Parking and pre-gaming for Greek Theatre (Berkeley)

April 15, 2019 9:34 AM

I will be attending Friday's CHVRCHES show at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley (YAY) and have questions about parking and dinner/drinks.

This question has been asked before but it's been years.

We will be leaving Sacramento around 3, so expect to get to the general area by 5-ish. Parking on campus is allowed after 5PM, from what I can tell, but I would rather park closer to bars/restaurants, and then walk to the venue.

I'm looking for a place to park (reserved preferably) that will not result in us spending an hour in the car waiting to get out of the lot after the show, that is close to somewhere with a good beer selection to get dinner, and that minimizes our walking distance to the venue. Any suggestions?

posted by sacrifix to Travel & Transportation around Berkeley, CA (5 answers total)

I go to a thing a few blocks from there on Monday nights and the parking is generally completely fine and on concert nights, not impossible. I might try parking on "Holy Hill" around the seminary(ies?), like on Ridge or Hearst. There are some places to eat that are....hm, good by student standards on Euclid, and I think LaVal's (pizza, not terrible) has some taps. There's better stuff along Shattuck and Telegraph but then you're adding a fair amount of walking including one really steep hill.
posted by Smearcase at 10:05 AM on April 15, 2019

You're going to have to choose between parking/food and walking, unfortunately. As Smearcase says, there's that little cluster of restaurants on Northside but the options in downtown are much better. (I haven't been to Triple Rock or Jupiter in ages but they've always had good beer selections; Comal has very good food and cocktails but I can't vouch for their beer. Eureka wouldn't be a bad choice for both.) The walk up through campus isn't that bad IME.
posted by asterix at 5:39 PM on April 15, 2019

Yeah, there's more options on Telegraph and Shattuck, but I'm not sure any of it is so great that it would be worth the trouble. That block of Euclid just north of campus has some good stuff, and I've usually been able to find parking around there. You can certainly do worse than La Val's. There's also the Snack Shack, which is a pretty good burger-type place with beer.

If you do go to south Berkeley, I think Raleigh's is supposed to have a pretty good beer selection, although I've never been. I don't honestly know what the beer selection at Pappy's is like, but I wouldn't expect too much.

Yeah, Jupiter and Triple Rock have good beer selections, but it's up to you whether they'd be too far to be worth it. It would be a 15-20 minute walk uphill to the venue.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:44 PM on April 15, 2019

You could try parking as close to the venue as possible and then catching uber or another paid driving service to get you to food. Gourmet ghetto or downtown both have a lot of options. Or park, walk down the hill to downtown and get a ride back to the concert. It’s not that far but walking up and down the hill and eating and concert going in one evening might be a bit less fun than avoiding some of the exertion. Mileage varies of course.
posted by JenMarie at 8:14 PM on April 15, 2019

Response by poster: For what it's worth, I parked at a lot at 2016 Berkeley Way, went to Triple Rock around the corner (excellent veggie burger!), took a Lyft to the show and walked back. That would have been an unpleasant uphill walk, but it wasn't so bad coming down.
posted by sacrifix at 4:09 PM on April 21, 2019 [1 favorite]