New York Times: Oakland's Cafe Van Kleef

The Oakland, Calif., “renaissance” has been touted for so long that one might become incredulous. (Then again, didn’t the Italian version last 200 years?) But after a trip to Cafe Van Kleef, the dirty-but-dapper cafe-bar at the epicenter of the downtown scene, you’ll need no more convincing that San Francisco finally has a Brooklyn to call its own. The orange sign and rainbow umbrellas that hover above the sidewalk tables emerge from the gray office buildings like a tequila sunrise. And if it’s a bit hard to tell whether the people milling outside are cafe patrons or aggressive panhandlers, who cares? Everyone’s welcome at Peter Van Kleef’s carnivalesque utopia.

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