TerrieMiller.com

Steve and I planned an East Bay day last week, wanting to visit a few places we’ve come to know and love: the Oakland Museum of California, the Bone Room, and the East Bay Vivarium. What we needed was a lunch stop, so I turned to Twitter, and Marc twittered back a recommendation for Bakesale Betty. It sounded like a good stop; we found it on Google maps and planned our day with a lunch stop. We enjoyed the museum, patronized the Bone Room, but sadly, our stamina gave way before we made it to the vivarium…perhaps it was a food induced coma.

Bakesale Betty is at the corner of 51st and Telegraph, in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. The non-descript storefront doesn’t stand out, but the line out the door does.

When we arrived, we saw the line stretching down the block; I started having doubts. “Do you think it’s worth it?” Steve thought it was; the woman behind us chimed in, “Oh, it’s totally worth it.”

Almost at that moment, a nice young man in a white coat appeared, passing out humongous shortbread cookies in neat wrappers. Apologizing for the wait, he smiled and gave us each a cookie. We were stunned. But not as much as when Betty herself…aka Alison Barakat, in her famous blue wig and baby in tow, appeared to continue the apologies and cookie distribution.

What was even more strange is that the line was moving quickly. In no time at all (or maybe in “Betty time”), we were inside the doors and placing our order.

It was a little hard to see what was available, but we knew from Marc that we wanted the chicken sandwiches. Steve ordered lemonade and I copied him, unaware that it was going to be the perfect complement to the spicy sandwiches.

We also ordered a few cookies to go. The counter person cheerfully packaged up the cookies, throwing in some extra cookies to try, and giving us a big serving of strawberry shortcake (free as well) for dessert.

We adjourned to the cute ironing board tables outside, and dug into our feast, which I have failed miserably to properly capture in a photo:

There’s actually two sandwiches there. Total cost for everything? $26.

As we stuffed our faces in ecstasy, Betty and baby plied the continuing crowd with cookies and smiles.

So we’re grateful to Marc for the recommendation, and we’re wondering if we should keep quiet about this little gem. But SFGate got there first anyhow (and even get a recipe for that amazing sammich), so there you go.

Two thumbs up — way up — for Bakesale Betty!