My adopted neighborhood for the weekend

Peggy Nauts, Photography by Alex Fradkin

If you think of North Berkeley as an afternoon outing, not a weekend escape, a stay at the tasteful Brick Path B&B might do for you what it’s done for me: change your mind. A block off Solano Avenue, it’s ideally located for walking. And as your newfound neighbors already know, wandering North Berkeley in the spring feels like being lost in a giant English garden. Sec­ret pathways and hidden staircases lead from shady streets to proudly tended flowerbeds to terraced hillsides.

Head north from your front door and you trip over Solano, perfect for a low-key day of window-shopping. Go south, and you’re soon in the Gourmet Ghetto. In fact, some book a room at the Brick Path for the express purpose of making a pilgrimage to Chez Panisse. Guests with a coveted reservation can stroll to the brown-shingled mecca, spend a couple of decadent hours over dinner, and simply toddle back to bed.

But even without a table booked at Alice’s restaurant, I’m hardly deprived: I stop at the Cheese Board to buy sourdough English muffins or sheep’s-milk cheese; duck into the party atmosphere at César to booze it up and nibble tapas; or pick up French takeout, such as brandade and duck confit, at Grégoire. A few doors down from the collection of food shops at Epicu­rious Garden, an elegant new day spa—Pan­ache the Spa—woos foot-weary wanderers with everything from salt-scrub pedicures to haircuts-plus-color that put a new bounce in your step.

Come late afternoon, a cocktail from the extensive list at Solano’s chic burgundy-and-brick-walled Fonda is certainly in order. But not before roosting with a murder mystery in a cushy chair in the Brick Path’s pleasant garden. Does living in North Berkeley always feel like one long vacation?

Brick Path B&B: 1805 Marin Ave., Berkeley, 510-524-4277, thebrickpath.com, from $155; César: 1515 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, 510-883-0222, barcesar.com; Cheese Board: 1504 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, 510-549-3183, cheeseboardcollective.com; Chez Panisse: 1517 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, 510-548-5525, chezpanisse.com; Fonda: 1501 Solano Ave., Albany, 510-559-9006, fondasolana.com; Grégoire: 2109 Cedar St., Berkeley, 510-883-1893, gregoirerestaurant.com; Panache the Spa: 1539 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, 510-841-5555, panachethespa.com

Related Articles:
Look for me on Hayes
24 hours to Om
How far am I willing to go for a bargain? This far.