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YOU'D BE LOST without that Shuffle, but boy, do you miss the feeling of your nail nicking vinyl.
At one point, the East Bay was home to a wealth of record stores brimming with classic and rare finds. But, much like video killing the radio star, our laptops and the CDs have buried LPs. Oakland's Saturn Records is gone, and so is dba Brown. Grooveyard Records and Mod Lang can sustain only so many music lovers, right?
Don't be such a whiner. Records will outlive CDs, whose sales have been down 20 percent for the past two years.
It's with this attitude that I barreled down San Pablo Avenue during the weekend, with my boyfriend Joel, to check out El Cerrito's latest spot, 33 Revolutions Record Shop & Cafe. The brainchild of the former tea buyer for Whole Foods and his vinyl-collecting business partner, I was expecting a small funky space decorated with kettles and vintage posters, where shelves of rare leaves would promise me perma-antioxidant bliss and Billie Holiday would help by cooing in the background.
33 Revolutions is not quite there, but I think it has potential. They opened up shop three weeks ago in the former Central Perk, that even more funky coffeeshop-with-collectibles where Homer Simpson bobbleheads sold next to Grandma's hand-me-down dishes.
For starters, the space is too big for its own good. We estimated somewhere between a basketball court and a football field, so the hodgepodge
There are ways to solve this problem, and the shop is on top of it. Once city permits are in place, the owners plan to showcase live bands and serve beer and wine, which always brings peeps together. They'll be open past 9 p.m., young people will flock, and all will be right in the world.
Until then, what you can expect from 33 Revolutions, among other things, is a quiet place to work with free Internet and good organic food. We shared a delicious beet salad and chicken ciabatta sandwich, and some lovely local teas from Numi. The Honeybush rocks. As coffee and tea snobs, however, we were disappointed that the owners weren't milking their expertise to bring in some sick teas from around the world. They do have matcha, the green tea fountain of youth.
Even better, 33 Revolutions is one of two East Bay shops to sell Ritual Coffee, the Mission District roasters answering the call for robust joe that doesn't go down like burnt acid. This is a notch in their hipster belt. If you haven't tried it, you should.
And then there's the music. Dave, one of the owners, has been collecting records for 25 years and knows his stuff. Bins on the right side of the shop hold about 2,000 records ranging from rock and soul to funk and hip-hop, all starting at $1. The most impressive selection is clearly the jazz, as noted by finds such as "Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall" and "Chet Baker Sings 'It Could Happen to You'" ($150 a pop). You can walk up to the record player and throw on any vinyl you want, just as if it were your house.
Night Writer Jessica Yadegaran covers bars, clubs and other such night spots. Suggestions? Send them to her at 925-943-8155 or jyadegaran@bayareanewsgroup.com.
daily.
San Pablo Avenue.
the perk but with the jams.
