Elite Event: Detour Oakland

I’m sort of late to the party, but had to review the Detour app and the fun we had self-​touring around Oakland on the Black Panthers tour.
We met up at the Emery school, which was very close to my old house. Met up with other Unilocalers to learn about detour and the self guided walking tour we were about to take. The audio guided tours were so cool and I felt so engaged. The music, voices and story made me really see things differently and maybe a little emotional about the story and journey.
I really love to travel and check out different areas, so I downloaded the app to see what other tours are available. We plan on checking out more local detours in the near future and you should too. It’s very cool.

Finally, I got into another East Bay event. This was a cool one — an audio walking tour and food/​drinks afterwards. We met in front of a school on a weekday. Plenty of parking in the neighborhood on a weekend. As of right now, the Detour app is only of the iphone. So everyone had to bring in iphone or the Detour people were cool enough to let us borrow iphones to go on the tour. It was a plus one event but my friend was running late. So I met Ebony B and we became walking tour partners in case we got lost. We took the cool Black Panthers tour. It was nice hearing about the history as well as walking through nice neighborhood. You can totally go at your own pace and I liked how it stopped at a bakery so you can pick up snacks for later. The tour itself if a little under an hour– a good amount of time. We ended at a community garden. And then headed over to Nick’s Lounge for food and drinks. Nameste pizza delivered their delicious Indian style pizzas. And Nick, the bar owner opened early for us to let us hang out and serve us tasty drinks. I had a tasty tangerine wheat beer from a brewery in Eureka. The pizza was great. I only really remember the paneer/​cheese one (which was too spicy for me) and the chicken marsala pizza (which is my fav). I had about 3 – 4 pieces and it was great. We also had a mini Q&A with the Detour people. It’s a pretty nice app. I hope they expand it to way more places. An annual pass to all the tours is only like 20 bucks. Shout to the EB CM Stephanie Y. for hosting the awesome event.

The streets of North Oakland bore witness to the history of the Black Panthers this day. The sunshine, the rustling of the oak leaves, the quiet houses, were palpable details in their story that we ourselves experienced in the very neighborhood where their story began. I slid down the rail next to the stairs where Huey P. went to school. I discovered that a one-​story with a cute porch was the house Lil’ Bobby Hutton grew up in. I crossed the intersection where the Black Panthers first brandished their shotguns to the police; where they acted as armed crossing guards after a string of pedestrian fatalities. It was all thanks to a brilliant mobile app called DETOUR that utilizes high-​production audio stories and GPS to turn unassuming locations into living history museums.
This was my second Unilocal Elite Event, thanks to being fortuitously married to, and thus the Plus-​One of the beautiful and Elite reviewer, Jean B. We knew this event would be super interesting and introduce us to fabulous people because the gritty mystique surrounding Oakland and the Black Panthers would filter out all but the bravest and most passionately-​inquisitive Unilocalers. Super-​duper thanks to Stephanie Y. for having the vision to see this one through. The tour was magic, the event-​goers were as awesome as we hoped, and there was Indian-​themed pizza + BEEEEER at Nick’s in South Berkeley! Shout out to Natasha P., Gabrielle T., and Kaia V., to name a few of the fine folks.
The pizza, by the way, came from Namaste Pizza. And let me repeat what many have already written – the Tandoori Chicken Pizza was superb. The spices – especially the ginger – lit the flavor of the chicken on fire!
It’s events like this that offer so much for the mind, the tongue, and the soul that makes being a part of this very exclusive social network soooo special. Thanks again everyone!!!

What’s a Detour? Basically, a walking tour from the future! You download it on your phone and it guides you from point to point, while narrating and playing music & interview clips in your ears. Really seamless integration of geolocation and storytelling! This event was a free look into the Black Panthers history in North Oakland: truly incredible and inspiring, not to mention so relevant to today’s struggles with police brutality, gentrification, etc. This tour also takes you by It’s All Good Bakery and their delicious sweet potato pies!
Unfortunately we had to skip out on the latter part of the event, but I’m so grateful to Steph & Unilocal for putting this event on! What a great way to spend a sunny afternoon in Oakland!

