Onyx Pharmaceuticals

Onyx Pharmaceuticals is flying high after receiving positive results from a liver cancer trial for their drug Nexavar.

The Emeryville, Calif.-based company and partner Bayer AG announced an early end to a trial on its drug Nexavar in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), based on encouraging results. Having been granted priority review status by the Food and Drug Administration, the drug is on the fast track for regulatory clearance, with approval in the United States and European Union expected in the first half of 2008.

Emeryville is becoming quite a biotech force with Onyx and neighboring companies Amyris, NovaBay and Novartis.

Reminder: Bay Bridge Closed Labor Day Weekend

Just a reminder the Bay Bridge will be closed Labor Day weekend from 8:00 p.m. Friday (8/31) until 5:00 a.m. Tuesday (9/4).

Charles Chocolates Featured in San Mateo County Times

WITH ITS EDIBLE chocolate boxes, truffles and caramel-covered Granny Apples, Emeryville-based Charles Chocolates is a company you can sink your teeth into. The 35-employee company was founded in October 2004 in San Francisco and moved to Emeryville on Valentine's Day this year. It is the second chocolate-covered venture launched by Charles "Chuck" Siegel. The self-taught chocolatier founded Attivo Confections in Emeryville in 1987.

Sounds like they are doing well financially too:

Though Siegel won't disclose the company's revenues, he says sales have tripled every year.

The Emeryville factory has a very nice store where you can buy some chocolate and if you're lucky, you might get a sample. The chocolate is beautifully designed and decorated making it more of an art, than a treat. Check out one of their edible boxes (great gift idea):

They also offer a free guided tour every Wednesday and Saturday at 11:30am and 2:30pm, but you have to make a reservation, more on that here.


Location and Hours

Emeryville Shoreline Cleanup - Saturday September 15th - Save the Date

Passing this along, please do what you can do help keep our shoreline clean.

Dear Emeryville Residents and Others,

It’s Shoreline Clean-up time again!

Please spread the news about the event to any and all interested persons by forwarding this email.

This year’s event will be held on Saturday, September 15th 2007.

We hope that you will help us clean up our beautiful shoreline.

The main purpose of this event is to collect some good data on what kind of trash is showing up on our shoreline. Bring gloves, a hat and sturdy shoes.

If you would like to help, come to the Emeryville Fire Station, 2333 Powell Street, at 9 a.m. on Saturday, September 15th. The event will last until noon.

Each participant will receive a raffle ticket, so everyone will have a chance to win a prize.

If you have questions or if you have a group that wants to come, please call me at 510-596-3728.

Sincerely,

Peter Schultze-Allen
Environmental Analyst
City of Emeryville
1333 Park Ave 94608
510-596-3728

Emeryville to be Featured in Blu-Ray Release of Pixar's 'Cars'

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has revealed some details about the upcoming Blu-ray release of Pixar's 'Cars'. Viewers will have the option to select "Radiator Springs" or "Emeryville" upon loading up the title screen. "Radiator Springs" will bring the user to the "Car Finder" game as well as numerous featurettes and bonus material, while "Emeryville" will allow the user to view the movie using Cine-Explore - a dashboard type menu which allows the viewer to watch extra content during the film.

Read more at Blu-ray.com

Golden Gate Badminton Club 2 Soon to Open in Emeryville

Kwun Han, reporter, editor, and owner of BadmintonCentral.com, got an exclusive preview of the new Golden Gate Badminton Club in Emeryville. The doors are still not open, but Kwun has nothing but good things to say about this top notch badminton facility.

Quick Facts:

Address: 4230 Hubbard Street, Emeryville, CA 94608
Courts: 8 regulation size badminton courts
Opening date: unknown.
website: www.ggbadminton.com

Skybox Lounge Shutdown Due to Exceeding Maximum Capacity

The Skybox Lounge (formerly Willie Mays Skybox Sports Lounge) was shutdown after a fight broke out and the Emeryville Police Department had to deal with a crowd of 600 in a place that has a maximum capacity of 340. This wasn't the first time this overcrowding has happened here so they got their fair share of warnings. Willie Mays was apparently a backer of the lounge up until a few months ago.

It's unfortunate really because Emeryville needs more places for people to "hang out". Perhaps the next person to start a bar/club in Emeryville can keep it mellow. Bar Kitty's seems to be doing well and keeping it clean so hopefully that trend can continue.

