't whet your appetite for Filipino comfort food, we don't know what will.
Café Gabriela, at Broadway and 10th, just around the corner from Oakland's Chinatown, dishes pulled pork adobo sandwiches ($7) weekdays for lunch. A generous heap of incredibly moist shreds of adobo-brined pork and caramelized onions is sandwiched between toasted slices of crusty bread from Berkeley's Bread Workshop. Pair this savory sandwich with a bowl of peppery sotanghon ($4.50), vegetable soup of rice stick noodles, shiitake mushrooms, cabbage, and carrots, and it's a perfect lunch.
The neighborhood coffee bar serves Blue Bottle Coffee and a miscellany of bread and pastries from East Bay bakeries like Bread Workshop and Arizmendi.
"We're very proud to support and feature local businesses," owner Penny Baldado tells SFoodie. Baldado cooked her way through a number of Filipino restaurants in the Bay Area before she and partner Kristi Lambert decided to start their own business. They named the café after Gabriela Silang, a famous Filipino heroine known for her courageous and independent spirit.
"Her courage was an inspiration to us when we started almost a year ago," Baldado says. "Business has been good and we're very thankful for the incredible support from the local community."
The café celebrates its first year next month. Check out its Facebook page for more information about the festivities.
Café Gabriela: 988 Broadway (at 10th St.), Oakland, 510-763-2233. Open Mon.-Fri., 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. BART stop: 12th Street Oakland City Center. Walking distance: Two blocks southwest along Broadway.
