The Top Twelve Cute and Trendy Restaurants at 925

Elia in Walnut Creek. Credit: Bay Area Telegraph

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA – When Marie-Eve W. of Endriss asked neighbors for a “trendy/cute” spot in Walnut Creek or Lafayette in an online discussion, the recs poured in—from candle-lit interiors to places with live music, and even a local legend with amazing fried chicken.

Below are the community’s favorites (in no specific order), with quick notes on what’s, well, notable right now. We’ve included the neighbors who shouted them out so you know who to thank.

12.The Hideout Kitchen( Lafayette)

Chantell H. of Gregory Gardens flagged this cozy Lafayette circle spot—and yes, it has an outdoor patio. The Hideout runs lunch, happy hour, and dinner daily, with weekend brunch and a reputation for polished California comfort in a casual room. The outdoor patio is heated, so you can dine here even into the rainy season. It’s in the former Cooperage space.

11. Wence Restaurant and Bar ( Pleasant Hill)

Also on Chantell H.’s list (and seconded by Carlos R. of Holbrook Heights), Wence’s mixes a neighborhood vibe with a seafood-forward menu and a full bar. It’s right on Oak Park Blvd. and keeps steady daytime-to-evening hours.  We haven’t tried it yet–it’s definitely going on the Bay Area Telegraph’s list!

10. Original Joe ( Walnut Creek)

Carlos R. is excited for this Bay Area icon’s new East Bay outpost—opened in mid-August with big booths and two patios—but a minor kitchen fire forced a temporary closure days later. The team says they’ll reopen as soon as repairs wrap.

9. Tropa ( Lafayette)💚

Harold B. of Boyd put this on the radar; Marie-Eve W. was intrigued for the Filipino flavors. Tropa brings a sleek, retro-Manila aesthetic, dinner service Wed–Sat (plus Sunday brunch), and a modern take on classic dishes. We honestly didn’t even know this place opened, and it’s right in our backyard! The brunch looks fantastic.

8. Elia ( Walnut Creek)

Meg C. (Hillsdale & PH Rd Area) swears by the “fun vibes” on weekends, and Elia’s Greek-Mediterranean plates fit the bill for a dressed-up night downtown. It runs late hours and is bookable for prime-time Fridays and Saturdays. I can vouch for the fact that the food (try the lamb) and live music here are top notch.

7. Lita ( Walnut Creek)

Also from Meg C.: LITA’s tropical, high-energy dining room turns out Caribbean-Latino plates and cocktails, with weekday happy hour. It’s a looker inside and keeps a steady lunch-to-dinner flow.

6. Daughters Thai (Oakland/Montclaire )

If you’re willing to hop over the tunnel, Meg C. and Ann M. (Gregory Gardens) both love Daughter Thai’s glam room and vibrant plates. Lunch and dinner run daily with clearly posted seating cut-offs.

5. Social Bird Kitchen and Bar( Lafayette)

Eli C. (Hillcrest Townhomes) pointed here: it’s a lively Restaurant Row staple with a reliable happy hour and all-day energy. Easy to book for date night or a celebratory group. Lots of Moms’ Nights Out and parent gatherings for local schools happen here! Try the sliders–both the lamb and fried chicken ones are great.

4. Cantina Jack's ( Pleasant Hill) 

Marie K. (Hidden Lakes) suggested this newer Mexican cantina from the Jack’s team in Downtown PH. Expect margaritas, a party vibe, and an inviting patio setting right next to the OG restaurant.

3 . Batch and Brine (Lafayette)

Shawn G. of Pacheco is a fan of the crowd-pleasing burgers, shareables, and cocktail list; weekend brunch is popular, too. Happy hour runs on weekdays and the patio scene is a draw.

2. Casa Orinda ( Orinda)

Terry M. (Alhambra Valley) called it: the fried chicken is a local legend—and the Old West décor is pure East Bay nostalgia. Note the dinner-only schedule Wednesday–Sunday and handy BART-adjacent location. We wouldn’t necessarily call Orinda’s oldest restaurant “trendy.” But locals tell us it’s a great spot in a classic, old school way.

1. The Dead Fish (Crockett)

1

Gena J. (Ridgeview) loves this waterfront classic for crab feasts and Carquinez Strait views, despite its admittedly strange name. There’s indoor and outdoor seating daily. A fun destination-dinner pick still (technically) within the 925.

