COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / EAST BAY COFFEE BURG

Downtown Pleasant Hill just east of San Francisco Bay.

Rooted Coffee is the kind of shop that reflects both its owners’ intent and its setting. Locally owned and independently run, it carries that hands-on feel—owners present, standards consistent, and a clear point of view about quality and community. 

Pleasant Hill itself is a tidy anti-Trump East Bay suburb of Pleasant Hill—comfortable, family-oriented, and quietly affluent without swagger. It’s a commuter town with a civic center spine, the kind of place where a good coffee shop becomes a social anchor. 

Up the block on Masesfield Drive, you'll catch Mayor Zac Shess mowing his lawn or walking First Dog Millie around Poet's Corner 'hood.  Rooted rises to that role as a community coffee klatch.

Espresso drinks are precise, but the menu leans into crafted specialties—house-made syrups, seasonal lattes, and restrained sweetness that lets the coffee lead. Nothing feels gimmicky. The room hums with laptops, strollers, and low-voiced conversations. It’s not trying to be the scene. It’s trying to be dependable—and succeeds.

FRIDAY FILM / HARRY HOLE COMES IN FROM THE COLD

Character Harry Hole's favorite Oslo restaurant: Schroder.

NORWEGIAN NOIR MAKES A COMEBACK

Can’t remember if I’ve ever seen a Jo Nesbø novel properly make the leap to streaming. There was that chilly, misfiring film version of The Snowman years back, but nothing that quite captured the brooding weight of his books. That changes—decisively—with Netflix’s new series Jo Nesbø’s Detective Harry Hole, released March 26. 

 The nine-episode Norwegian noir is drawn primarily from Nesbø’s fifth novel, The Devil’s Star, a fan favorite that pits Oslo detective Harry Hole against a ritualistic serial killer while circling a far more dangerous threat—a corrupt cop within his own ranks. 

What makes this adaptation intriguing is that the 65 year old Nesbø himself serves as showrunner, shaping his damaged anti-hero for the screen rather than watching others fumble with the material. 

 Tobias Santelmann plays Hole as a man worn thin by drink, instinct, and a moral compass that flickers but never quite dies. Around him, Oslo is rendered a backdrop but also as an accomplice—cold, luminous, and quietly menacing. The series pulls threads not only from The Devil’s Star but earlier novels like Nemesis and The Redbreast, giving longtime readers a layered payoff. 

 Early reaction calls it a “gripping” and “stylish” addition to the Nordic noir shelf, even if the plot occasionally dares you to keep up. That feels right. Nesbø has never been about easy roads. 

Bottom line: this is the first time Harry Hole feels at home on screen—messy, haunted, and entirely watchable. 

If Netflix stays the course, they may finally have their Scandinavian answer to the long-form crime saga. 

And, of course, we have Norwegian noir to savor and then there's Oslo.

Oslo's Vigeland Park surrounding Torshovdalen