Merry Christmas from Urban Indigo!

Merry Christmas from all of us at Urban Indigo! We’ll see you Saturday at noon!

Congrats to Raffle Winner Lauren C.!

Last week’s raffle winner Lauren poses with her bag full of Oakland schwag.

Lucky Lauren got an Illustrated Oakland Map and a few other goodies.  Did you come by tonight and enter to win the ultimate Oakland Schwag Bag?

Tonight was the last raffle of the season…  We’ll let you know who wins!

Congratulations to Our Raffle Winner!

Raffle winner Susan L. poses with her bag of Oakland schwag

Congratulations to Susan L. who won our Oakland Schwag raffle!   Susan entered during our holiday celebration on Thursday night.  Her winnings?  An Urban Indigo tote bag stuffed full with Oakland ephemera:  an Illustrated Oakland Map, a Vintage Oakland Images desk calendar, an Oakland map necklace by local artist Adjowah Brodie of the Weekend Store and a Walk Oakland! map so she can find her way around our beautiful city.

Congratulations, Susan!

Want to win some awesome stuff in an Urban Indigo owl tote bag?  Enter our raffle this Thursday, December 10th during our Pamper Yourself event. We’ll have all the accoutrements (champagne, cookies, sparkling water, live music) PLUS chair massage to help you de-stress during the holidays!

See you there!

Plaid is the new black.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Urban Indigo wishes you all a wonderful Thanksgiving, replete with turkeys that taste amazing, side dishes that are succulent and desserts that you can’t pass up… but most of all, a safe and wonderful day.

We’ll see you bright and early at 10AM for Plaid Friday.  (Don’t know about Plaid Friday?  Check it out here.)  Don’t forget, you’ll save 10% off everything in the store (excluding gift cards) through Sunday.  

Our Holiday Hours:

Everyday from 10am to 6:30pm

Open late ’til 8pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Cheers!

Urban Indigo Featured on Crow and Canary

Crow and Canary showcases stationery and gift items in the wholesale market.   We were super excited when we hooked up with Carina at the LA Mart this past July, because she introduced us to a lot of really fantastic card lines.  New favorites include Ghost Academy and Seraph.  We love Ghost Academy’s quirky designs and Seraph’s Mix Tape Card… not to mention the Delorian!  Carina has a great blog and we were recently featured.     

Read her post here: crowandcanary.blogspot.com

 

Rice Pasta Couscous- The Heart of the Mediterranean Kitchen

Rice Pasta Couscous is a new favorite cookbook around Urban Indigo!

At the heart of Mediterranean cuisine resides a trio of traditional staples: rice, pasta, and couscous. Join the author as he travels from Morocco to Syria to Italy to Spain, discovering such delectable treats as Classic Seven Vegetable Couscous and Handmade Tagliatelle with Fresh White Truffles. Along the way he tells fascinating stories of the food artisans he meets and cooks with. He prepares couscous in Algiers with Sid Ali Lahlou, the world’s only commercial manufacturer of hand-rolled grains, while in Tuscany his six-year-old daughter accompanies him to a master class in making fresh pasta. 100 gorgeous photos of the dishes, ingredients, faces, and places show what it’s like to live and travel in this special area of the world, and reveal how rice, pasta, and couscous have become an integral part of Mediterranean culture—and today’s family table.

An elegant + delicious meal from Rice Pasta Couscous

Jeff Koehler’s work has appeared in Saveur, Gourmet, and Food & Wine. He is the author of La Paella, which was named a noteworthy cookbook by the New York Times. He lives in Barcelona, Spain. 

Sara Remington is a food and lifestyle photographer in San Francisco.

Urban Indigo in the SF Chronicle

Retro to metro at Urban Indigo

Laura Thomas

November 1, 2009

From the outside Urban Indigo looks tiny. From the inside it’s flush with design. “There’s lots of little stuff, for little spaces.” said Cynthia Bragdon, the Oakland store’s owner. “We try to edit well.”

The shelves carry a lot to delight in and choose from in the categories of home decor, jewelry, accessories and children’s.

A section of humorous gadgetry offers the Gravy Fountain – a gift box intended to fool the recipient about its contents – and the retro receiver for cell phones. “Stuff that is just plain funny is surviving the recession.”

Bragdon favors local products and the handmade. An elegant tea light candleholder from an old wine barrel stave ($48) is made in town. So is a set of four hangers covered in vintage material ($22), found on the second floor, where retro and nostalgia are featured.

There is a wide selection of tabletop items with an Asian aesthetic, plus classic milk glass dishes from Mosser in Ohio (cake stand, $48).

For an artful splurge, check out the stunning flowers woven in Bolivia from palm leaves ($15). Some best-sellers are the 1940s and ’50s dish towels ($8), tablecloths and pillows with state maps from the Red and White Kitchen Co.

“Baby Boomer nostalgia is big,” Bragdon says.

Urban Indigo, 3339 Lakeshore Ave. (at Trestle Glen), Oakland. (510) 419-0451. 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. urbanindigo.com.

Your Party Rocked

We had a great time with you last night! Thanks for coming out and sampling the food, supporting the merchants on Lakeshore, and hanging out with us!  

Here’s the recipe for the corn pudding we served last night.

You can find this recipe and a lot of other fantastic recipes in our Dona Tomas cookbook.

Thanks again for a great Friday evening!

A Party for You Tomorrow Night!

Shop Oakland!