Extra

Today (5:00-7:00) is the opening of the new Tupper and Reed Bar, opening in the old Beckett's location on Shattuck (next to the beloved but shuttered music store they named themselves after). I heard that they were going classier than Beckett's, with an upstairs area a la Bourbon and Branch (with which they seem to be associated, by all accounts). Most people, including our fair Mayor, were outside being entertained by a bagpipe group in full regalia when I arrived, but I wanted to check out the inside to make sure the lovely roof (tied for best in downtown with the Fidelity Savings-now-Jim-Novosel-rebuilt ceiling) was undisturbed, and showed my (emailed) invite from the Downtown Berkeley Association to a guy barring the door. Odd, I thought, since I haven't been carded in years, but possible. Then he looked me up and down and just said, "No." That is, not you buddy. I said that the website said free and open to the public, but he was unfazed. So I left for Bobby G's Jazz Pizzeria, and passed the mayor's aide, Calvin Fong, and told him I couldn't get in. He leaped into action: "Try losing the backpack." So, VERY exclusive; bicyclists need not inquire. I can report, from my vantage point at the front door, that the ceiling, or at least part of it, is still intact.