💚Personal Note: My grand daughter, Alix Katague and her husband Brendan try to reserve a table for Four this Sunday, September 14,  but TROPA restaurant is full. I am a little bit disappointed as I am looking forward to it.  I heard to get a Table at Tropa at Sunday Brunch you need to have at least 2-3 weeks advanced reservation. 

Today is the 24th Anniversary of the Bombing of the WTC and the Pentagon

September 11, 2001 was the day, I will never forget. It was the day the world trembled and changed the way we travel all over the world. My personal involvement of that tragedy is documented in my two blogs as follows:

https://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/2025/08/my-fda-role-after-911-attack-of-world.html

https://chateaudumer.blogspot.com/2025/08/sulfamylon-sulvadine-and-biafine-creams.html

Today,  Americans are remembering the 24 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 with solemn ceremonies, volunteer work and other tributes honoring the victims.

Many loved ones of the nearly 3,000 people killed will join dignitaries and politicians at commemorations Thursday in New York, at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

And in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, a similar ceremony marked by moments of silence, the reading of names and the laying of wreaths, will honor the victims of Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit. That service will be attended by Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins.

Like Lynch, people across the country are also marking the 9/11 anniversary with service projects and charity works as part of a national day of service. Volunteers will be taking part in food and clothing drives, park and neighborhood cleanups, blood banks and other community events.

Reverberations from attacks persist

In all, the attacks by al-Qaida militants killed 2,977 people, including many financial workers at the World Trade Center and firefighters and police officers who had rushed to the burning buildings trying to save lives.

The attacks reverberated globally and altered the course of U.S. policy, both domestically and overseas. It led to the “ Global War on Terrorism ” and the U.S.-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and related conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians.

While the hijackers died in the attacks, the U.S. government has struggled to conclude its long-running legal case against the man accused of masterminding the plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The former al-Qaida leader was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and later taken to a U.S. military base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, but has never received a trial.

The anniversary ceremony in New York was taking place at the National Sept. 11 memorial and Museum, where two memorial pools ringed by waterfalls and parapets inscribed with the names of the dead mark the spots where the twin towers once stood.

The Trump administration has been contemplating ways that the federal government might take control of the memorial plaza and its underground museum, which are now run by a public charity currently chaired by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a frequent Trump critic. Trump has spoken of possibly making the site a national monument.

In the years since the attacks, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars providing health care and compensation to tens of thousands of people who were exposed to the toxic dust that billowed over parts of Manhattan when the twin towers collapsed. More than 140,000 people are still enrolled in monitoring programs intended to identify those with health conditions that could potentially be linked to hazardous materials in the soot. For Details on the Boat Rescue: 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/911-flotilla-boats-evacuated-500000-new-yorkers-safety-180978614/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=9112025&utm_content=archival-card&fbclid=IwY2xjawMv_ehleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFOSVgxR0piNlY3cEZ1dnhvAR777dLDLM45_crwm74SBH-xPkJqDoYlQHjmO9HNXwwLf2hbdd499-tGW2wqKA_aem_N3htt2hH9fw0J_oa7oKNqQ

Lastly, here's my Photo of the Day

Label it yourself- A Banksy Art 

Banksy is a pseudonymous and controversial English street artist, activist, and film director whose identity remains unconfirmed. Active in the graffiti scene for over 30 years, Banksy's work is known for its dark humor, satire, and political commentary.Their signature style combines striking images, often rats, apes, or police, with evocative slogans to satirize war, capitalism, and hypocrisy. 

Hercules at the Crossroads Painting

This Posting is inspired by today's scheduled Art Lecture on Martin Wong Paintings💚. See attached Brochure.

From My Art Readings This Week

A contemplative Hercules occupies the center of this monumental painting. On the right, a personification of Pleasure gestures to playing cards, musical instruments, and theatrical masks. Here, the landscape is rich, green, and floral. On the left, Virtue points to Hercules’s winged horse Pegasus. There, the road is winding, and the landscape is arid. Yet a poet crowned in laurels at the picture’s bottom left assures Hercules that Virtue will lead to great renown. 