I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the Unilocal Elite squad. This was my first ever Unilocal Elite event and I have to say that I enjoyed every bit of it. First off, Detour is such a fantastic app. You can tell that the company puts a great deal of effort in producing their interactive audio tours. The app itself is very intuitive to use as well. It was so amazing to walk around this area of Oakland because I drive past these streets every day and had no idea that all of these really important historic events took place here. The tour really made me feel connected to that period of time.
Along the tour we also got to stop by It’s All Good Bakery. They have the most amazing sweet potato pie I’ve ever eaten and I can’t believe I’d never been there before. After the tour we had the chance to go to Nick’s, who graciously opened their bar early for us. We ate delicious pizza from Namaste and had a chance to have a Q&A with Detour. Overall it was a great experience and I’m so excited to attend more events. The next one will have quite a bit to live up to.

I love history. I love the East Bay. I love walking. This seemed like a instant win before we even got started, but it took some coaxing to get my +1 excited about a history walk in an area we’ve been in tons of times (and hadn’t — until now — found particularly exciting).
5 Stars to Steph + Detour for amazing event! A quiet afternoon on the streets of Oakland came to life like a living, walking documentary. A stuffy, monotone lecture, this was not. Detour’s tour was narrated by someone with an incredible knack for narration — a true storyteller who cared deeply about the topic and gave the history it’s own voice. Clips of interviews, soundscapes, and music recordings helped us hear, feel, and see Black-​Panther-​era Oakland right in front of us. The easter eggs on the trail (little free libraries, ending at the garden, pointing out crooked street signs), made it feel like we were in an adventure game. It was a lot of fun.
As an American Studies grad from UCSC, seeing pictures of young Angela Davis at Its All Good bakery was a special moment, as was having a young girl approach us in the final minutes of the tour. After removing my headphones to see if she was lost, she told us she was the girl’s voice toward the end of the tape, and that it was cool to see all of us taking her tour. It was trippy, man!
Huge props to Detour and Unilocal for giving a voice to this community. I’d love to take some more Detours, so get on that Android app, guys! ;-)

Unilocal events and history lessons are always my favorite! After a quick download of the Detour app, our group of about 20 folks gathered on the school steps where members of the Black Panther Party developed. What a way to start an educational self guided tour!
Have you heard about Detour? Me either. You should look them up. They offer a variety of intuitive, self-​guided audio tours. While the audio guide provides the tours and directs you to your next destination, the app also features photo landmarks, location accuracy aids and looped music to assist you as you continue along. Never again will you miss information because you arrived at the next location late, or took a wrong turn. This is one of the most fun self guided audio tours I have taken. I did a few in France and let’s just say I missed a few highlights!
What I enjoyed most about this event was that the tour, though speaking about the past, made relevancy to what is happening now. To hear about the evolution of schools (and why), the exodus of the African American community and the continued exaggerated pricing of homes in the neighborhood, truly shed light on a topic many either overlook or turn a blind eye. Though there are no ‘advertised’ references in the audio tour, there are ample ways for one to become involved, should one so choose. Another bonus to the tour was that it was brief. The hour flew by like the wind. Had I really been walking for an hour? What a great app. I would love to use it again.
After the audio guide tour, our Unilocal group met up with our awesome East Bay CM Stephanie Y. for pizza and a pint. This was no ordinary pizza in any ordinary bar. Nick’s Lounge in Berkeley, has been in the neighborhood for 40+ years. So you guessed it, the bar is living history. Surely there are stories to be told over a cold one if you just ask. Now the pizza was very unique. Indian Pizza! Whaaaa Yea, it’s a thing. Namaste Pizza provided a variety of vegetarian and standard pizzas with an Indian cuisine twist. I washed that down with a $ 5.00 Red Stripe!
This was my 1^st East Bay event and I am truly looking forward to many more. Way to set the bar for a East Bay newbie like myself Stephanie Y. Looking forward to the next one.

