Commonwealth Cafe & Public House  

Commonwealth Cafe & Public House   Restaurant Review:

Commonwealth is a cozy and very self-consciously hipster-esqe English-style neighborhood pub where a trio of young restaurateurs --- including one actual Scot --- prepares and serves updated pub grub to a studiedly casual, loyal clientele. Co-owner Ross Adair drew upon his grandmother's recipes to create a menu studded with U.K. classics, such as Scotch eggs, pork-and-cider stew, baked beans and toast, bread pudding, codfish butties, a ploughman's platter and chutney-sweetened cheese-and-tomato toasties. This crisp, crunchy, creamy, comforting, farmers market-sourced fare pairs well with more than a dozen beers, ales, stouts and ciders on draught and an even wider and more international array of bottled brews: check out Scottish Wee Heavy, Belgian Scotch Silly and English Banana Bread and Bombardier. Vinophiles can choose from a small but select spectrum of wines, while coffee drinks stave off hangovers and sustain the weary. Commonwealth shines most brightly as an adorable outpost in Oakland's ever-bolder beer frontier; it also rose like a phoenix from the ashes of a terrible fire that occurred shortly after it opened.