Ginny Prior/for Bay Area News Group Farmstead Cheeses and Wines’ chief cheese monger, Jeff Diamond, “cracks a parm” — slices open a giant Parmesan cheese wheel — for food and wine writers recently at his Montclair store.

MONTCLARION: May 20, 2019

As far as cheese goes, it was a beaut — 85 pounds of fresh Parmesan, a wheel so big it took a young clerk to flip it. Farmstead Cheeses and Wines’ chief cheese monger, Jeff Diamond, treated journalists to a show the other night. “Cracking a ‘parm’ is a very cool thing,” he quipped. “And I’m always excited when I can show folks how it’s done.” Continue reading →

“Four Days Diablo” hikers dine recently at Curry Canyon Ranch in the shadow of Mount Diablo. At least three Montclarions participated recently in the soft-adventure hiking and camping trip along the 30-mile Diablo Trail linking Walnut Creek to Brentwood.

MONTCLARION: May 9, 2019

Montclarions Steve and Carolyn Balling have hiked all over the world. So has Oakland’s Shirley Langlois. But there’s a place in their own backyard that keeps calling them back — Mount Diablo. Continue reading →

Ginny Prior/for Bay Area News Group Kent Steinwert, the chair of Farmers and Mechanics Bank (F&M), appears recently in front of the new building his bank financed in Montclair. F&M will occupy one of three new spaces in the building.

MONTCLARION: April 25, 2019

It’s been 15 some years in the making, but plans are moving forward to transform Montclair’s Antioch Court into a pedestrian plaza. A handful of us reminisced the other night about our meetings back in the early 2000s, when we first started exploring this concept. With the Montclair Village Association behind it, the money is starting to come in for a community space on a little street with so much potential. Continue reading →

MONTCLARION: DEC. 2018

Potholes and parking are making us crabby. And yes, the two are related because they add stress to driving on increasingly crowded Oakland roads. The pitted streets read like a laundry list: Park Boulevard, Thornhill Drive, Valley View, Shepherd Canyon, Tunnel … and on and on. Critics note despite Oakland’s high property taxes that never seem to quench our city’s thirst for spending, streets like Thornhill have been on the repaving list for years. Continue reading →