ON THE PLUS side of my utter alienation from society, there is no one to tell me that I can't roll out of bed, put on my makeup, feed the chickens, pack a thermos of coffee, a little something to eat, a 55-gallon canola oil drum, and a sawed-off six-pound sledgehammer, hi-ho, hi-ho, and off to the beach we go for another honest day's work.

"Hey, you can't do that," sayeth no one, not a soul. Not even the police. Not the Coast Guard or beach patrol. Not even Yo-Yo. No amount of residual Catholic guilt can stutter, let alone stop me. Not a peep from the Man. The American economy, the human condition, work ethics, the laws of physics and gravity ...

Well, today the weather weighs in with ominous clouds and a.m. showers, so you get my undivided attention while I tell you about steel drum pizza, lucky you. Everything else I've written in the past couple weeks, between hammering and hammering some more, has had sand between its toes and seagull shit and barnacles up top.

Speaking of one-two punches, I attended a Ping-Pong party and jam session in Berkeley one night, and we were so excited to get there, me and Yo-Yo and Lord B.J., that we forgot to eat dinner first. So in-between Ping-Pong and sing-song we stepped out for a bite.

Right around the corner, Adeline and Alcatraz, that historic old bank building where the great Univibe music store used to be (where I got my first steel drum, almost exactly five years ago) ... Now it's a new pizza joint-Internet café called Spud's Pizza. Yo-Yo and Lord B.J. had been wanting to check it out. I personally didn't care what we were eating just so it had something somehow to do with food.

Pizza?

Sure. I mean, it might not have been worth writing about except that Spud's distinguishes itself as the first restaurant I've ever been to with its own FAQ page. Right there on the counter next to the take-out menus. Spud's Pizza – Frequently Asked Questions. So I grabbed one thinking I could lift huge chunks of it for my column. Nah. Mostly it was just technical information like why potatoes are so good for you, enzymes in crust, and what the hell took them so long to open (a year and a half). Apparently Berkeley has some pretty nightmarish hoops you have to go through, zoningwise, to open a new business.

The pizza's pretty good. I got my own little personal one, with sausage and peppers, because Lord B.J. wanted a calzone and all Yo-Yo wanted was spinach salad.

A personal eight-inch pie is about the equivalent of two slices, only slightly cheaper: $4.49, plus 75¢ for anything other than cheese and sauce. I was so hungry, and I ordered my default go-to pizza so fast, that I didn't see until too late I could have had a Spud's Original, with garlic sauce, potatoes, onions, and bacon, for $4.99. That's four things for 50¢, compared to $1.50 for two. Dang.

And you know, "Potatoes are good for you. A plain 7-ounce potato eaten with skin provides nearly 50 percent of vitamins C and B6 recommended for adults."

Just kidding. But I did benefit from those enzymes in the crust – a result of whole wheat as opposed to refined, enriched white flour. Actually, the crust did taste damn good, and light for whole wheat.

Lord B.J.'s calzone, spinach with mushrooms and onions ($5.99), was huge and steamy and came to our table on its own private stone. Yo-Yo's salad, spinach with mushrooms and onions and some other things ($5.99), was so huge that she couldn't finish it, even though it was all she was eating. My guess is she'd been holding out on us and had had a burrito somewhere along the line. Anyway, I got to knock off her salad. Very good, very good.

Yeah, whatever. If I go back to Spud's it will be for the potato pizza or else to use the Internet. They've got a wall of computers, and you can get on them for free, I think. We also thought it would be a good place to listen to live acoustic music. If Berkeley would let them do it, the acoustics would be good, according to Lord B.J., with those high archy ceilings and all those Univibe vibes still ringing around in the rafters.

One more thing: love the Spud's logo. It's a crazed potato in a chef's hat running with a pizza in one hand and they don't serve beer (see FAQ) so that must be a foaming-over pitcher of root beer in the other hand.

Guidance.

Spud's Pizza. 3290 Adeline (at Alcatraz), Berk. (510) 597-0795. Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Takeout available. No alcohol. MasterCard and Visa. Wheelchair accessible.

Email Dan Leone

Dan Leone is the author of Eat This, San Francisco (Sasquatch Books), a collection of Cheap Eats restaurant reviews, and The Meaning of Lunch (Mammoth Books).