Read more at the East Bay Daily News.

Novabay Pharma files for IPO

Emeryville based NovaBay Pharma filed for an Initial Public Offering of 5 million shares at $4-6 per share. NovaBay is developing "safe and effective non-antibiotic antimicrobial molecules".

Headquarters in Emeryville: Aspera, Inc.

Aspera, located in Emeryville, CA near San Francisco is a rapidly growing, profitable software company creating innovative high-speed data transport technologies. Aspera's suite of products solve the fundamental problems of transferring bulk data (files, directories of files, and generally any large data sets) over the Internet and private IP networks. The underlying FASP™ transport technology eliminates the bottlenecks of conventional file transfer technologies and dramatically speeds file transfers, even over inherently unreliable international, satellite, and wireless links. The transfer speed automatically adapts to use the available bandwidth and protect other traffic, while also allowing the user to pre-set and change on-the-fly individual transfer priorities, speeds, and finish times as needed -- a breakthrough approach to bandwidth control.

Major Hollywood studios, broadcasters, post houses, on-demand video providers, computer game makers, software developers, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, defense contractors and government agencies rely on Aspera software to move their file data between business units and with partners worldwide, at maximum speed. The dramatic savings in time and cost has propelled FASP™ technology to become a ‘standard’ for digital content transfer throughout the media and entertainment industry, and is positively transforming other industries that have critical large file transfer requirements.

For more information, please visit www.asperasoft.com.

Company:		Aspera Inc.
Headquarters Address:		5900 Hollis St.
		Suite C
		Emeryville, CA 94608
Main Telephone:		510-849-2386
Website:		www.asperasoft.com
Type of Organization:		Private
Industry:		Software
Key Executives:		President: Michelle Munson
		CTO/Founder: Serban Simu
Public Relations
Contact:		Dana Smith
Phone:		916-716-0635
Email:		dana@asperasoft.com

Source

John Fricke posted the following in an E'ville mailing list today:

This morning, a new bakery/café opened in Emeryville: Café Aquarius!

Nina, Lane and I enjoyed a great cinnamon roll, and couldn’t resist buying more goodies for later! Here are some photos of the cafe:

Café Aquarius is located on 65th Street near Hollis Street (right down the street from Cocina Poblana – another great eatery).

Map and more info

Restaurant Furenzu Now Open for Weekend Brunch

Starting August 18, from 8:00am to 2:30pm on Saturday and Sundays, Restaurant Furenzu will be open for Brunch.

Restuarant Description:

Restaurant Furenzu offers new wave Asian cuisine served tapas style. We encourage our customers to share and try serveral different small plates. Our chef shops everyday at the market for the finest and freshest ingredients, organic produce and hormone-free meat will be used when available. Please feel free to ask your server or our chef for recommendations and suggestions for wine or sake pairing. We hope you have a wonderful dining experience!

Furenzu Specials:

Happy hours M-F 4:30 - 6:30 with special bar menu, selected wine half price, all saketini cocktails $5 and 3 beers in a bucket for $10!

Tuesday night is $1 oyster night!

Also, check out their blog to keep up on the latest happenings.

Peet's Profit Decreases Slightly in Q2

Sales grew 21% (good), profit dropped 5% (bad). Spending was up due to adding 8 new stores and the costs of supplies and rent have increased. Still looks pretty good in my books. Gotta spend money to make money. And speaking of coffee, I think I'm going to make my way over to that nice Peet's at the public market right now for my daily latte.

Stock Ticker: PEET

Emeryville Officials Reviewing Largest Condo/Retail Development in at Least Three Years

From East Bay Daily News:

Plans call for two new condo towers - one eight stories tall with 180 condos, 6,000 square feet of retail space and two floors of parking; the other nine stories with 160 condos, 55,000 square feet of retail space and four floors of parking. Three buildings with 5,000 square feet of retail space apiece are planned as well.

With construction projects all over Emeryville, this doesn't come as a surprise, but where would they find the room to build this around the Public Market?

Here's what's going on in Emeryville right now:

In all, there are about 700 condos and apartments in permit or construction phases and 1,300 condos and apartments in the planning phase. The city also has 330,000 square feet of retail space in the building phase and 350,000 square feet in the planning phase, according to city records.