This painting once graced the center of the ceiling in a small room known as the Camerino in the Farnese Palace in Rome. The room’s iconography was determined by the palace’s librarian, Fulvio Orsini, who knew the fifth-century Ancient Greek parable involving Hercules from its retelling by Cicero. Cardinal Odoardo Farnese selected Annibale to execute the Camerino’s decor, which the artist completed between 1595–97.

Details Title: Hercules at the Crossroads Creator: Annibale Carracci Date Created: 1596 Medium: oil on canvas (From Wikipedia)

In relation to the above, here's a summary essay of Carracci’s “Hercules at the Crossroads”: It was titled: A Parable in Paint as published on the September 6-7 issue of the WSJ. I found it very interesting and relevant even today. 

"Annibale Carracci’s "Hercules at the Crossroads" (1596) is a masterpiece that fuses myth, moral philosophy, and the grandeur of post-Renaissance art. The painting, commissioned for a cardinal’s private study in Rome, reimagines an ancient allegory: the young Hercules, paused at life’s fork, contemplating a choice between an arduous path of virtue or the easy allure of vice.

The Allegory: Virtue Versus Vice

At the heart of the canvas, Hercules stands between two striking figures—Virtue, who urges him toward a rocky ascent promising glory through hardship, and Vice, who tempts with lush pleasures and an effortless route. Carracci offers more than a mythological retelling; the scene becomes a mirror for every viewer’s own moral dilemmas. Pegasus in the background alludes to the rewards that await should Hercules choose the difficult, virtuous journey.

Artistic Legacy and Modern Relevance

Carracci’s style blends Michelangelo-inspired monumental forms with a new psychological realism, marking a turning point in art history. The WSJ article highlights how this story, once central to Renaissance humanism and retold by Petrarch centuries before Carracci, still resonates: Hercules embodies the perpetual human challenge to seek meaning and greatness, even when vice offers comfort and delight.

Today’s Takeaway

Through its vivid characters and sharp symbolism, “Hercules at the Crossroads” remains a vivid visual parable. It asks timeless questions: Which journey do we choose, and at what cost? Carracci’s painting, through brush and myth, invites contemplation as relevant now as it was four centuries ago.

Personal Note: My knowledge of Art is miniscule. However, numerous visits to Art Museums in Chicago, New York, Kansas City, Washington, DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles,  The Vatican and the Philippines in my younger years has not only aroused my curiosity on art, but I feel I am starting to appreciate it very much as I grow older over the years. On a Personal level, My Father was an excellent artist ( pencil drawings) and my youngest daughter is a semi-professional Painter. She has exhibited and sold a few of her paintings as her side profession. For her art work, visit:        

https://www.grievingthruglee.com/

💚Finally, About (from Wikipedia): Martin Wong (Chinese: 黃馬鼎; July 11, 1946 – August 12, 1999) was a Chinese-American painter of the late 20th century. His work has been described as a meticulous blend of social realism and visionary art styles. Wong's paintings often explored multiple ethnic and racial identities, exhibited cross-cultural elements, demonstrated multilingualism, and celebrated his queer sexuality. He exhibited for two decades at notable New York galleries including EXIT ART, Semaphore, and P.P.O.W., among others, before his death in San Francisco from an AIDS-related illness. P.P.O.W. continues to represent his estate. For Details visit: 

Wong's Chinese Parade

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Wong

China and India- Separated by the Roof of the World

This posting is inspired from my recent readings that India beats China as the Number One most populated country of the world.💚

... Neighbors Separated by the Roof of the World!

Although China and India share the longest mountainous border on Earth, the contrast between them—in appearance, identity, and culture—is striking to anyone unfamiliar with the secrets of geography.

The recurring question is:

Why don’t Chinese and Indians look alike, despite being neighbors?

The answer lies in a colossal geological barrier: the Himalayas

The Himalayas... More Than Just Mountains:

This mountain range isn’t just the tallest in the world—it’s a towering natural wall that separates two ancient civilizations. To the north lies the cold, arid Tibetan Plateau; to the south, the warm and humid Indian subcontinent.

For over 40 million years, these peaks have formed an impenetrable barrier to migration, allowing each people to evolve in relative isolation—shaping their languages, features, and beliefs independently.

