We had a blast celebrating the end of summer at an Oakland A’s game! Huge thanks to Community Outreach Coordinator’s Robin Smith and Sammi DeShane for organizing an awesome time!

We had an absolutely AMAZING 35th Anniversary celebration on July 25th! And, lucky for you, our celebration continues!

Here are some of the highlights:

• We created a collection of unique enamel pins that celebrate art, pizza, and local love. Each of our four restaurants (Oakland, Berkeley, San Ramon and Pleasant Hill) has its own exclusive design, so if you want the whole collection you’ll need to visit each location.
• We created a limited edition, 35th Anniversary t-shirt available for sale at all of our restaurants and online! Supplies are limited, so grab one soon!
• For the first time in Zachary’s history, we are selling select pieces of our beloved, custom-made art! All of the proceeds (100%!!!!!) from the art sale will go to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. The Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano are committed to fighting hunger and raising awareness around food and poverty. Among other challenges, the housing the crisis in the Bay Area has left many people and families without the means to feed themselves healthfully and adequately. Please unite with us as we step up and chip in! More info here!
• Faction Brewery created a fantastically delicious 35th Anniversary brew just for us! The Get Stuffed IPA is available at all of our location and in the Faction taproom for a limited time only. More info here!

You might have noticed… our walls are loaded with fan art! We love hosting our biannual pizza art contest; it’s a perfect opportunity to connect with our communities and get pizza-spired. We recently received some attention in another medium: FAN WRITING! We LOVED this piece and we thought that our pizza-loving community might enjoy it too!

Hello,

I’ve been a huge Zachary’s fan for almost as long as you’ve been around. Each morning I do a writing exercise based on a prompt provided by “Creative Caffeine Daily.” I never know what will come up in my writing, but when I finished this morning’s I knew I had to share it with you in honor of your anniversary tomorrow…. So here goes:

Today’s prompt: Salivating

Salivating…

You could almost see them salivating as the pizza made its way to the table. It was a deep dish with a thick band of golden crust wrapped around what they knew would be a hot delicious combination of cheese and vegetables and spicy tomato sauce. They had driven 3 hours for this particular pizza at this particular place. Who drives 3 hours for a pizza? As the waitress lifted the first slice out, strings of mozzarella stretched from the pie to the slice. She slid the slice onto a small plate and expertly severed the elastic cheese with the side of the spatula. With five slices served, she was off to another table. They all looked at each other with lusty smiles and opened mouths as steam still rose from each slice. Someone picked up a knife and fork and cut off a bite-sized piece. He stabbed the piece with the fork and blew on it to cool it more. They all knew if they tried to eat any too soon they would burn the roofs of their mouths and ruin the whole experience, so they waited impatiently, salivating all the more. Finally, he tried the forked bite, his friends watching for signs of trouble. Seeing only enjoyment, they all charged into their own slices. 
“Mmmm, so GOOD!,” one said. 
“So worth the trip,” said another. 
“We need to take one home!” said a third. 
They all nodded in silence as they continued to celebrate in the communion of Zachary’s.

Happy Anniversary!

Janet Allen
Berkeley (fan & frequenter of both College and Solano stores…)

Thanks to everyone for coming out for the first half our of patio music series in Pleasant Hill!  We still have five more nights of music, pizza, and good vibes lined up for August.  Reservations are encouraged and on a first come first served basis, give us a call to secure your spot! (925) 602-7000.

Frankie G is up next on Wednesday 8/1!

8/8 – DAN DESHARA

8/15 – GARAGELAND RODEO TRIO

822 – KYLE JESTER

8/29 – THE BELL BROTHERS

Celebrating 35 Years of Zachary’s Art: Purchase a ‘Piece of the Pie’ and Support Our Local Food Banks!

For the first time in Zachary’s history, we are selling select pieces of our beloved, custom-made art in celebration of our 35th Anniversary! All of the proceeds (100%!!!!!) from the art sale will go to the Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano.

