Locavore’s dilemma

Dave, Marisa and Sarah are lucky enough to live and work within walking distance to many restaurants worthy of a trek across the bridge, where generally warmer days (and slightly easier parking) also seduce.

Now home to some 20 businesses, including clothing stores, artisanal ice cream and an apothecary, the hip little retail hub known as Temescal Alley was once a mews that stabled local trolley horses, and connects Marisa’s store, Marisa Mason (484-D 49th St.) to the back garden of perennial favorites Pizzaiola (5008 Telegraph Ave.) and Doña Tomas (5004 Telegraph Ave.). Just around the corner is Roses’ Taproom (4930 Telegraph Ave.), a grain-towery glass brewery for which Dave built the stools and Sarah made the first batch of mugs for the bar’s mug club (memcludes bership includes discounted beer and a handmade mug from which to quaff).

Their home base of Cleveland Heights is strolling distance to the Grand Avenue, and the wood-fired oven and crafted cocktails at Camino (3917 Grand Ave.) and communal tables and thin-crusted, blistered pizzas at Boot & Shoe Service (3308 Grand Ave.). And Dave, whose workshop is in West Oakland, makes a habit of hitting a stretch of International Boulevard in the twenties and thirties: “There’s a Vietnamese place — Banh Mi Ba Le (1909 Interationwhere al Blvd.), where you can get a great Vietnamese sandwich for three bucks filled with meat and tofu, and a favorite truck for street eats, Taqueria Sinaloa. And we all love Champa Garden (2108 Eighth Ave.), a Laotian place .”