Deep Ethnic Differences:

- The Chinese, especially the Han majority, belong to Mongoloid ethnic groups, with East Asian features such as narrow eyes and lighter skin.

- Indians, from north to south, span Aryan and Dravidian groups, with traits closer to West Asian peoples—darker skin tones and strong facial features.

This divergence isn’t recent—it’s the result of millennia of separate development, shaped by geography.

Borders That Whisper, Not Shout:

In regions like Chinese Tibet or India’s northeastern states, mixed features emerge, reflecting limited interaction between the peoples.

Yet even there, the mountain stands as a silent guardian—restricting deep cultural fusion.

Two Civilizations, Two Paths:

- China built its civilization around the Yellow River, cultivating rice and developing Confucian and Taoist philosophies.

- India flourished around the Ganges, embracing the Vedas, Buddhism, Hinduism, and epic tales like the Mahabharata.

Despite trade routes through passes like Nathu La and Sikkim, exchanges remained modest, and the mountain remained more of a cultural wall than a geographic one.

If the Mountain Disappeared... What Then?

Would we have seen a unified Asian civilization?

Or would rivalry between two giants have ignited earlier?

Would Confucianism have met Yoga?

Or would the differences have persisted, even without the mountain?

💚India tops China as Most Populated Country in the World for 2025

Meanwhile, here’s the latest update  on whether India and China are drawing closer—and whether that shift stems from Trump’s tariff policies:

---

Key Factors Behind India–China Rapprochement

1. Tactics, Not a Full Realignment

Experts emphasize that any thaw between India and China is strategic and cautious—tactical, not indicative of a sweeping alliance or diplomatic realignment. A warming of ties reflects pragmatism, not foundational trust or deeper partnership.
CNBCIndia TodayAl Jazeera

2. Trump’s Trade Tensions as a Catalyst

President Trump’s aggressive tariff strategy—like the 50% surcharge on Indian goods—has created economic friction. India and China have both found themselves navigating uncertainty, leading to moments of pragmatic cooperation: joint business ventures, eased border rhetoric, and expanded economic discussions.
ReutersThe Washington PostAl JazeeraThe Times of India

India has proposed reducing dependence on the U.S. and diversifying its trade—including ramped-up pharmaceutical exports to China, even as China signals a willingness to welcome more Indian investments.
ReutersThe Times of India+1

3. Strategic Hedging, Not Pivoting

India is increasingly seen as hedging its bets amid U.S. unpredictability—but this doesn’t imply abandoning its U.S. ties. Strategists urge India to maintain strategic autonomy by engaging with both powers on its own terms.
The Times of India+1The Economic TimesAl JazeeraBusiness Today

---

Summary: Is India Getting Closer to China Because of U.S. Tariffs?

Partially—but cautiously. India’s pragmatic engagements with China seem to be influenced by the need to reduce reliance on the unpredictable U.S. trade environment. However, there’s no sign of India abandoning its U.S. partnership; its moves reflect calculated balancing, not allegiance shifts.

---

In Their Words

• From CNBC: efforts by India and China to improve ties may ease some tariff pain—but “experts say it signifies a ‘tactical,’ not fundamental, shift.”
  CNBC

• From Al Jazeera: warming ties may help New Delhi mitigate U.S. tariff risks, yet India remains wary of overdependence on China.
  Al Jazeera

---

Final Thoughts

• Yes, Trump’s tariffs have influenced India’s outreach to China—offering economic alternatives and strategic cover amid disruptions.

• No, this does not signal a long-term diplomatic pivot. India's actions still emphasize flexibility, self-reliance (e.g., the "Swadeshi" push), and maintaining U.S.–India cooperation.
  The Times of India+1ReutersAP News

India under Modi seems to be projecting strength through diversification—partnering where beneficial and preserving autonomy amid shifting geopolitical currents.

---

Related news on the topic

Reuters

India looking beyond US for pharma exports amid tariff tensions

5 days ago

The Times of India

'Completely unlinked to...': Piyush Goyal says India's China shift not linked to US trade talks; hints at 'tons' of reforms

15 days ago

The Times of India

'Won't end well': Trump's aide Navarro's new warning to India over tariffs; takes 'Maharaja' jibe again

Today

Lastly, My Lucky Day Today: Won the THD Monday Night FootBall Lottery