On a recent trip to San Francisco where we did all the tourist things with our six year old daughter, we ventured to lunch in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. It’s not Oakland as you have probably come to know it.
Rockridge is like so many suburban areas across America that experienced a resurgence right before Covid and has survived to become an eclectic mix of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and locally-owned bookstores.
In a neighborhood flooded with young professionals, what you picture is what you see: menus loaded with avocado toast options, flavorful lattes, and very welcoming bookstores.
After a lunch with our crew, we hit the streets in search of local goods.
It did not take long for us to start to fit in, walking from store to store with our ice lattes; the neighborhood did not disappoint.
On this fall day, the crunch of recently fallen leaves left me yearning for a bookstore. There is something beautiful about a bookstore with it’s doors held open to allow a fall breeze sweep its way through the aisles of books just waiting for their future homes to come calling.
The Rockridge neighborhood is right next to Berkeley and as a former Midwesterner, I have this idea of Berkeley of being a Hippie’s paradise with their history of activism and free-love.
While the decades have changed, the feeling of inclusive and free-thought have not departed this neighborhood.
Enter: Pegasus Books
On our stroll we found Pegasus Books. I can’t help but drag the family with me when I find a local bookstore. Sometimes I go in search of one, but sometimes, like this, it finds me.
The beautiful trait of a bookstore — in America or Vienna — is that you can browse for hours and not a soul will bother you. And if they do, they only want to help you find the treasure you seek.
Traveling with a kid is no different… my daughter loves to explore and find a treasure to bring home. On this trip, she tracked down a book about the joys of San Francisco we still read nearly a year later.
Their shelves held a balanced mix of expected memoirs and current “hits” mixed with local stories, history, and children’s creativity.
Pegasus has found a way to merge the dynamic and bohemian culture of Berkeley with a modern experience to ensure, after more than half-a-century in the local bookstore business, they remain a beacon of open thought, and more importantly, open doors on a cool fall afternoon.
*Photos courtesy of Pegasus Books and Google Maps.