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For Bay Area (esp East Bay!) folks --

Yes, the pandemic added much pain to the challenges facing neighbourhood businesses, worker collectives in particular; our long time favourite local coffee shop, Alchemy Collective Café in Berkeley, closed for good last month and we have been very sad as a result. But: *Arizmendi Bakery and Pizzeria*, in both Lakeshore district of Oakland and Emeryville near the Oakland border, is a great alternative! Their name may suggest coffee is not a serious option here, but that would be quite mistaken. Your usual array of coffee specialties - café au lait, espresso, cappuccino, latte,

mocha - are all on the menu, and all really tasty. And you get the big plus of truly fabulous baked goods (made in their own ovens, not outsourced) - and the best vegan pizzas on the planet.

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Oh, and Arizmendi is a worker collective!

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omg yes, a thousand times yes!

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This is a fabulous idea! People always turn to Starbucks first, but local coffee even better!

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author

Agreed! And most shops have a website that makes buying a gift card really easy!

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