Super thanks to Steph for putting together this great Elite event! It was my first since moving to town but she (and everyone else) made me feel right at home.
The «Detour» itself was awesome — the production value of the audio/​music was stellar, and the app can tell where you are and even dings when you get to a location of note! You can look at the app on your phone to see the image of whatever it is you’re supposed to be looking at too, which helped keep me on track.
Detours are currently $ 5 a pop, and totally worth it as a fun date or just a cool learn about your city activity. If you’re a real baller, you can pay $ 20 and unlock all the bay area detours.
In addition to an informative hour long walk around the Santa Fe neighborhood of Oakland learning about the Black Panthers, Steph got us early access to Nick’s lounge as well as a huge pile of Namaste Pizza.
Nick’s bartender came in early for us, so special thanks to him for hosting our pizza party and QA with the Detour master, Haris! Also thanks to Namaste Pizza for letting us gorge on what ended up being really interesting, tasty and a bit spicy Indian-​inspired puffy crust pizzas. My favorite was the Chicken masala.
Overall, fantastic event! Can’t wait to do another Detour (and maybe sing some karaōke at Nick’s).

This was one of the most fun and interesting Unilocal events I have ever attended. With this event we were introduced to a fairly new app (currently only available on iPhone) called Detour. Hosted by both our community leader, Stephanie, and a representative of Detour, Harris, this event took us on a walk through Oakland, and with the app we were given an audio history of the Black Panthers in the area. Despite technical difficulties we experienced earlier in the tour the rest of it went very smooth. The walk was fun, informative, and introduced us to amazing local businesses, and opened our eyes to local charities of sorts in the area. Harris from Detour was amazing. I emailed with him the day before explaining that neither me nor my plus one had an apple device, in which he responded that he would happily loan us both one. Hanging out with Unilocal friends, making new Unilocal friends, taking an amazing tour, and of course having AMAZING Indian infused pizza at Nicks Lounge just blocks away. Yet another amazing event come and gone.

This was an excellent event. The detour app is a great concept and is a lot of fun. The production quality for the downloaded tours is fantastic. I’m looking forward to trying it again very soon!!!

From the moment I first skimmed the description of the Unilocal Elite Event, I knew it was going to be a good one. Having never heard of a Detour before this invite, I tried to envision the concept in the context of my own city and prayed it wouldn’t be akin to a stuffy, chaperoned audio museum tour complete with guided imagery. We all met up at the first stop of the tour, Emory Secondary, and were greeted with the usual hailstorm of love that is Stephanie Y. (along with Unilocal chargers… You got yours, right??) followed by instructions and a firing-​off of any FAQs from the awesome Detour rep, Haris. Those of us who brought a plus-​one were shown how to sync our audio together so that we could listen to the tour at the same time. No tea no shade but I figured out how to do that part myself and m’lady and I were off in no time.
My greatest fear, as I may have mentioned, was that this would be some boring and battered guide filled with facts I had already had hammered into me as a yute dem growing up in local progressive Oakland schools and around my grandpa’s dining room table. Fears rebuked! From the moment I heard D.A.T.‘s voice flow into my headphones, I knew that we were about to be led by a worthy storyteller and instantly felt myself at ease. For the next 50 minutes, we were guided through parts of the Nolia I’ve frequented all my life but suddenly saw come alive through a totally different lens. The narration was so chilling that at times my friend and I both felt goosebumps lining our arms and necks even in the 70-​plus degree weather. D.A.T. was able to fluctuate between painting a vivid picture of the late 1960s and an equally precise depiction of the flourishing gentrification that occurs in North Oakland today, drawing parallels that struck you just as he was asking you to lean into the glass of business windows and imagine scenes from fifty years ago.
There are more interactive elements to this tour than it’s storytelling, though: raspberry picking, searching for Mao quotes inside of a book that lives inside a little lending library along the tour’s path, grabbin’ a sweet potato pie from It’s All Good, even inhaling and exhaling the comfort of the lines of a poem beneath the comfort of cool foliage all add dimension to this Detour. And should you find yourself sidetracked, lost or otherwise befuddled by the course itself, another interactive element of the tour steps in: the GPS navigation. My chosen mooch and I were wondering why our beloved tour guide had stopped yapping at us when we realized it must have been because we were a little off course. Sure enough, when we got back on track, D.A.T. was right there with us.
The end of the audio tour was rounded out with a pleasant stroll through Phat Beets Community Garden inside Dover Park, a testimonial to the continued legacy of the free lunch program, a direct initiative of the Black Panthers that kept so many hungry children (including me and you!) fed.
Afterward, we headed to Nick’s Lounge on Adeline in Berkeley, which I’ve been meaning to check out for a while, so I was pretty excited. Nick’s was beyond generous and opened their doors for us ahead of schedule. (Doesn’t that make you feel all swanky and fancy? I know I did, and I was wearing a t-​shirt with rubber Birkenstocks my sister told me I’m not allowed to wear out of the house. Take that, take that.) Brian (or is it Brien or Bryan or Brion or???) was a charismatic and friendly bartender who handled our requests kindly.
Namaste Pizza gave us plenty of pizza while simultaneously introducing me to a new concept I have never, ever before tried in my lifetime of loving pizza: pizza with flavors, ingredients, spices and seasonings lent from Indian recipes. Did it bring the spice? Yes. But in a very well-​rounded, assertive without being overpowering and aggressive way. I actually went back for a third slice. So, boom.
Haris, thank you for being such an amazing rep for Detour and answering our endless litany of questions. I will definitely be checking out more tours soon to start discovering parts of my city through new perspectives and gaining some older insight.
Stephanie Y., thank you so, so, SO much for making another YEE such a huge success and for introducing us to some new local flavors, amazing activities and – as always – cool fellow Unilocalers to get on up, get on down and rise up in solidarity with.

