A soft pretzel, that perpetual beer snack, was wisely paired with both a smoky, bacony cheese sauce and a mustard made with their session lager that had just enough back of the throat kick. The pretzel itself, made by Oakland’s Salthouse Pretzel Co, was delicious, chewy and flecked with caraway.

The soft pretzel with bacon fondue and mustard (Shelby Pope)

A Drive-In Burger, topped with cave aged cheddar, onion confit and an ombre heirloom tomato was deliciously juicy--so juicy that its impressively thick bun gave a valiant effort but still fell apart while I was halfway through. For three dollars more, we swapped the burger’s kettle chips for spicy fries, topped with togarashi and served with a fiery mayonnaise made with an impressive amount of sriracha.

The Drive-In Burger with spicy fries (Shelby Pope)

We also shared the Joey pizza, featuring horseradish cream, crimini mushrooms and grilled red onion. Horseradish on pizza sounded like it had the potential to be a delicious, if alienating, pizza topping. We’ll never know, since the pizza didn’t seem to have any horseradish on it whatsoever. What it did have -- perfectly roasted mushrooms, tender onions, a haphazard sprinkle of unidentified herbs--was tasty, especially after taking advantage of the chance to “Get it Draked,” (adding a runny duck egg) which added another layer of richness. The pizza had the same blistered, crispy crust and speckled undercarriage of several local Italian style pizza places, but at $13, Drakes’ version a few dollars cheaper than most.

The Joey pizza with a duck egg (Shelby Pope)

After finishing the pizza and promptly falling into a food coma, we ordered a cold brewed nitro coffee, made with a blend from Oakland’s Highwire Coffee Roasters. Topped with a creamy layer of foam similar to a stout, the nitrogen-infused coffee was refreshing, with a thicker texture than hot coffee and a seltzer-like taste.

Like most new restaurants, there were a few slip ups: we originally received garlic fries instead of the spicy ones we ordered, water glasses remained empty even after several beseeching looks towards the server with the pitcher, and our check came a solid 15 minutes before the nitro coffee.

Nitro coffee from Highwire Coffee Roasters (Shelby Pope)

But even those issues couldn’t distract from the overwhelming niceness of our surroundings, as we sat outside in the warm sunlight, watching a half dozen vignettes play out around us: a man unwrapping a pile of presents, friends excitedly running into each other, two toddlers ponderously examining a white labrador retriever. The coffee may have been late, but it forced a few minutes of mindlessly--or mindfully, depending on your interpretation--enjoying the moment. And what’s so bad about that?

Drake’s Dealership
2325 Broadway [Map]
Oakland, CA 94617
Ph: (510) 833-6649
Hours: Sun-Wed, 11:30am-11pm (kitchen closes at 10:00pm); Thu-Sat, 11:30am-1am (kitchen closes at 11:00pm)
Facebook: Drake's Brewing
Twitter: @DrakesBeer
Price range: $$ (Entrees $11-$17)

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