Cuando Julio Covarrubias consiguió su primer empleo en los viñedos, no sabía nada sobre vino. “Mi pasión por el vino nació mientras realizaba trabajo de temporada en los campos”, señala. “Tenía 17 años cuando empecé a trabajar para la familia Wente y 38 años después, todavía trabajo para ellos”.

Covarrubias es ahora administrador de los viñedos Wente Vineyards, una bodega que ha sido propiedad de la familia por cuatro generaciones, con más de 2,000 acres de viñedos en el Valle de Livermore, ubicada aproximadamente 20 millas al este de Hayward.

When Julio Covarrubbias got his first job in the vineyards, he knew nothing about wine. “My passion for wine was born while doing seasonal work in the fields,” he says. “I was 17 when I began working for the Wente family and 38 years later, I still work for them.”

Covarrubbias is now vineyard manager for Wente Vineyards, a fourth generation family-owned winery with more than 2,000 acres of vineyards in the Livermore Valley, which is located about 20 miles East of Hayward.

There were mini cupcakes, green enchiladas, French mussels, and crescent shaped Chinese dumplings. There was Hayward-brewed beer, and wine from Oakland, Brentwood and Livermore. There were restaurants with 30-year legacies and revered BBQ recipes, and internationally trained chefs with upscale menus boasting locally sourced ingredients.

Alfonso Dominguez is a busy, and innovative, man. The Oakland native is owner of Tamarindo restaurant and co-founder of popuphood, a small business incubator that was recently nominated for the Oakland Indie Awards. His latest venture is El Taco Bike.

“It was a project that I had for a long time in my head,” says Dominguez. “The taco truck concept does not exist in Mexico - there it is very common to