A day trip to Dublin takes us to an egg-static eatery, bowling haven, hiking trail and more.
This quiet-seeming Tri-Valley city has a surprising amount of things to do, plus some morbid history
No, no, not Ireland. We're talking about California's Dublin, the Golden State's fastest-growing city of the last decade and a contemporary cultural melting pot with a whole lot of surprises — some historical, some pop culture-related and several very delicious.
There's certainly enough here to fill a Bay Area day trip, even if you're not already intrigued by the idea of the city's secretive military history and a certain notorious incident on “MythBusters” that saw a rogue cannonball blast through the side of someone's house and into a minivan.
No, you can't re-create that last one.
But might we suggest you start your day with a breakfast salute to the city's changing demographics? The Asian contingent in Dublin has roughly tripled in the past decade, accounting today for 54% of the population. So we're starting at the Dublin Ulferts Center, a two-story strip mall where the shift is delightfully apparent. You'll find jade and ginseng shops here, a Kee Wah Bakery with Chinese bridal cakes, a KTV karaoke lounge open until 2 a.m. and locally renowned dim-sum purveyor Koi Palace and — our first stop of the day — Egg Happiness.
This breakfast-lunch spot specializes in one kind of South Korean street food,
the egg sandwich, served in a setting that will make you really want to eat eggs. There's nothing subliminal here. The decor is vivid yellow and white, and there are fried eggs painted on the walls along with Orwellian messages, like “Eat More Breakfast,” “More Eggs Please” and “Have an Egg-Tastic Day.” We can only obey.
Your day will truly be egg-tastic, too, when you order one of these indulgent sandwiches ($7.49), which are delivered to your table by a kitty-faced robotic waiter. Two slabs of toasted brioche overflow with buttery, fluffy scrambled eggs, melted American cheese and a mayonnaise-based “house signature sauce.” It just might be the best egg sandwich you've ever had. Too bad the place closes at 3 p.m., as it would make excellent drunk food after hitting the late-night karaoke.
Now that your brain is powered up, let's get to that military history. The Dublin Camp Parks Military History Center is a small but intriguing museum outside the main gate checkpoint of the Parks Reserve Forces Training Area, an Army Reserve and National Guard facility historically known as Camp Parks. Inside are exhibits about how the military nurtured the growth of Dublin and artifacts from the Seabees (the U.S. Navy's Construction Battalions) that once operated here.
In 1940, Dublin was a speck of a town with about 200 residents living at this highway crossroads and neighboring ranches. That began to change during World War II, when the Navy commissioned Camp Parks as a deployment center for the Seabees and later other groups. Housing was rapidly built, sometimes using lumber scrapped from Naval Quonset huts.
New residents were lured in with job postings or by real-estate companies, which ran midcentury advertisements like a playful — and today, really problematic — one depicting a turban-wearing sultan with the caption: “For the Man With 4 Wives (or a Large Family) / 4-Bedroom Homes With 2 Sultan-size Baths, from $15,995.”
The museum offers a historic timeline of Dublin that includes this intriguing and worrisome sentence: “Radiation experiments are conducted as part of Cold War readiness.” It's true — in 1959, nearly 100 Alameda County inmates were locked in an underground fallout shelter to test the effects of isolation and diet during nuclear war. They survived well, though there were complaints about loud snoring.
The military also spread radioactive sand across a simulated American town to track the movement of contamination and conducted radiation experiments on sheep and cows to appalling effect.
Fans of such morbid lore might make their next stop the Dublin Historic Park and Museums, a ragtag collection of locally significant buildings that were moved here over time. There's an 1856 schoolhouse used by the original Irish settlers of the area, with interpretive exhibits and a general store for the kids of today. There's also the Dublin Pioneer Cemetery, born out of necessity in the 1850s.
The active cemetery has more than 600 graves and an atmospheric presence thanks to moss-covered tombs and weeping willows planted to represent mourning families. Look around closely, and you'll find plots belonging to members of the Donner Party, who after becoming snowbound in the Sierra Nevada infamously resorted to eating each other.
Lunch time! There's a sizable Indian community in Dublin, reflected in supermarkets with imported spices, specialty produce, prepared meals and even a vegetarian Satvik Eggless Bakery (as much as Egg Happiness must hate that). Another great vegetarian option just across the city border is Amritha Vilas, a casual South Indian restaurant that prepares crispy dosas and sweets like fresh junnu, jilebi and leaf-wrapped sweet paan.
Amritha Vilas is home to the “All-Day Thali” special — fork over $13.99, and you're treated to endless waves of flavored rices, curries, roti pachadi and more, plus spicy buttermilk to wash it all down.
The restaurant's dosas are the length of a child's arm and served traditional or fusion-style with fillings like avocado, chili cheese and golden corn. Some folks swear the kitchen's sambar — the deeply spiced lentil soup that's great for dipping everything — is the best in town.
For a meatier option, and one that nicely represents Dublin's blending of cultures, there's Taqueria Azteca.
This humble and extremely popular restaurant serves killer quesabirria tacos with consomme, but also Asiantinged dishes like ramen birria and short-rib pho with mint and rice noodles. The latter dish might seem pricey at $21, until it arrives with a bone-on rib that must weigh a pound plopped on top. The bowl is spicy, satisfying and will have you feeling like a caveman for the rest of the day.
There are a couple of low-energy ways in Dublin to burn off your calories. Earl Anthony's Dublin Bowl is a classic bowling alley with 40 championship lanes, an arcade full of racing games and a fullservice bar with big-screen TVs. Earl Anthony was the No. 1 title-winner in professional bowling and the sport's first athlete to earn $1 million. He was known as “Square Earl” for his crew cut and horn-rimmed glasses but was a monster at throwing rocks, once winning third on a Professional Bowlers Association's tour three months after suffering a heart attack.
Anthony managed this bowling alley before passing away in 2001. Today, you can study his memorabilia in a glass case, then attempt to bag some turkeys with the alley's wellweathered balls. A game is $6 on weekday nights plus $5 for shoe rental; compare that to the $172 for two hours you'll find in San Francisco, and you'll realize what a deal you're getting.
Hiking devotees will find the Iron Horse Trail interesting. The paved trail passes through Dublin pretty much in a straight line and is absolutely level, running along the 1890s Southern Pacific Railroad right-of-way.
On one side is a huge cement culvert with “Terminator 2” chase-scene vibes, full of ducks paddling against the current. On the other are fields of brush aflutter with tiny, invisible birds.
The trail runs for 32 miles through the East Bay and is popular with cyclists, stroller-pushing parents and dog-walkers. You can score a personal accomplishment by biking its entire length from Concord to Pleasanton, stopping along the way at coffee shops and bars.
Or you can just walk it, admiring the distant hills and getting your 10,000 steps in, until you wind up crossing over to San Ramon or Pleasanton — and just like that, your day trip to Dublin is over.