Name: Elephant BarAddress: 5601 Bay Street, Emeryville, CA 94608Phone: (510) 601-1001Web site: ElephantBar.comDate & Time visited: Sunday, June 3, 2007, 8:00 PMGuests: Jennifer and meWhat we had: Spicy Barbecue Combo (ribs, shrimp, chicken) (Jen), Shrimp and Chicken FirePot (me). What’s this? Shouldn’t this post be over on Project Insomnia Restaurant Reviews? Well yes, except that [...]

Name: Elephant Bar
Address: 5601 Bay Street, Emeryville, CA 94608
Phone: (510) 601-1001
Web site: ElephantBar.com
Date & Time visited: Sunday, June 3, 2007, 8:00 PM
Guests: Jennifer and me
What we had: Spicy Barbecue Combo (ribs, shrimp, chicken) (Jen), Shrimp and Chicken FirePot (me).

What’s this? Shouldn’t this post be over on Project Insomnia Restaurant Reviews? Well yes, except that the meal was interrupted halfway through by a bomb scare! I have no idea whether it was legitimate or what, but our server came up to us and said they’d received three threatening phone calls and we had to leave. The restaurant was emptying out slowly, and as we left we saw several parties still at their tables. So I really don’t know what the hell was going on.

Our dishes were really good, as much as we were able to enjoy before we had to leave.

Service: Average. Iced tea refills when needed, but sans ice so it was lukewarm.

Would we go back: Probably not to this location, because we were only there to visit the nearby IKEA store to get a pair of BORGHAMN height extender units–we use them as shallow bookcases–that were not available at the East Palo Alto store. However, there’s another location near SFO that we’ve enjoyed and has a great view of the planes landing.

About this so-called bomb scare, I still have no idea what was really going on, but we didn’t have to pay for our dinner so we sort of came out ahead.

We live just on the other side of 101 from the new IKEA store in East Palo Alto, which opens next week. For the past few days all that’s been talked about is the expected tremendous influx of traffic, similar to that which overran the Emeryville store when it opened a few years ago. EPA [...]

We live just on the other side of 101 from the new IKEA store in East Palo Alto, which opens next week. For the past few days all that’s been talked about is the expected tremendous influx of traffic, similar to that which overran the Emeryville store when it opened a few years ago. EPA PD is working with other agencies to set up signs and routing for the grand opening. I’m looking forward to it myself (after the two-week grand opening ends)–we’re looking for a new living room couch and some cool new lighting.