Discover antiques, mini golf and retro ice cream.
Anyone questioning the reputation of Alameda’s downtown historic Park Street district as a truly unique destination need look no further than Subpar Miniature Golf.
Owner Michael Taft made his dream a reality in 2012, when he raised enough money via Indiegogo to debut his artsy (OK, weird) indoor golf adventure set with a few-feet-high replica of the Ferry Building, Interstate 880 complete with pothole hazards, skateboard ramps, the Golden Gate Bridge and taco trucks.
Taft took over a dilapidated building between Lincoln and Santa Clara avenues. It was in shambles with out-of-code electric, crumbling plaster and a concrete floor “you could break with a heavy stomp,” Taft says.
Today, it’s a wacky warren frequented by families, teens, and youthful hipsters coming in for Glow Golf at midnight.
Browsing everything from eco-friendly baby wear to gorgeously eclectic antiques and retro-delicious ice cream, time spent on this boulevard is a beautiful thing, indeed.
TUCKER'S SUPER CREAMED ICE CREAM:
Owner Kate Pryor was hooked from her first scoop of ice cream as a little girl.
“From the very earliest time I can remember, my family would stop at Tucker’s on the way home from church to purchase ice cream for our Sunday dinner dessert,” the Alameda native recalls. “Until I was 16, I didn’t know there was anything else — and the ice cream has always been so delicious I never found anything to compare.”
So when she discovered the sweet salon was for sale in 1990, she bought the entire business.
And now, with Tucker’s celebrating its 74th anniversary this June, the world continues to find joy in the yogurt, sorbets, sherbets, fresh fudge, cookies, brownies, ice cream cakes and cheesecakes — but most of all, the ice cream.
The old-fashioned soda fountain still stands sentry for shakes, malts and floats, enjoyed on marble tables in the two-story Spanish-style oasis painted with a bay landscape and “ice cream heaven” murals.
Pryor takes her stewardship seriously. She studied ice cream production and techniques at Ice Cream University, an educational organization by international ice cream consultants Malcolm Stogo, and at an ice cream science and technology program offered by Bruce Tharp and Steven Young, who both have doctorates and own businesses in the food industry.
The result is classics, like the constant bestselling vanilla bean made with a blend of four natural extracts, but also modern flavors, such as chile, Point Reyes bleu cheese, butter beer or blood orange-tarragon.
An experiment with guacamole ice cream “was not great,” Pryor laughed. But salted butter caramel is immensely popular.
“And when Kent Rosenblum of Rosenblum Cellars in Oakland asked if we’d make ice cream with his Zinfandel, the excitement was palpable,” Pryor said. She also created a Tuscan Sunset flavor to promote the Alameda Civic Ballet’s “Nutcracker,” and a Marshmallow Megavolt Ice Cream to celebrate Alameda Municipal Power’s 125th anniversary.
“One of the more challenging was making a flavor for the local restaurant American Oak,” she said. “They wanted a signature flavor with bourbon whiskey and toffee.”
Besides imbuing every recipe with love, Pryor sources from small local farmers with pasture-fed dairy cows free of hormones or antibiotics.
And she takes time to reach out to her community, relishing what she calls “truly small town America,” and customers who enjoy the vintage baseball memorabilia in her shop’s front window.
“We made a cake batter style ice cream a while ago, and
a 10-year-old girl told us, ‘If you put rainbow sprinkles in it, you can call it birthday cake,’” Pryor says. “So now we do.”
MONKEY BARS
Perfect for the progressive baby, this high-fashion shop dresses wee ones in 100 percent cotton T-shirts emblazoned with “Let’s Blame the Sugar,” aviator hats and tiny saddle Oxford shoes.
But more importantly, it’s about being earth-friendly, and so owner Heather Reed rolls out toys like a 100 percent recycled plastic push-truck in a recycling truck design and an indoor gardening kit including three packs of organic seeds.
Forward-thinking moms, meanwhile, can pick up largescale wearable baby vests so they can haul kids as old as three years, slather themselves with organic Shea belly butter and sip wine from natural, BPAfree silicone grip Lifefactory stemless wine glasses (which guard against little hands tipping them over).
Yes, Reed is hip — she swears like a sailor, sharing her motherhood humor and vitriol on a punky blog.
But, as she notes, it all part of her parenting support group, encouraging honesty for a more effective and ultimately, sustainable future.
ROCKET REUSE
A female mannequin stands in the storefront window, grinning with a ’50s stewardess-like dress and flip hairdo. She’s the official greeter for this treasure trove of well-loved used books, DVD’s, VHS movies, vinyls, comics, puzzles, toys and vintage clothes you can try on in a telephone booth fitting room.
Owner Eric Nelson doesn’t spend a lot of time on decor – the small, crowded space overflows in a mishmash of fun odds and ends for when you really need a “wet floor” orange cone or a “sperm oil” sign in the shape of a whale.
Yet the books are conveniently grouped, with the classic Mother Goose collection next to an antique “Wizard of Oz” and Russian music records in bins next to Spanish warblers.
Begun in 2003 as an online music business under another ownership, it evolved into a store called Blue Rectangle, with Nelson helping manage operations all the way.
Under his reign for the past several years, the shop now boasts black-and-white movies played on the back wall, and a crazy quilt mentality such as a book section titled “Psychology Sports Humor.” All related studies, indeed.
PAULINE’S ANTIQUES
The funky, packed-to-therafters mausoleum from owner Eunice “Pauline” Kelley looks like a hurricane hit a garage sale. But scouring the tightly packed, 7,000-square-foot floor and basement is half the fun, uncovering must-haves like a coffee cup printed with a mouthwatering recipe for oxtail soup, a hot pink tulle Princess dress, a dizzying array of antique toasters, and a plastic- ceramic “bartender” caddy topped with a spooky grinning gent in bow tie and red jacket.
DAISY’S
The slogan is “necessities, frivolities and embellishment for everyday life.” Oh, and “smelling good and looking pretty.”
We all want this, as proprietors Barbara Mooney and Sylvia Kahn well know.
So they tempt with displays of vintage cameras, costume jewelry, letterpress art and hand-stitched patchwork pillows nestled up next to the brick walls, puppy love rusticchic pet toys (a fuzzy chewy shark!) and plenty of creamy lotions and balms for that good/pretty promise.