One of my favorite Unilocal Elite Events ever. So nice to nourish the mind and not just the body. Detour is an app that allows you to take audio walking tours at your convenience. The production values were quite good and I like that you could sync with a group so that you are all hearing the tour at the same time. The tour for the day was about the Black Panther Party founded in Oakland in the late 60s. It was well narrated with and we walked by places that I drive by all the time. It was fascinating to learn more about the group and the details about several local community groups like the The Little Free Library and a community garden in Dover St Park aka Panther Park.
Other local tours take you to Market St (SF), the Tenderloin (SF) and Albany Bowl for true history. I am especially excited to try the one in Uptown Oakland which is a fictional story. There are audio tours in many cities in North America and abroad. Each one costs $ 4.99 at this time. Check out the link below.
After the audio tour, we went to Nick’s Lounge on Adeline for some drinks and tasty eats from Namaste Pizza. Namaste serves up pizza with an Indian twist. The spicy gyro and chili paneer versions were tasty.
Stephanie, our fantastic community manager, had big shoes to fill and she is bringing it with each event.

An intimate group of Unilocalers and their plus ones met up on the steps of Emery Secondary School to embark on Detour’s self-​paced tour that unfolds the history and story of the Black Panthers. iPhones synced, ear buds in with special Unilocal battery charger swag, we all made our way through NOBE/​Santa Fe experiencing a Unilocal Elite Event like no other! It was really fun to embark on an adventure navigating our way through Oakland, sometimes together, sometimes solo. The tour highlighted lots of important locations, street corners, gardens, and even pointed out changes that have occurred in the neighborhood over the decades (it had us peering into the hospital research institute which actually used to be the original Merritt College).
What was really just icing on the cake was that the tour took us to It’s All Good Bakery, encouraging us to connect with a local business and pick up some dessert (mini sweet potato pies for $ 4.75… it’s pretty much just as good as my homemade recipe and I make a MEAN sweet potato pie). The tour even picked out a spot at a picnic table or haystack at Dover Street Park to enjoy your white bag of treats. I think what was really valuable about the tour was that it highlighted the importance of remembering and keeping the history and struggles and beauty of Oakland alive, especially with how quickly it’s all changing. I will definitely be downloading more Detour walks on my app and explore more!
After an hour I felt such a great sense of community, empowerment, and solidarity, which inevitably made me famished. And what’s a Unilocal party without mind-​blowing bites? Steph had it covered with hot boxes of Indian pizza from Namaste and beer at Nick’s Lounge. I might be doing a little guessing here, but we had Chicken Pizza Masala (gingery! and my fav), Spicy Gyro (lots of good curry flavoring), and California Paneer (I will be the first to say that paneer on pizza is kind of genius). It was a really great change of pace.
Thanks, Steph, for taking us off the beaten path of Unilocal Elite Events. It made me feel a little more proud to be an Oakland resident, Bay Area native, and East Bay Unilocal Elite!