Hiya Perkins and Juliana! Sunday I'm booked with my Great Uncle and Aunt in Albany (near the North Berkley Station of the BART, I'm told--I have no idea where it is, aside from near a BART station) for the afternoon and dinner. It'll probably end pretty early, though, at they're both in their upper 80s. I'm getting in around 7:30 Saturday evening, flight plans willing, which I guess means getting checked in and whatnot by 9-9:30 at the Weston on Powell St.

If this sort of schedule meshes with yours I'd love to meet up with you and any other Bayistas for a drink.

Maybe a brunch on Sunday, depending on when you have to go to Albany? Sunday evening is harder for me.

I could make a brunch on Sunday, I think.

Hey, my church is in North Berkeley right near the BART station! Can Matilda and I tag along, at least for coffee? (Money and grandparent-visiting duties may preclude anything longer, but it'd be great to meet you F2F even if only just to slurp caffeine and run)

If something is set up for Sunday morning in Berkeley, I'd love to come, too.

Brunch sounds great! I have an affinity group meeting at the Hilton (conference venue) until 10 am (that's how I was able to swing the extra day in San Francisco), but I can probably be free after that until 3ish, especially if there's a good brunch place at the North Berkeley end of things. JZ, I'd love to meet you and Matilda, too. And P-C, Julianna, and Perkins.

I love conferences!

eta: and javachik!

Clearly San Francisco is the place to be. Smonster's been saying that for a while.

I don't know anything about brunch places in Berkeley. Anyone have suggestions?

Poking around Yelp, I find La Note and Venus, both on Shattuck near BART. Venus doesn't appear to have availability according to OpenTable, but I'm not sure exactly how that works. Other options close by include Cafe Durant and Ann's Kitchen.

La Note is usually mobbed; they take no reservations, and the wait for Sunday brunch is hellish. The upside is that Pegasus Books is half a block away, good for browsing in the event of a half-hour or more wait.

Saul's, on Shattuck two doors down from Black Oak Books, is usually pretty crowded but has enough seating that it moves pretty quick, and is a very good NY-style deli.

On Solano, there's the Sunny Side Cafe and Walker's Pie Shop.

Only 2-3 blocks from the North Berkeley station there's the Monte Cristo Taqueria (listing B on the Googlemap), which is pretty good (amazing nachos) and extremely unlikely to be crowded, and about another block down there's The Bread Workshop, which has unbelievably shitty, lackadaisical service but really good food and coffee when you finally get it (and thus is rarely crowded and almost always easy to walk into with a loosely planned crowd).

eta: Gotta reemphasize that the Monte Cristo is really quite good; it's just at the ass-end of a wee strip mall on a major artery next to a dollar store, so it gets almost no Sunday brunch foot traffic.

I'll leave the venue choices up to the experts. I'll eat most things you're likely to find in a restaurant and have no food allergies to worry about.

I'm so glad I'll have the chance to meet several buffistae.