The Alameda County Community Food Bank and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano are committed to fighting hunger and raising awareness around food and poverty. Among other challenges, the housing the crisis in the Bay Area has left many people and families without the means to feed themselves healthfully and adequately. Please unite with us as we step up and chip in!

When does the art sale start and end?

July 3rd-August 31st

How can I buy art?

Visit one of our locations and ask for an art buyer’s form or email art@zacharys.com

How can I find out what art is for sale?

You can request to buy any art you see in our restaurants that does not have a sold sticker on it! We will also be highlighting some pieces of art from our archives in an art catalog. The catalog will be available at all of our locations.

What if I want to buy a piece of art that I remember seeing on the wall last year?

Ask us about it! Email art@zacharys.com and we will try to locate the piece you remember.

Is the art framed?

You can buy the art framed or unframed.

How much does the art cost?

$100 unframed/$200 framed

When will I receive my art?

September or October 2018

In celebration of our 35th Anniversary, the delightful East Bay brew masters at Faction Brewery crafted a special IPA just for us!! **Swoon**

A few months ago, we started brainstorming about various things we could do to celebrate our 35th Anniversary (July 25th, 2018!). We are incredibly proud to be part of such loyal, supportive, and totally inspirational communities in Oakland, Berkeley, San Ramon and Pleasant Hill. Doing some sort of collaboration with another, local company seemed perfect. So, we racked our brains on how we could make this happen and inspiration hit… beer! What better way to celebrate than with some hoppy, sudsy deliciousness!

We are huge fans of Faction (we carry their Pale Ale at our Oakland location on College Avenue) and we were just thrilled when they agreed to create the “Get Stuffed IPA”! We even got to sample a variety of Faction beers and give them some input about what hops we liked best (rough day at work!). Like Zachary’s, Faction values its community ties and it prioritizes giving back to its communities. We are honored that they wanted to brew for us!

The “Get Stuffed IPA” is now being served at all of our locations and in the Faction tap room! It will be around for the next few months only, so check it out soon!

Zachary’s is excited to participate in Downtown Pleasant Hill’s annual 4^th of July parade this year!  As the recipient of Business of the Year, we would love to celebrate with and thank everyone in the local community.  The parade takes place at 9:30 AM July 4^th.  After the parade is a community party at Pleasant Hill Park with games, food, and live music open to all!

Last Friday, we hosted a plant swap at the beautiful parklet in front of our Solano Avenue location in North Berkeley. We had a blast sharing clippings, seeds, gardening books, and plants (of course!) with our community.

Zachary’s is an employee owned company via our ESOP. We have an ESOP Committee that is comprised of nine employee owners from all locations. Our ESOP Committee has a two part mission: One, educate our crew and our customers about employee ownership at Zachary’s, and two, create space for employee owners to build community and grow together. The plant swap was one event in a series of workshops based on our employee owners’ interests.

Employee owners Suzanne, Charlotte and Katie

Employee owner Robert and LOTS of plants!

Customers, Suzanne and Troy

We are thrilled and honored to be 2017’s Business of the Year in Pleasant Hill!!! The City of Pleasant Hill sponsored it’s Community Awards Night on March 27th. Awards were given out in the categories of Citizens of the Year, Educator of the Year, Teen of the Year, Green Business, and a few other community-oriented categories. Zachary’s President and CFO Kevin Suto, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of our employee owners.

Kevin is cheesin’ in the second row, fourth from the left

In February of this year, we celebrated our 5th anniversary in Pleasant Hill. The Pleasant Hill community has opened their arms to us and we feel like we could not have chosen a better spot. We are incredibly grateful for all of the love we have received from the Pleasant Hill community in the last five years. We can’t wait for five (+++) more!

We are super excited to announce that we won Reader’s Choice BEST PIZZA in Oakland Magazine’s Best of Oakland and the East Bay edition. This is a huge honor! We are keenly aware of the number of fantastic restaurants in the East Bay and we are truly thrilled to be acknowledged for our contribution to the pizza scene!

We’ll post a link as soon as the online version is available so you can check out all of the other fantastic Oakland and East Bay joints that won awards too!

Huge thanks to Oakland Magazine!