REVIEW: Fuel and Fuddle [Oakland

 I haven't seen anyone else say much of anything about this place, so I
 thought I'd post a review.

 Quick summary:

 A few friends and I decided to eat at this place on Sunday evening
 before seeing _The Lost Highway_ at the Beehive.  The atmosphere was
 pleasant, the service was good, the food was tasty, the beer selection
 seemed fairly decent (coming from an infrequent drinker; take that
 with a grain of salt), and the wings were crisp, juicy, and pleasantly
 hot.

 Longer version:

 According to <URL:http://www.inpgh.com/mall/fuelandfuddle/index.html>,
 Fuel and Fuddle is a "full service bar and restaurant featuring
 upscale left coast bar food".  It's located next to (and owned by)
 Uncle Sam's in Oakland, at 212 Oakland Avenue.  I believe this is
 where Calico's bar used to be located; if so, F&F is a vast
 improvement.

 If Mad Mex and Quaker Steak and Lube were to have sex, the offspring
 would be Fuel and Fuddle.  The interior had the Mad Mex industrial
 look, but cleaner, brighter, and more earthy.  The theme, however, was
 a service station ("a filling station for the soul"), and the servers'
 uniforms resembled mechanics' clothes.  There were no Corvettes
 suspended upside-down from the ceiling, but they did have one of the
 TVs centered in a huge tractor tire.  They had both smoking and
 non-smoking sections, but as the place isn't very large, some of the
 smoke wafted our way during our meal.  (Apparently they have more
 seating downstairs, along with live music on some nights, but they
 weren't using it when we were there.)

 Anyway, on to the food.  One of my friends ordered "Rosemary's
 Breasts" ($6; a grilled rosemary chicken breast sandwich with melted
 provolone and whole grain mustard), and was very happy with it.  The
 mustard, especially, was good; when they said "whole grain mustard",
 they meant it.  My other friend ordered the "Ground Sirloin Burger"
 ($6; a burger with 100 proof bourbon barbecue sauce), and was also
 pleased with it.  Both sandwiches came with a mix of russet and sweet
 potato french fries; the sweet potato fries, in particular, were
 magnificent.

 My order was a sampler of their 4 different varieties of wings (two $5
 orders of 12, each split 2 ways): Guadalajaran (spicy Mexican),
 Kingston (sweet jerk), Bayou Blues (Cajun), and Bangkok Port (Thai).
 These were oven-baked and dry-spiced wings, not the traditional
 deep-fried sauce-coated type, and instead of bleu cheese and celery
 sticks, they came with only ranch dressing.  I've had bad experiences
 with dry-spiced wings in the past, but these were well-prepared (crisp
 on the outside; juicy on the inside).  The spice combinations didn't
 radically different from each other that much, but they differed
 enough that you could figure out which type you'd grabbed if you paid
 attention.  The heat level was cumulative and more rounded, but by the
 time I was done, they were only a few notches below, say, QS&L's
 Suicides.

 A quick summary of their other menu items is as follows:

 Appetizers:

     wings
     Italian rosemary focaccia strips
     Thai-style barbecued chicken, peanut sauce, cucumber salad
     hummus topped with red peppers, with chilled veggies
     vegetable egg rolls with plum mustard sauce and sesame seeds
     nachos
     stuffed banana peppers

 Soups:

     Rosa's organic chicken chili
     soup of the day

 Salads:

     house salad
     fried chicken salad with red peppers and black-eyed peas
     grilled vegetable salad
     Caesar salad
     Rosa's chili salad
     Cobb salad

 Sandwiches:

     portabello mushroom sandwich
     vegetable sandwich (hummus, alfalfa sprouts)
     Rosemary's Breasts
     beer-battered rainbow trout sandwich
     fire roasted turkey breast sandwich
     Italian sausage sandwich

 Burgers:

     Ground Sirloin
     7-grain veggie burger
     organic turkey burger with sherry-laced mushrooms
     ground buffalo steak burger with apple-smoked bacon and cheddar cheese

 Pizza:

     pizza margarita
     Kung Pao chicken pizza
     Mexican pizza with shrimp and guacamole
     BLT pizza (apple-smoked bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese)
     Guido pizza (Italian sausage, red peppers, olives, oregano)
     veggie pizza
     barbecued chicken pizza
     marinara pizza with pepperoni, sausage, mushrooms, and 3 cheeses

 The burgers are all fire-grilled, and the pizzas are all oven-fired in
 their brick oven.  Most things on the menu ranged between 5 and 7
 dollars.

 Additionally, for an unspecified period of time, Fuel and Fuddle is
 offering half-priced food every day from 11pm to 1am.

 In summary: a pleasant dining experience, all-around.  Despite the
 fact that when it's not Pitt's spring break I'll probably have to beat
 off the Pitt students with a stick to get in the door, I definitely
 plan to return.  And in case you're wondering, I have no connection to
 the place other than being a satisfied customer.